Would this apply if the stock options were from my employer where I'm just a regular W-2 employee? I don't have any self-employment income or a Schedule C.

No, unfortunately this wouldn't apply in your situation. Since you're a W-2 employee and these were personal investments (even though they were from your employer), you can't deduct these on Schedule C. This strategy only works for self-employed individuals where the investment is directly tied to their business operations. Your best approach is still to add the platform fee to your cost basis as mentioned in the earlier comments, which will reduce your capital gain amount.

I ran the numbers for my situation and it wasn't worth it. Had about $2,700 in investment interest but my total itemized deductions were still about $4k below the standard deduction. Plus you can only deduct investment interest up to the amount of your net investment income, which was another limitation for me.

Thanks for sharing your experience. I was thinking it might be the same for me - probably not worth the extra paperwork if I'm still better off with the standard deduction. Guess I'll stick with adding fees to cost basis where possible and not worry about trying to deduct the interest separately.

Is FreeTaxUSA good for self-employment returns? I've been using TurboTax but the fees are killing me for the self-employment version.

FreeTaxUSA is actually really good for self-employment returns and WAY cheaper than TurboTax. They include all the Schedule C forms and self-employment calculations in their free federal filing. You only pay for state filing (around $15). The interface isn't quite as polished as TurboTax, but it has all the same features for self-employment. It walks you through business income, expenses, home office deductions, vehicle expenses - everything TurboTax does but without the ridiculous upcharge for self-employment features. I switched three years ago and have saved at least $200 in tax prep fees since then.

The self-employment tax is included in that $832 "Total Tax" amount. It's actually made up of two parts: 1. Self-employment tax (15.3% of your net self-employment income) 2. Income tax (based on tax brackets, but likely $0 in OP's case because of the standard deduction) Since their income after the standard deduction is $0 for income tax purposes, the entire $832 is probably just self-employment tax. The confusing part is that you still owe self-employment tax even when you don't owe income tax. Self-employment tax starts from dollar one of profit, while income tax only kicks in after your income exceeds the standard deduction.

Does this Smart Worksheet trick work for finding other hidden forms too? I'm new to Proseries and still learning all the shortcuts.

Yes! The Smart Worksheet search is actually the fastest way to find any form in Proseries. It works for pretty much everything - just type the form number or even keywords like "depreciation" or "health insurance" and it pulls up relevant forms and input screens. For new Proseries users, I also recommend using the "Recent Forms" dropdown which shows the last 10-15 forms you've accessed. Between these two features, you'll rarely need to dig through the regular menus once you get comfortable with the software.

I had the same issue last week. There's actually a known bug in the current version that affects the PTC calculation if you enter the information through certain screens. Try entering it directly through Form 8962 instead of the Federal Information Worksheet and see if that fixes it.

I think the Home & Business would actually be perfect for your situation with the online craft sales. It's specifically designed for people with a small business or self-employment income. The Deluxe version doesn't include all the business expense categories and Schedule C support that you probably need. Let me figure out how to get this to you without violating any terms of service. Might need to check what the other commenter mentioned about transfers not being allowed.

Thanks for the info! That makes sense about the Schedule C support. I didn't realize how many business deductions I might be missing with just the Deluxe version. Please let me know what you find out about transferring it.

I second this! Been using FreeTaxUSA for 3 years now. It handles my freelance work and investment accounts perfectly. Federal filing is free and state is only like $15. No idea why people still pay $100+ for TurboTax.

That's really helpful info. Does "placed in service" mean when we buy the property, or is there something specific we need to do to consider it "placed in service" for tax purposes?

Placed in" service generally means when the property is ready and available for its intended use - so for a rental property, it would typically be when'it s ready to be rented out to tenants. If you purchase a property'that s already tenant-ready, the placed-in-service date would likely be the purchase date. However, if you buy a property that needs substantial renovations before it can be rented, the placed-in-service date would be when those renovations are complete and the property is ready for rental. This is an important distinction because it determines which'year s bonus depreciation percentageapplies.

Good point about depreciation recapture! One strategy to deal with this is using 1031 exchanges when you sell to defer both the capital gains and the depreciation recapture. We've been doing this for years - selling properties and rolling the proceeds into larger ones without paying tax.