Oh geez, I didn't even think about that. I've been reporting my US income but didn't include the interest from my Australian accounts (which is pretty minimal, maybe $200/year). I haven't touched my Super since moving here - do I really need to report that too?? This is getting more complicated than I thought.

Yes, technically all worldwide income needs to be reported on your US tax returns, even small amounts of interest. However, small amounts are unlikely to trigger major issues. Australian Superannuation funds are a complicated area for US tax purposes. Some tax professionals argue they should be treated as foreign pensions (which have specific reporting), while others consider them PFICs (Passive Foreign Investment Companies) which require Form 8621 filing. Some even argue they could be considered foreign trusts requiring Forms 3520/3520-A. This might be one area where professional advice is warranted, as the reporting requirements are complex and the penalties for incorrect PFIC or trust reporting are significant. You might want to look into streamlined filing procedures which cover both delinquent FBARs and amended tax returns in one process.

It's the combined total of all your foreign financial accounts at any point during the year. So if the maximum balances of all your accounts together exceeded $10,000 at any point, even for a day, you need to file an FBAR for that year. For example, if you had three accounts with $4,000 each ($12,000 total), you would need to file even though no single account exceeds $10,000.

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...

18 How do they even manage all those tax filings? Do they just have a team of accountants? And what happens if they make a mistake on one of them? Seems like a nightmare.

2 Most top tennis players have specialized accountants who focus exclusively on international athlete taxation. These firms typically have partners in each major country where tournaments are held, allowing them to file all necessary returns correctly. If they make a mistake, it's typically handled like any other tax error - they may need to file an amended return and potentially pay penalties or interest if it results in underpayment. The bigger challenge is actually keeping track of exactly how many days they spend in each country, as this can affect their tax residency status and reporting obligations.

10 Yes! Athletes can definitely deduct legitimate business expenses against their tournament earnings. Travel, coaching, training, equipment, medical/physiotherapy, agent fees, etc. are all deductible if they're ordinary and necessary for their profession.

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.

Thanks for breaking that down! Have you ever caught it missing deductions you should have gotten? That's my biggest worry tbh

I have actually caught it missing things a few times over the years. It's generally good at finding common deductions, but it misses some of the more obscure ones unless you know to look for them. For example, last year I realized it didn't prompt me about the student loan interest deduction until I specifically searched for it, even though I had entered student loan information. It's not perfect, which is why it helps to have at least a basic understanding of what deductions you might qualify for.

I've used both. For small business stuff like an Etsy shop, I actually preferred H&R Block. Their self-employment version seemed to ask more relevant questions about business expenses and gave better guidance on what qualifies. TurboTax was more confusing for the business portion in my experience.

Honestly they're pretty similar but I found TurboTax had a slightly better interface. For Etsy specifically though, make sure whichever one you choose can import your Etsy 1099-K directly. Saves a ton of time vs. entering everything manually.