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I'm in a similar boat but with rental property sales. Just a note on capital gains - don't forget state taxes too! Depending on where you live, states can take a significant bite on top of federal capital gains taxes. I'm in California and was shocked at how much extra I owed to the state when I sold some investment property last year.
Juan Moreno
ā¢Do you know if there's any way to offset or reduce state capital gains taxes? Do strategies like 401k contributions work for state taxes too?
Generally, 401k contributions will reduce your state taxable income as well as federal, so that strategy works for both. In most states, their tax system is linked to the federal system, so deductions that work federally often work at the state level too. Some states have unique quirks though. A few states offer special capital gains exclusions for in-state investments or specific industries. And nine states (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) don't have income tax at all, so capital gains are only taxed federally if you live there.
Amy Fleming
Has anyone used tax-loss harvesting to offset capital gains? I'm thinking about selling some underperforming stocks to balance out my gains but not sure if it's worth it or how exactly it works.
Justin Trejo
ā¢Tax-loss harvesting can be a great strategy. Basically, you can use investment losses to offset your capital gains dollar-for-dollar. If your losses exceed your gains, you can even use up to $3,000 of those losses to offset ordinary income, with any remaining losses carrying forward to future years. Just be careful about the wash-sale rule - if you sell an investment at a loss and buy the same or a "substantially identical" investment within 30 days before or after the sale, you can't claim the loss for tax purposes.
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I created a custom Excel spreadsheet that helps with ERTC/PPP optimization that I'm happy to share. It's not as fancy as dedicated software, but it has formulas that calculate different scenarios based on which wages you allocate where. Key features: 1. Separates employees by quarter/PPP period 2. Calculates ERTC for different qualified wage caps 3. Optimizes PPP forgiveness with non-payroll expenses 4. Shows total benefit comparison between different allocation methods Message me your email if you want a copy. It comes with no guarantees but has worked well for my 30-employee manufacturing business.
Ravi Sharma
ā¢This sounds great! Would your spreadsheet work for a restaurant business with about 45 employees? And does it account for the different ERTC rates between 2020 (50% of qualified wages) and 2021 (70% of qualified wages)?
It should definitely work for a restaurant with 45 employees. You'll just need to add more rows for the additional staff, but all the formulas will adjust automatically. And yes, it has separate sections for 2020 and 2021 with the different credit percentages (50% vs 70%) and different qualified wage caps ($10,000 per year in 2020 vs $10,000 per quarter in 2021). I actually designed it when helping a friend with his restaurant, so it already has some restaurant-specific features like allocating tipped employees appropriately. Just make sure you customize the state unemployment rate section since that impacts some calculations.
Has anyone actually had their ERTC claim accepted and received a check yet? We submitted amended 941s for Q2-Q4 2020 and Q1-Q3 2021 almost a year ago and haven't heard anything. Our CPA says the IRS is backlogged by 18-24 months on these claims. Just wondering if there's any light at the end of this tunnel...
Omar Zaki
ā¢We just got our ERTC refund last month after waiting 14 months. Filed in March 2022 and check arrived April 2023. About $168k total. No explanation for the delay and no interest payment included even though they're supposed to pay interest after 45 days. Just be patient, it'll come eventually.
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Lucy Lam
I had a similar experience but the opposite way - TurboTax showed $280 more than TaxSlayer. Turns out TurboTax was correctly applying a savers credit that TaxSlayer missed. One trick I learned: you can view the actual forms before filing with either service. If you look at the completed 1040 forms from both and compare them line by line, you'll usually spot where the difference is coming from. It's usually on one specific line or schedule, and once you find it, you can research whether that specific calculation is correct.
Aidan Hudson
ā¢This is great advice! Finding the specific line where the difference occurs is key. Then you can google that specific tax form line to check which calculation is correct.
Zoe Wang
Just to add another perspective - sometimes the difference isn't because one software is "right" and the other is "wrong." Tax law has gray areas where reasonable people can interpret things differently. If you're self-employed or have investment income, check how each platform is handling your qualified business income deduction or investment expense allocations. These areas have some subjective elements where different software might make different but equally legitimate calculations. I personally would go through the comparison process others have suggested, but if both approaches seem reasonable, I'd probably go with the higher refund. Just make sure you can justify the positions taken on your return if asked!
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Something else your cousin should know - if she deposits the money all at once and it's unusual for her account, the bank might put a hold on the funds for a few days. This doesn't mean there's a tax issue, it's just standard procedure for unusual deposits. I work at a credit union and see this all the time with cash gifts.
Yuki Sato
ā¢Thanks for this info! Do you think it would be better for her to deposit it in smaller chunks over time to avoid the hold? She's planning to use some of it for textbooks next semester.
I wouldn't recommend breaking it into smaller deposits to avoid a hold, as that could actually look more suspicious. Banks are trained to watch for "structuring" which is when people deliberately break up deposits to stay under reporting thresholds. If she needs immediate access to some of the money, she could deposit most of it and keep what she needs for textbooks in cash. Otherwise, she can just explain to the bank teller that it's a graduation gift and ask if there will be a hold. Many times if you explain the situation upfront, the bank can make accommodations or tell you exactly when funds will be available.
The IRS doesn't automatically know about every bank deposit unless it's over $10,000 (when banks file a CTR). But even then, RECEIVING a gift is not taxable. Your cousin can deposit the full amount without tax concerns. The person who GAVE the money might need to file a gift tax form if they gave more than $18,000 to one person in 2025, but they still wouldn't owe taxes until they've given away millions over their lifetime. Just tell your cousin to deposit it normally. Keeping large amounts of cash at home is way riskier than any imaginary tax issue!
Is this true for all states too? Some states have weird extra tax rules, right?
Toot-n-Mighty
Just to add another perspective - material participation tests typically come into play for rental properties, business interests, or if you're a partial owner in an S-corporation or partnership. There are 7 different tests the IRS uses to determine if your participation is "material": 1. You work 500+ hours in the activity during the year 2. Your participation is "substantially all" the participation in the activity 3. You participate more than 100 hours and no one else participates more 4. The activity is a "significant participation activity" and you exceed 500 hours in all SPAs 5. You materially participated in 5 of the last 10 years 6. The activity is a personal service activity and you materially participated in any 3 prior years 7. Based on facts and circumstances, your participation is regular, continuous, and substantial But again, if you're just an employee getting a W-2, none of this applies to you!
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Lena Kowalski
ā¢This is super helpful, thanks! Question - does the 500 hour requirement have to be exact? Like do I need to document every single hour I worked on my side business?
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Toot-n-Mighty
ā¢You don't need to document every minute, but you should have reasonable support for your hour claims if you ever get audited. The IRS doesn't require a specific format - you can keep logs, calendars, appointment books, or even create summaries based on your regular schedule. The key is having something contemporaneous (created around the time of the activity) rather than trying to reconstruct everything years later if you're audited. For a side business where you're close to the 500-hour threshold, I'd recommend at least tracking days worked and approximate hours per day. If you work a very regular schedule, you might be able to create a reasonable calculation (like "I work every Tuesday and Thursday evening for 4 hours, plus every other Saturday for 8 hours" = approx 520 hours per year).
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DeShawn Washington
Unrelated to your specific question but I got a similar confusing form last year, and what they were actually doing was checking if I qualified for a special small business tax credit. When I called, they explained they sent it to everyone in certain fields but only business owners needed to respond. Bureaucracy at its finest lol! Could be something similar for you.
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Mei-Ling Chen
ā¢This happened to me too! Turned out they were trying to determine if I qualified for a green jobs tax incentive since I work in environmental remediation. The form was poorly worded and looked like it was questioning my employment status, but really they were trying to give my employer a tax break for hiring people in my field.
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