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Will my reimbursed meals be taxed by IRS when I'm traveling for work as an employee?
I just got back from a 5-day business trip last week where I had to front about $450 for all my meals using my personal credit card. This is my first job out of college and I'm still figuring out how all this expense stuff works. The company has this process where I pay upfront, fill out an expense report form, submit receipts, and then they're supposed to reimburse me in my next paycheck. I've already submitted everything and I'm waiting for the money. What I'm confused about is whether the IRS is going to tax me on this reimbursement money? I was searching online and saw something about only 50% of business meals being tax deductible, but I don't know if that applies to me as an employee just getting paid back for what I spent. I'm not trying to deduct anything - I just don't want to be surprised if my reimbursement gets taxed! Does anyone know how this works for regular employees? Will I get the full amount back or will there be taxes taken out?
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State Audit for 2020 Tax Year - Should I Pay or File an Amended Return?
I just got hit with a state audit assessment notice back in December and I'm freaking out a bit. When I first got the notice, I sent back my 1098T form showing my college tuition payments and scholarship info like someone at the state DOR told me to do. But now in February, I got another notice saying I still owe about $700 including over $130 in penalties and interest (which is even higher now a month later). I called and talked to the person reviewing my case, and she said my deductions were way too high. On my original filing, I had claimed around $14k in deductions based on a reported $21k income. But looking at my 1098T, after scholarships, I only paid about $2,500 in actual tuition that year, so I should've only had a $2,500 deduction, not $14k. Here's the thing though - I'm pretty sure my reported income is wrong too. I was only working part-time during college for a few months and made like $2,500 that year. Someone else prepared my taxes (a family friend), and they told me that some of my scholarships were probably counted as income, but I think that's wrong since everything went directly to required tuition. The auditor said I could amend my return, but warned that it could take forever for processing. I feel like it's super unfair to pay $700 in taxes when I barely made any money as a broke college student. But I'm also scared about the penalties and interest continuing to grow. Should I just pay it now and then wait for the amended return to process? If my amendment gets accepted, would I get refunded what I paid to the state DOR? Update: I ended up paying it 😩 but still wondering if I should amend!
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Question about the scholarship tax rules - if the scholarship money went to tuition but you ALSO claimed an education credit (like American Opportunity Credit), isn't that double-dipping? My tax preparer told me you can't claim expenses as education credits if they were paid with tax-free scholarship funds.
You're exactly right, and that might be part of OP's problem. You can't claim education credits for expenses that were covered by tax-free scholarships. It's one or the other. Many tax preparers get this wrong, especially when they don't specialize in education-related tax situations. When I was in school, I actually chose to count some of my scholarship as taxable income so I could claim the education credits, which were worth more to me than the tax I paid on that portion of the scholarship. Tax planning is wild!
Thanks for confirming! That makes sense. I think I need to look closer at my own returns now, since I had both scholarships and education credits. Any idea how far back the IRS typically looks when they find this kind of error? Just wondering if I should proactively amend older returns too.
Has anyone had state audit issues resolve faster by calling vs. mailing documents? I'm in a similar situation but with 1099 income that was reported incorrectly, and I can't tell if I should keep trying to call or just mail everything in.
ALWAYS call first, then follow up with mail. When you call, get the name and ID number of whoever you speak with, and ask them what specific documentation they need. Then mail those exact documents with a cover letter referencing your call and who you spoke with. I've gone through 3 state audits (self-employed) and this approach has consistently worked best.
That's super helpful advice, thank you! Never thought to ask for an ID number but that makes total sense. Did you send things certified mail too or is regular mail sufficient?
Is Medical itemization worth it for 2025 taxes?
So I'm trying to figure out if medical itemization makes sense for me this year. My health has been up and down and I've racked up about $8,200 in medical expenses (hospital bills, prescriptions, specialists, etc). My AGI is roughly $72,000 and I know there's some threshold where you can only deduct expenses above a certain percentage of your income. From what I understand, I'd need to itemize rather than take the standard deduction, but I'm not sure if the math works out in my favor. I'm single, no dependents. I don't have a ton of other potential deductions - maybe $5,400 in mortgage interest and $3,100 in state/local taxes. Would appreciate any insights on whether it's even worth pursuing the medical itemization route or if I should just stick with the standard deduction. The whole process seems complicated and I'm worried I'll mess something up.
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Something else to consider - if your income might be lower next year or medical expenses higher, it might be worth bunching your medical procedures. I had a bunch of dental work that I could schedule either in December or January, and my tax guy suggested pushing everything to January since I knew I'd have additional medical expenses that year too. Ended up being able to itemize and save about $700 by bunching two years of medical expenses into one tax year.
That's a really smart approach I hadn't considered. I do have some procedures I've been putting off that aren't urgent. If I bundle everything together in one tax year, that might push me over the threshold where itemizing makes sense. Did you find it complicated to coordinate the timing with your providers?
It wasn't too difficult to coordinate with providers. Most medical offices are used to patients timing procedures for insurance reasons anyway, so they didn't bat an eye when I asked to schedule in January instead of December. Just make sure you're clear about your timing needs when scheduling. And keep in mind that some procedures might have wait times, so plan ahead. Also, don't let tax considerations override medical necessity - if you need something urgently, get it done regardless of the tax implications.
Don't forget about dependent care! If you're paying medical expenses for a qualifying dependent (like a parent), those count too even if they don't live with you. Helped me reach the threshold last year when my mom had some major expenses and I was her primary support person.
What qualifies someone as a dependent for medical expense purposes? My dad lives with me and I pay most of his bills, but he gets social security. Does that disqualify him?
What do I need to do with my 1095-C form if TurboTax didn't ask for it?
I just received my 1095-C form in the mail, and I'm not sure what to do with it. I've been using my employer's health insurance plan this past year, and I know I still have some payments to make on it. The thing is, I already filed my taxes through TurboTax, and it never once prompted me to enter any information from this form. Is this something I need to amend my tax return for? Or do I just keep the form for my records? I'm worried I might've missed something important since this is my first time dealing with employer-provided insurance. Any help would be appreciated!
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Just so you know, even though you don't need to submit the 1095-C, you should double check that the coverage info matches your actual situation. My employer messed up my form last year and showed I had coverage for months after I'd left the company. Had to get them to issue a corrected form.
Thanks for mentioning this! I just checked and it looks like my form does have the right months of coverage checked off. I started with this company in March, and the form shows coverage beginning in April (which makes sense with our 30-day waiting period for benefits). Definitely a good tip to verify this information.
Confused about Marriage Tax Benefits - First Year Filing Jointly and Refund is Lower!
So frustrated right now. My husband and I always assumed there'd be this amazing tax advantage to getting married, but we just finished our taxes and are completely shocked. Our combined refund is actually LESS than what we got last year when we filed as singles! The system is only showing $1600 coming back to us from federal. Did we mess something up?? Here's our situation: 1) I make $219,000 in wages 2) My spouse makes $77,000 in wages I thought marriage was supposed to give us tax benefits, especially since one of us makes significantly more than the other. Isn't that how it's supposed to work? We're totally confused and wondering if we did something wrong or if this is normal. Any help would be appreciated!
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You definitely hit the marriage penalty zone. My wife and I are in similar income brackets and had the same shock. Two tips that helped us: 1) Use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator online to adjust your W-4s properly for next year, and 2) consider maxing out pretax retirement contributions to lower your taxable income. We put more into our 401ks and HSAs and it helped reduce the penalty effect significantly.
Thanks for the advice! Is the IRS calculator easy to use? We're definitely going to look into increasing our 401k contributions too.
The IRS calculator is pretty straightforward. Just have your most recent paystubs and tax return handy. It walks you step by step and gives you exact numbers to put on your W-4. Took me about 15 minutes to complete. For the 401k strategy, it made a big difference for us. If you both max out at $23,000 each (for 2025), that's $46,000 of income that moves from your highest tax bracket down to zero tax now. Plus it helps with retirement, obviously. The HSA is another great option if you have a high-deductible health plan - that's another $8,300 you can shield from taxes if you're on a family plan.
Has anyone tried running the numbers for married filing separately? Sometimes that works better for couples in the higher income brackets or with certain deductions.
Usually MFS is worse than MFJ for most people. You lose a bunch of credits and deductions when filing separately. I'm a tax preparer and only recommend it in very specific situations like income-based student loan repayment or when one spouse has sketchy tax issues.
Natasha Volkova
One thing to watch out for - make sure your company has what the IRS calls an "accountable plan" for reimbursements. This means: 1. Your expenses must have a business connection 2. You must adequately account for these expenses within a reasonable period of time 3. You must return any excess reimbursement within a reasonable period of time If your company doesn't have an accountable plan, then yeah, your reimbursements could be considered taxable income. Most bigger companies have proper accountable plans, but smaller businesses sometimes mess this up.
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Javier Torres
How do I know if my company has an "accountable plan"? Is that something I should just ask HR about? I've never heard this term before but I'm reimbursed for travel expenses a few times a year.
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Natasha Volkova
Just ask your HR or accounting department if they have an "accountable plan" for expense reimbursements. Most medium to large companies do have one, but it's good to confirm. You can also generally tell by their reimbursement process. If they require you to submit receipts, explain the business purpose of each expense, and submit everything within a certain timeframe (usually 30-60 days), that's typically an accountable plan. If they just give you money without documentation requirements, it might not be.
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Emma Davis
I made a huge mistake my first year working - I didn't realize that my company was adding my reimbursed expenses as income on my W2 (box 1) BUT they were also including the reimbursement amount separately in box 12 with code L. I ended up effectively paying taxes on money that should have been tax-free!!! Check your paystub when you get reimbursed. If the reimbursement amount shows up in your gross income for that paycheck (before tax calculations), that's a red flag that they might be treating it as taxable.
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Malik Johnson
Omg I think this is happening to me too... I just checked my last paycheck with reimbursements and they added it to my gross pay before calculating taxes. Is there a way to get that money back or fix it??
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