One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the timing aspect of Form 8863. Since you mentioned buying the computer "for schoolwork," make sure you actually paid for it during 2024 if you're filing your 2024 return. The IRS requires that qualified expenses be paid during the tax year you're claiming them, regardless of when the academic period occurs. Also, double-check your daughter's enrollment status. The American Opportunity Credit requires at least half-time enrollment for at least one academic period during the year. If she was only part-time for the entire year, you'd need to use the Lifetime Learning Credit instead, which would change your calculation since computers rarely qualify under LLC rules. Finally, keep all your receipts and the scholarship award documentation. Even though this seems straightforward, education credits are one of the areas the IRS pays attention to, especially when there are scholarships involved. Having everything organized will save you headaches if they ever ask questions about your Form 8863.

You're absolutely right to be cautious about the computer expense - the IRS is quite strict about that "required for ALL students" language. Since your school only "recommends" computers rather than requiring them, you can't include that $850 in your qualified expenses calculation. However, don't give up on optimizing your situation just yet! Since your merit scholarship doesn't appear to have specific restrictions (most merit scholarships don't), you should seriously consider the reallocation strategy others mentioned. If you can allocate even $2,000 of that $3,250 scholarship to room and board expenses, your calculation would become: $7,500 (tuition) - $1,250 (remaining scholarship applied to tuition) = $6,250 in qualified expenses This would maximize your American Opportunity Credit at $2,500 (100% of first $2,000 + 25% of next $2,000). The trade-off is that your daughter would have $2,000 in taxable scholarship income, but if she has no other significant income, her tax liability would be minimal - probably around $200-240 in federal taxes. Net benefit: $2,500 credit minus ~$240 in daughter's taxes = roughly $2,260 versus $1,700 credit with your current calculation. That's an extra $560+ in your pocket! Definitely worth reviewing your scholarship award letter to see if this strategy is available to you.

Just want to add another perspective here - I'm a tax preparer and see this Square/1099-K confusion constantly during tax season. The delayed implementation has definitely caught a lot of small business owners off guard. One thing that might give you peace of mind: the IRS isn't going to "flag" you for reporting income that you didn't receive a 1099-K for. They actually prefer when taxpayers report all their income accurately, even without forms. What gets people in trouble is NOT reporting income that payment processors DO report to the IRS. For your jewelry business, make sure you're treating this as a legitimate business on Schedule C. This means you can deduct not just materials and Square fees, but also things like craft show booth fees, photography for product listings, storage containers for inventory, mileage to buy supplies, etc. Keep receipts for everything business-related. Also, since you're already over $60k in revenue, you might want to consider whether forming an LLC would be beneficial for liability protection and potential tax advantages. Worth discussing with a local tax professional who can look at your specific situation.

As someone who's been dealing with similar Square payment processing issues, I can confirm everything the tax preparer mentioned is spot on. I didn't get a 1099-K either despite processing around $45k through Square last year - turns out I had only 185 transactions so I fell under the 200 transaction threshold. The relief I felt when I realized the IRS actually prefers accurate self-reporting was huge. I ended up downloading my full Square transaction history as a CSV file and used that to calculate my exact gross receipts for Schedule C. Pro tip: Square's dashboard lets you filter by date ranges, so you can easily pull just your 2023 data. One thing I learned the hard way - don't forget to account for refunds and chargebacks when calculating your net income. I initially reported my gross processing amount, but my accountant pointed out I needed to subtract any refunds I issued to customers throughout the year. Also seconding the expense tracking advice - I was shocked at how much I could legitimately deduct. Even things like the premium Canva subscription I use for product photos and social media posts counted as business expenses. Every little bit helps when you're paying self-employment tax on that income!

I'm going through the exact same frustrating experience! Filed my Form 843 in early March for FICA taxes that were incorrectly withheld from my part-time work as a graduate research assistant. The university's payroll department failed to recognize my student exemption status and withheld about $1,650 in FICA taxes. It's been about 3 months now with complete radio silence from the IRS. Like everyone else here, I've been checking my online transcripts monthly but there's absolutely nothing showing about Form 843 processing. I tried calling the IRS twice but gave up after being on hold for over 2 hours each time. Reading through all these experiences has been incredibly helpful and eye-opening. It's both reassuring to know that 6-9 month processing times are unfortunately normal right now, and frustrating to realize there's essentially no way to track progress during this entire period. The lack of transparency compared to regular tax refunds is really maddening. What strikes me most is how consistent the timeline seems to be regardless of the specific situation - whether it's contractor issues, student exemptions, fellowship problems, or religious worker classifications, everyone is hitting the same processing wall. This is clearly a systemic capacity issue at the IRS. I'm definitely planning to contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service once I reach the 6-month mark based on all the positive experiences shared here. It's encouraging to know they have access to internal systems that can provide real visibility and potentially expedite stuck cases. Thanks to everyone for sharing your timelines - this thread has been invaluable for understanding what to expect and knowing I'm not alone in this incredibly slow process!

I'm also dealing with this incredibly frustrating situation! Filed my Form 843 in early February for FICA taxes that were incorrectly withheld from my work as a substitute teacher. The school district's payroll system didn't recognize that my sporadic, per-diem work schedule should have qualified me for different tax treatment, so they withheld about $1,200 in FICA taxes. I'm now at about 4 months with complete silence from the IRS, and like everyone else here, I've been checking my online transcripts obsessively with zero results. I tried calling the IRS customer service line three times but always gave up after 2+ hours on hold - their phone system seems deliberately designed to discourage people from actually reaching anyone. This thread has been absolutely invaluable for my sanity! It's both reassuring and maddening to see that 6-9 month processing times are the unfortunate norm regardless of the specific situation. Whether it's contractor misclassification, student exemptions, fellowship issues, or substitute teaching situations like mine, we're all hitting the same bureaucratic wall with zero transparency. What really strikes me is how the timeline seems completely disconnected from the complexity or dollar amount of individual cases. It's clearly a systemic capacity issue at the IRS rather than anything related to the merits of our claims. I'm definitely planning to contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service once I hit that 6-month mark based on all the success stories shared here. It's encouraging to know they can actually provide real answers and potentially expedite cases that have been stuck in processing limbo. Thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences - knowing this is a widespread issue rather than something wrong with my paperwork has really helped manage my expectations and stress level about this whole process!

I'm also dealing with this exact same issue and wanted to share my experience after trying several of the solutions mentioned in this thread! Like many others here, I was hitting constant error messages with the main IRS Online Payment Agreement system for over a week. I tried different browsers, clearing cache, off-peak hours - nothing worked. The frustration was definitely real, especially with tax deadlines approaching. After reading through all the helpful suggestions here, I decided to try the Free File Fillable Forms approach that @StarSailor}, @Oliver Wagner, and several others confirmed works. I'm happy to report it was successful! I was able to complete Form 9465 without any errors, and I received my confirmation email within about 3 hours. What I found particularly helpful was having my exact tax liability amount and proposed monthly payment ready before starting, as @Ava Rodriguez suggested. The process was straightforward once I had all the information organized. For anyone else still struggling with this, I'd definitely recommend the Free File route. It's free, it actually works (unlike the main system), and based on what IRS agents have told people in this thread, it's their recommended workaround right now while they deal with the technical issues on the main payment portal. Thanks to this community for sharing these solutions - you probably saved me weeks of frustration and helped me avoid potential penalties. It's amazing how much more helpful this discussion has been than any official IRS guidance I could find!

I'm so glad I found this thread! I've been dealing with the exact same IRS Online Payment Agreement errors for the past week and was starting to feel like I was losing my mind. Every time I get to the payment plan selection page, it just crashes with that generic error message. Reading through everyone's experiences here has been incredibly validating - it's clearly a widespread technical issue on their end, not something we're doing wrong. I'm definitely going to try the Free File Fillable Forms workaround with Form 9465 that so many people have had success with. What really strikes me is how this community has basically become the unofficial customer support for the IRS's broken systems. The detailed guidance from members like @Oliver Wagner and @Ava Rodriguez has been more helpful than anything I could find on the actual IRS website. It's frustrating that we have to jump through these hoops during tax season, but I'm grateful for everyone sharing their solutions. I'll report back on how the Free File approach works for me. Thanks to everyone for turning what felt like an impossible situation into something manageable with actual working alternatives!

This discussion has really opened my eyes to the systematic discrimination singles face in our tax system. Reading through everyone's specific examples and calculations is both validating and infuriating - I had no idea the disparities were this significant. What strikes me most is how this isn't just about paying a bit more in taxes. We're talking about $75,000-$100,000+ in additional lifetime costs while simultaneously using fewer public resources than the families we're subsidizing. That's enough to fundamentally alter someone's financial trajectory and retirement security. The philosophical contradiction is what bothers me most though. We claim to value individual freedom and personal choice, yet our tax code actively punishes citizens for making perfectly legal decisions about marriage and family. This feels fundamentally un-American - using government policy to financially coerce people toward specific lifestyle choices. I'm particularly struck by how this disparity has actually worsened over time rather than improving as society has evolved. With nearly half of American adults now single, we're no longer talking about a small minority being unfairly treated. This affects tens of millions of taxpayers who deserve equal treatment under the law. While individual optimization strategies help somewhat, we clearly need comprehensive policy reform that acknowledges 21st century demographics instead of clinging to outdated assumptions about American family structure. Singles aren't just young people waiting to get married anymore - we're a substantial constituency that deserves fair representation in our tax code.

As a single taxpayer who's been following tax policy for years, I can confirm everything discussed here is unfortunately accurate. The discrimination against singles runs deep through our entire tax system and has only gotten worse over time. What many people don't realize is that this disparity extends beyond just federal income taxes. State tax codes often mirror these biases, and when you factor in that singles typically pay higher effective rates on property taxes (no homestead exemptions for couples), sales taxes (less bulk purchasing power), and even insurance premiums, the cumulative effect is staggering. I've calculated that over my 25-year career, I've paid approximately $95,000 more in various taxes compared to married colleagues with similar incomes. That's not including the opportunity cost of what that money could have earned if invested instead of going to subsidize services I use less frequently. The most frustrating aspect is how entrenched these policies have become. Politicians are terrified to touch anything that could be labeled "anti-family," even when it's really about basic fairness. Meanwhile, singles represent nearly half the adult population but have virtually no organized political voice on these issues. We need to start framing this properly - it's not about being anti-family, it's about equal treatment under the law. Every citizen should pay their fair share relative to the public services they consume, regardless of their personal choices about marriage and children.