I'm surprised nobody mentioned quarterly estimated taxes yet! If you're making money from self-employment, you might need to make quarterly tax payments to avoid penalties. The IRS expects you to pay taxes throughout the year, not just at filing time.

As someone who went through this exact situation a few years ago, I can share what worked for me. First, yes you do need to report this income since you're over the $400 threshold for self-employment. But don't stress too much about the bank deposits - for amounts under $10k, they typically won't question where the cash came from. Here's what I wish someone had told me: start keeping better records NOW. Create a simple spreadsheet with dates, jobs, and payments. Also track your expenses like gas, equipment, supplies - these deductions can significantly reduce what you owe. I ended up saving about $400 in taxes just by deducting my lawn mower, gas, and maintenance costs. For filing, you'll use Schedule C and Schedule SE along with Form 1040. The self-employment tax is about 15.3%, but you might not owe income tax depending on your total income. Since your parents claim you as a dependent, you still need to file your own return. Consider it good practice for adult life! Most tax software can handle this situation, or you might want to have your parents help you through it the first time.

I completely understand your BNA frustrations! I've been working with tax software for over a decade and BNA definitely has one of the steepest learning curves I've encountered. The good news is that once you get through the initial pain, it really is quite powerful for complex planning scenarios. For your S-Corp issues, I'd recommend starting with their "Entity Setup Wizard" if you haven't already - it's buried under Tools > Wizards but it walks you through all the required fields in a logical order. This prevents the random error messages you get when trying to enter data manually. Regarding depreciation modeling, make sure you're using the "Asset Comparison" feature rather than trying to manually switch methods between scenarios. Go to Planning > Asset Analysis > Comparison Tool and you can set up side-by-side comparisons of different depreciation methods for the same assets. This keeps your baseline data intact while showing the tax impact of each approach. One resource that's been invaluable for me is the BNA Tax & Accounting User Forum on LinkedIn - it's an active group where users share tips and troubleshoot issues together. Much more helpful than their official documentation! You're definitely not alone in this struggle.

I've been struggling with BNA for about 6 months now after our firm made the switch, so I totally feel your pain! One thing that's helped me tremendously is creating my own "cheat sheet" document with screenshots of the most common workflows. For S-Corp data entry, I've found that the order matters more than BNA lets on - always enter the basic entity information first, then shareholders, then financials. If you try to jump around, it gets confused and throws errors that don't make sense. The depreciation scenario modeling was driving me crazy until I realized you have to "lock" your baseline scenario before creating alternatives. There's a tiny padlock icon next to the scenario name that most people miss. Once you lock it, your comparisons will stop messing up your original projections. Also, if you haven't already, go to Help > Training Resources and look for the "BNA Tax Planner Quick Start Guide" - it's much more practical than those old tutorial videos. It actually walks through real examples rather than generic explanations. The learning curve is absolutely brutal, but it does click eventually. Hang in there!

How do you handle the exchange rate when calculating the foreign interest income? Do you use the rate on the day each interest payment was made, or can you use the annual average? I have monthly interest payments from my account in Australia and using different rates for each payment seems like a lot of work.

One thing to keep in mind is that if your foreign bank account is earning interest, you might also want to check if there are any withholding tax treaties between the US and the country where your bank is located. Some countries have agreements that reduce the withholding tax rate on interest paid to US residents. For example, if your account is in the UK, Canada, or Germany, there might be reduced withholding rates under the tax treaty. This could affect how much foreign tax you actually should have had withheld, and you might be able to claim a refund from the foreign country for any excess withholding. Also, double-check that the foreign taxes you're claiming on Form 1116 are actually creditable under US tax law. Generally, income taxes are creditable, but some fees or penalties might not qualify for the foreign tax credit.

has anyone tried using the free version of turbotax online? not sure if i need to pay for deluxe or if the free version would work for my situation (just w2 income

For your situation with W-2 plus some 1099 income, I'd actually lean toward the online version. I've been filing taxes for my family for years and the online version handles 1099s really well - it walks you through everything step by step and has gotten much better at importing data directly from employers and clients. The main advantage for you would be convenience - you can work on it from anywhere, and it automatically saves your progress. Since you're not dealing with super complex stuff like rental properties or multiple businesses, you probably don't need the extra forms and control that the desktop version offers. One tip though - don't get trapped by their "free" marketing. With 1099 income, you'll likely need at least the Deluxe version ($60-80 typically) to handle the self-employment forms properly. But honestly, that's still worth it compared to paying a tax preparer hundreds of dollars for what sounds like a pretty straightforward return.

Just wanted to add some clarification on the MAGI calculation since I see some confusion in the comments. You're absolutely right that traditional IRA contributions don't reduce MAGI for determining deductibility - that would indeed be circular. However, it's worth noting that if you WERE eligible for the deduction (i.e., if your income was lower), THEN the traditional IRA contribution would reduce your MAGI for other tax purposes like determining eligibility for other credits or benefits. In your case at $93k post-401k, you're unfortunately well above the threshold. But here's a potential strategy: if you can increase your 401k contribution by even more (up to the $23,000 limit for 2025), that could potentially get your MAGI low enough to qualify for at least a partial traditional IRA deduction. For example, if you could contribute an additional $7k+ to your 401k, that would bring your MAGI down to around $86k or below, potentially making you eligible for the traditional IRA deduction. Of course, this only works if you have the cash flow to support the higher 401k contributions.

Great discussion here! Just to add one more perspective - I was in almost the exact same situation last year. Making around $105k, maxing out my 401k, and thinking I could squeeze out a traditional IRA deduction. What I learned the hard way is that once you're covered by a workplace plan, those income limits are pretty strict. At $93k MAGI after your 401k contributions, you're definitely above the $86k cutoff for any deduction. I ended up going the backdoor Roth route that several people mentioned. The process was actually simpler than I expected - contributed $6k to a traditional IRA (non-deductible), then immediately converted it to Roth. No taxes on the conversion since there were no earnings, and now that money grows tax-free. One thing to watch out for - make sure you don't have any other traditional IRA balances with pre-tax money, or you'll run into the pro-rata rule complications. If you do, consider rolling those into your current employer's 401k first if they allow it. The backdoor Roth has been a game changer for getting more money into tax-advantaged accounts at our income level. Definitely worth exploring!