Something else to consider - are either you or your ex itemizing deductions? Remember that mortgage interest and property taxes only help if you're itemizing rather than taking the standard deduction. With the standard deduction being $13,850 for single filers in 2025, you'd need your total itemized deductions (including these housing expenses plus charitable contributions, etc.) to exceed that amount for itemizing to make sense. If one of you itemizes and the other takes the standard deduction, it might be more tax-efficient for the itemizing person to claim a larger share of these expenses if that's something you can work out between yourselves.

This is such a helpful thread! I'm dealing with a similar situation where my sister and I co-own a rental property but only her name is on the mortgage. We've been splitting all expenses 50/50 but I was worried I couldn't deduct my portion since the 1098 goes to her. From what everyone's saying here, it sounds like as long as I can document my payments (which I can - we have a separate account just for property expenses that we both contribute to), I should be able to claim my half of the mortgage interest. Has anyone dealt with this specifically for rental property, or is it the same principle as primary residence mortgages? Also really appreciate the tip about keeping a written agreement - definitely going to draft something up with my sister to document our arrangement. Better to be over-prepared than scrambling if questions come up later!

I've seen this happen when students receive retroactive scholarships or when tuition credits get applied after the fact. The key boxes on 1098-T form to understand: Box 1: Payments received for qualified tuition/expenses Box 4: Adjustments made to PRIOR year scholarships Box 5: Total scholarships/grants processed Box 6: Adjustments made to PRIOR year qualified expenses The timing of when things post to the student's account vs calendar year can create weird situations. If your son got any retroactive adjustments or late scholarships that applied to previous terms, they might show up this way. Double check if he received any: - Year-end scholarships - Special graduation grants - Adjustments to previous semesters - Balance corrections from prior years

Make sure to file Form 8863 for the American Opportunity Credit if this is your son's 4th year of college! Many people miss this. Even with scholarships, you might qualify for up to $2,500 credit if you paid any qualified expenses out of pocket. Also, check if his scholarships were restricted (specifically designated for tuition) or unrestricted. Only unrestricted scholarships that exceed qualified educational expenses are taxable.

One thing to watch out for with the AOTC - make sure your cousin is actually eligible based on income! The credit starts phasing out at $80,000 modified AGI for single filers ($160,000 for married filing jointly) and goes away completely at $90,000 ($180,000 for MFJ). Also, don't forget that 40% of the AOTC can be refundable (up to $1,000), which is great for students who don't have much tax liability. That's a huge advantage over the Lifetime Learning Credit.

I work in my university's financial aid office, and I see students miss out on the AOTC all the time! Make sure you keep receipts for ALL required materials for courses - not just textbooks. Lab supplies, special software, art materials, etc. can all qualify if they're required for courses. Also, if adjusting which expenses were covered by scholarships helps maximize the credit, you can do that! The IRS doesn't dictate which expenses scholarships must apply to first.

This might be too late now, but next time you should have the homeowner pay the subcontractors directly. That way they'd be responsible for the 1099s, not you. I learned this the hard way a few years ago.

Just to add some clarity on the timing issue - if you're past the January 31st deadline for 2024 tax year 1099s, you should still file them as soon as possible. The IRS penalties for late filing start at $60 per form if filed within 30 days after the deadline, and increase from there. But not filing at all can result in much higher penalties. Also, make sure you're reporting your $13.5K income properly on your own return. Since you were acting as an independent contractor for the homeowner, you'll likely need to file Schedule C and pay self-employment taxes on that income. The 1099s you issue to your subcontractors should help offset some of that income as business expenses. If you're overwhelmed by all this, consider consulting a tax professional who deals with contractor situations regularly. The cost is usually worth it to make sure everything's done correctly and you're not missing any deductions.

Have you tried checking your refund status through the H&R Block mobile app instead of calling? I found their app actually shows more detailed information about Spruce deposits than their website does. According to the H&R Block subreddit and their community forums (https://community.hrblock.com/), there's a specific section under "Refund Status" that shows if they've received the funds from IRS and when they expect to release them to your Spruce account. This saved me a lot of stress when I was in your situation last month!

Filed 2/6 with H&R Block/Spruce here too! 🙋‍♀️ Still waiting as well, so you're definitely not alone. What's really annoying is that my neighbor filed with TurboTax the same day and got her refund last week to her regular checking account. I've been checking my transcript obsessively and finally saw an 846 code yesterday with a deposit date of 3/25, but nothing in Spruce yet. Based on what everyone else is saying, looks like we're in for another week of waiting even after the IRS sends it out. At this point I'm just telling myself it's forced savings! 😂 But seriously, next year I'm going back to direct deposit to my regular bank. This Spruce delay is ridiculous for something that's supposed to be "faster" according to H&R Block's marketing.