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.

Also important - make sure you're tracking business use vs. personal use! If you're using that laptop 70% for business and 30% for Netflix, you can only deduct 70% of the cost. IRS isn't stupid and this is a common audit trigger for home-based businesses.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the record-keeping aspect beyond just business use percentage. Make sure you keep the original receipt, warranty information, and any documentation showing when you placed the laptop into service for your business. The IRS wants to see the date you started using it for business purposes, not just when you bought it. Also, if you're planning to use Section 179, there's an income limitation - you can't deduct more than your business's taxable income for the year. So if your LLC only made $500 profit this year, you couldn't take the full $1050 Section 179 deduction. The unused portion would carry forward to next year though. For what it's worth, most small businesses I know go with Section 179 for items like laptops since the immediate deduction helps with cash flow, but definitely consider your overall tax situation and expected future income when making the choice.

I've given up trying to do this correctly in TurboTax and just hire a CPA every year. With RSUs, ESPP, and now some ISO and NSO options too, it's just too complicated. Last year I tried doing it myself and ended up with a CP2000 notice from the IRS saying I underreported my stock sales. Paid more in penalties than what a good accountant would have cost. Learn from my mistake!

I went through this exact same nightmare last tax season with my Fidelity RSU and ESPP sales! Here's what I learned after making several mistakes: The key insight is that your Tax Reporting Statement (1099-B) is what you'll enter into TurboTax, but you MUST use the Supplemental Information to correct the cost basis, especially for RSUs. The 1099-B often shows incorrect cost basis that doesn't account for the income you already paid taxes on when the RSUs vested. My process now: 1) Enter each transaction from the 1099-B exactly as shown, 2) When TurboTax asks for cost basis, use the adjusted numbers from your Supplemental Information instead of what's on the 1099-B, 3) Double-check that any ESPP sales are properly categorized as qualifying vs disqualifying dispositions. The supplemental statement is your friend - it contains the real cost basis calculations that prevent double taxation. Without using it, you'll likely overpay taxes significantly. I almost made a $2,000+ mistake before catching this! One more tip: Keep detailed records of both statements. If you ever get an IRS notice, having both documents makes it much easier to explain the discrepancies between what's reported on the 1099-B vs what you actually filed.