Thanks for this advice! The trust document does specify a fee schedule for the trustee, but I haven't been able to figure out exactly what my uncle has been paying himself. Is there a specific form or format that I should request the accounting in? I want to make sure I ask for everything I'm entitled to see.

There's no specific required format for the accounting in most states, but you should request a "formal accounting" that includes beginning and ending balances for each accounting period, all income received, all disbursements made (with explanations for each), a list of all assets currently held by the trust, and any changes in investments. Make your request very specific and include time periods. For example: "I request a complete accounting of the John & Jane Smith Family Trust for the period of January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2024, including all receipts, disbursements, trustee fees paid, investment transactions, and current trust assets." Send this via certified mail so you have proof of delivery.

This is a really good point. My family went through something similar, and we ended up filing complaints against both the trustee AND the accountant with our state's professional licensing boards. If the accountant has been preparing returns they knew were deceptive, they could lose their license or face other penalties.

I get what you're saying about the interest-free loan thing, but honestly, for me it's psychological. If I get that money in small amounts in my regular paychecks, I'll just spend it. Having a forced "savings" that comes back as a lump sum helps me actually save for bigger purchases or goals. Plus, I sleep better knowing I won't owe a surprise tax bill!

That's a totally fair point! Personal finance is personal for a reason - if the "forced savings" approach works better for your habits and gives you peace of mind, then it's worth the small amount of interest you might miss out on. If you do decide to go that route, you might want to put a specific dollar amount in Box 4(c) of your W-4 rather than adjusting the other settings. That way you're deliberately setting aside a fixed amount rather than trying to guess at the other settings.

Would the earned income credit apply to someone who was on unemployment for part of the year? I'm trying to figure out if my sister might qualify.

Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs) can work for regular investors, but they have very specific requirements and aren't typically a last-minute strategy. You need to have capital gains to invest, and you must invest through a Qualified Opportunity Fund within 180 days of realizing those gains.

Thanks for explaining! Makes sense why I haven't heard much about this for regular folks. Sounds like it's more complex than I was hoping for my situation right now, especially with the year almost over.

That's definitely the plan for 2024! We're basically starting from scratch with all this tax planning stuff. Better late than never I guess...

Thanks for the advice! I never thought to manually check what TurboTax was importing - I just assumed the connection to Robinhood would pull everything correctly. Do you think I should just use a tax professional for crypto stuff going forward? Seems like the software isn't reliable enough.

For simple crypto investing, TurboTax or other tax software can still work fine, but you definitely need to manually review what's imported. I actually switched to using a crypto-specific tax preparation tool first (like CoinTracker or Koinly) that generates the proper 8949 forms, then I import those results into TurboTax. If you're doing more complex crypto activities like DeFi, staking, or mining, then yes, a tax professional with crypto experience is probably worth the money. The tax rules are still evolving in this area, and it's easy to make mistakes with the automated tools.

Actually, crypto isn't subject to wash sale rules currently! That's one advantage of crypto - you can sell at a loss and rebuy immediately to harvest the tax loss. This is a big difference from stocks where you have to wait 30 days. But there's talk about changing this soon, so enjoy it while it lasts...

I got through last Thursday but only after calling literally 12 times. Each time it hung up on me but on the 13th try I got in the queue. Then waited 1 hour 47 minutes to speak to someone. The trick seems to be to keep calling back repeatedly and eventually you'll get lucky and get in the queue instead of getting the "we're too busy" message.

Thanks for the tip! I'll try the persistence approach tomorrow morning. 12 attempts sounds painful but I guess it's worth it if it eventually works. Did you select any specific options in the phone menu that seemed to help get you through?

That's interesting - I did start my taxes in TurboTax but then switched to FreeTaxUSA because it was cheaper. I didn't complete or submit anything in TurboTax though, just started inputting some basic info. Could TurboTax have somehow submitted something without me finalizing it??

It's unlikely TurboTax would submit without you finalizing, but not impossible if there was a glitch. Check your TurboTax account to see if there's any record of a submission. Also, if you used the same email for both tax services, check your email carefully for any confirmation messages that might indicate something was filed. Another possibility: if you had a tax preparer do your taxes last year, sometimes they automatically file extensions for all their clients as a courtesy. Maybe someone filed an extension for you without informing you? Worth checking if that could have happened.