Has anyone dealt with address issues after moving? I'm worried because I moved after filing and didn't update my address with the IRS before they might have sent the check.

I went through this exact same situation last year! The "Where's My Refund" tool is notoriously unhelpful when it comes to rejected direct deposits - it often shows the refund as "sent" even when the bank has already returned it to the IRS. Here's what typically happens: When your bank rejects the deposit (which they definitely would for a closed account), they send the funds back to the IRS within 1-2 business days. The IRS then has to process the returned funds and issue a paper check, which usually takes 2-3 weeks from the date of the rejected deposit. Since your refund shows as deposited on February 15th, I'd expect your bank rejected it around February 16th-17th, meaning your paper check was likely issued around early March. You should be receiving it any day now if you haven't already! One thing to double-check: make sure the mailing address on your tax return is current. If you moved and used your new address on the return, you should be fine. If not, definitely set up mail forwarding with USPS just in case. Don't panic - your money isn't lost! The IRS is just slow to update their systems when these situations occur.

It might be worth asking your grandparents to spread out larger gifts if they're planning to give you more than the annual limit. My parents paid off $25,000 of my loans in one year and had to file a gift tax form even though they didn't owe any actual tax!

This is such helpful information for anyone dealing with family help on student loans! One thing I'd add is to make sure your grandparents are aware that the $18,000 annual exclusion is per recipient, per giver. So if they're also helping other grandchildren with education expenses, they need to track all their gifts to stay under the limits for each person. Also, it's worth keeping simple records of the payments even though you don't need to report them - just in case the IRS ever has questions down the road. A simple spreadsheet showing dates and amounts should be sufficient. Your loan servicer statements will also show where the payments came from, which provides good documentation. You're really fortunate to have such generous grandparents! This kind of help can save you thousands in interest over the life of the loans.

This is such a helpful thread! I'm in a similar boat with my small jewelry business and was completely overwhelmed by the tax implications. One thing I wanted to add that I learned the hard way - make sure you understand the difference between gross revenue and net profit when calculating those tax estimates. I initially panicked thinking I'd owe taxes on my full $8k in sales, but after deducting all my materials, booth fees, travel expenses, and those card processing fees, my actual taxable profit was only about $3k. Also, for anyone using Square or similar mobile readers - they provide really nice year-end reports that break down all your fees and sales by month. Super helpful for tax prep! I wish I'd known to enable that feature from day one instead of trying to piece everything together from individual transaction emails. The 25-30% savings rule mentioned above is solid advice. I started with 30% and ended up with a nice little buffer that I rolled into my business expansion fund. Much better than scrambling to find tax money in April!

As a CPA who works with a lot of small craft businesses, I wanted to chime in with some official guidance that might help clarify things! For your situation with expected revenue of $6-8k, starting as a sole proprietorship (self-employed) is definitely the right move. The LLC decision can wait until you're more established. A few key points that haven't been fully covered: **Regarding those mobile payment fees:** Yes, they're 100% deductible as business expenses on Schedule C, Line 10 (fees and commissions). Keep good records of all processing fees - they add up quickly! **Self-employment tax reality check:** Remember you'll owe both regular income tax AND self-employment tax (15.3%) on your net profit. So if you profit $6k, expect roughly $918 in SE tax alone, plus regular income tax at your bracket rate. **Quarterly payments:** The $1,000 threshold mentioned earlier is correct, but there's a safe harbor rule - if you pay 100% of last year's tax liability through withholding/quarterlies, you won't owe penalties even if you underpay the current year. **Business bank account:** Even as sole proprietor, get a separate business checking account. Makes record-keeping infinitely easier and looks more professional to the IRS if you're ever audited. The tax situation really isn't as scary as it seems once you get organized. Focus on good record-keeping from day one - that's 90% of the battle!

Has anyone used QuickBooks Self-Employed for tracking expenses and calculating quarterly taxes? I just started using it this year but I'm not sure if it's calculating things correctly for my LLC.

Great question, Omar! As others have mentioned, you'll definitely pay taxes on your net income (profit after expenses), not your gross revenue. This is one of the key benefits of proper business expense tracking. With your numbers ($73k revenue, $26k expenses so far), you're looking at around $47k in net profit before any additional purchases. That equipment you're considering ($1,800 laptop + $2,500 specialized equipment) could potentially save you around $1,300-$1,700 in taxes depending on your tax bracket, assuming you can deduct the full amounts under Section 179. One thing to keep in mind that others touched on - don't forget about self-employment tax! As an LLC taxed as a sole prop, you'll owe 15.3% SE tax on your net profit plus your regular income tax. So if you're in the 22% tax bracket, you're really looking at about 37.3% total tax on that profit. My advice: make those equipment purchases if you genuinely need them for your business, but don't buy stuff just for the tax deduction. A $4,300 purchase to save $1,500 in taxes still costs you $2,800 out of pocket. But if you need the equipment anyway, definitely buy it before December 31st!

Have any of you seen cases where a disregarded entity was incorrectly issued a 1099 under its own EIN rather than the parent's? We did this accidentally last year and now I'm worried about potential penalties or issues when the parent files their return.

This is a really common source of confusion, and you're absolutely right to question this practice. What your client is doing - mixing disregarded entity EINs with parent W-9s - creates unnecessary complications and doesn't align with IRS requirements. The key issue here is that a disregarded entity, by definition, is ignored for federal tax purposes. Even if the disregarded entity has its own EIN (which it might need for state taxes, employment taxes, or banking purposes), for federal information reporting like 1099s, you must use the parent/owner's EIN. Your client should provide clean W-9s with: - Line 1: Disregarded entity name - Line 2: Parent/owner name - Part I: Parent/owner's EIN If they need you to track payments separately by disregarded entity for their internal purposes, that's fine - but the 1099s should still be issued under the parent's EIN. You might want to explain that using the disregarded entity's EIN could create matching problems when the IRS tries to reconcile the 1099s with filed tax returns, since the disregarded entity doesn't file its own return. I'd recommend having them provide corrected W-9s that follow standard IRS guidelines to avoid any compliance issues down the road.