19 What about Credit Karma Tax? I heard they do free filing including for self-employment. Has anyone used them for gig work taxes?

I've been doing gig work (mainly Uber and some DoorDash) for about 8 months now and just went through my first tax season. I ended up using TaxAct which seems like a good middle ground between the expensive options and the basic free ones. TaxAct cost me about $25 for federal and state filing with self-employment forms, which is way cheaper than TurboTax but still gives you good guidance for gig worker deductions. They have a specific section for rideshare drivers that walks you through vehicle expenses, mileage tracking, and all the common deductions we can claim. For crypto, they handle it pretty well too - you can import from some exchanges or enter manually. The interface isn't as fancy as TurboTax but it gets the job done and saved me probably $100+ compared to the premium options. Might be worth looking into if you want something between FreeTaxUSA and the expensive software!

Guys, I'm freaking out. It's been 2 months and still no refund. I really need that money for rent. Any advice? 😰

I'm going through the exact same thing! Filed electronically on Feb 10th and it's been radio silence since then. The "Where's My Refund" tool just keeps saying "still being processed" with no estimated date. Really hoping it's just the usual backlog and not something more serious. Has anyone who filed around the same time started getting their refunds yet?

Pro tip: If you use Pay1040 or any credit card processor, use a card that gives you good rewards points to offset some of the processing fee. I use my Chase Sapphire which gives me 2% back on all purchases, so that brings the effective fee down a bit. But definitely verify the payment went through! I had an issue last year where the payment was initially declined by my credit card company (they flagged it as suspicious since it was a large amount), but Pay1040 didn't notify me clearly. Check your credit card account to confirm the charge posted!

Thanks for sharing your experience with Pay1040! I'm actually in a similar situation - just made my first payment through them for about $4,200 and having some anxiety about whether it went through properly. Reading through everyone's responses here is really reassuring. It sounds like Pay1040 is legitimate and reliable, but the common theme seems to be that verification is key. I'm definitely going to set up that IRS online account to check my payment history in a few days like Natalie suggested. One question for those who've used it multiple times - do you get any kind of email confirmation beyond just the initial receipt? I saved my confirmation number but wondering if there are any follow-up notifications once the IRS actually processes the payment. Also really appreciate the tips about using rewards credit cards to offset the fees - that's smart thinking!

Has anyone dealt with foreign online casinos? I'm in a similar boat but the casino I used is based offshore and I haven't received any tax forms at all. I'm worried about reporting correctly since I did win about $4200 last year.

I went through something very similar with online gambling winnings last year. One thing that really helped me was contacting Modo casino directly to see if they could provide a detailed transaction history or account statement. Many online casinos can generate reports showing your session-by-session activity, which gives you a much clearer picture of your actual wins and losses throughout the year. Also, don't forget that if you made deposits using a credit card, those statements can serve as additional documentation of your gambling activity. While bank statements and credit card records aren't as detailed as a proper gambling log, they're still legitimate documentation that the IRS will accept if you don't have anything else. One more tip - if you decide to itemize to claim your gambling losses, make sure you understand that gambling losses can only offset gambling winnings. You can't use them to reduce other types of income. So in your case, you could potentially deduct up to $3700 in losses (the amount of your winnings) if you have proper documentation and choose to itemize.

3 has anyone dealt with the 1098-T form in this situation? my daughter's school sent her the form with HER ssn on it since she's the student, but if i'm claiming her and the education credit, do i need to somehow get that form reissued to me? how does this work with electronic filing?

This is such a helpful thread! I'm in a similar situation with my college sophomore who paid about $12,000 in tuition from her summer job earnings. One thing I learned from my tax preparer last year is to keep really detailed records of what you're paying for your kids' support - not just the big things like housing and health insurance, but also groceries, phone bills, car insurance, etc. The IRS "more than half support" test includes ALL living expenses for the year. I created a simple spreadsheet tracking what I pay vs what she pays, and it was eye-opening. Even though she paid her own tuition, I was still covering about 65% of her total support costs. This documentation gave me confidence to claim her as a dependent and take the American Opportunity Credit on my return. The key is looking at TOTAL support for the year, not just who paid the biggest single expense. Tuition might be the largest line item, but when you add up housing, food, insurance, transportation, etc., parents often still provide the majority of support even for working college students.