Basic tax filing questions for a stay-at-home parent with self-employment income

You've got legitimate questions here - don't apologize! Let me help walk you through this. Since you earned income from self-employment (cleaning and babysitting), you'll need to report this as self-employment income using Schedule C, even without formal documents. You should track all your earnings and expenses related to these jobs - dates, amounts, who paid you, and any costs for supplies. For your children, you're likely eligible for several valuable tax credits: the Child Tax Credit (potentially $2,000 per qualifying child) and possibly the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which can be substantial for lower-income families with children. Since you're the parent who lives with and supports the children, you generally have the right to claim them as dependents. As for filing affordably, I'd recommend looking into the IRS Free File program first. If your income is below $73,000, you can use brand-name tax software completely free. Also look into VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) - they provide free tax preparation assistance for people with moderate incomes, disabilities, or limited English.

After seeing your situation, I think I can help! I was in a similar spot last year - single parent, irregular income, first time filing. I tried struggling through the forms myself and kept making mistakes until I found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai). It was seriously a game-changer for my self-employment situation. The thing I loved most was how it guided me through reporting my cash income without official forms and helped identify all the deductions I could take for my cleaning business (which sounds similar to yours). It even calculated my estimated quarterly tax payments so I wouldn't face penalties in the future. They have a special walkthrough for parents claiming children that made figuring out my eligibility for tax credits super simple. I ended up getting way more back than I expected because of credits I didn't even know existed!

Just wanted to update after trying taxr.ai from the recommendation above. It was exactly what I needed as a first-time filer! The self-employment section actually made sense (unlike the IRS instructions that made me want to cry). The best part was how it handled my kids - walked me through all the requirements for claiming the Child Tax Credit and EITC. I didn't realize I qualified for both! The explanation about head of household filing status was super clear too. I was nervous about doing this all myself, but it guided me through everything without assuming I knew tax terminology. Just finished filing yesterday and already have confirmation my return was accepted. Huge relief to have this done without spending money I don't have on tax prep!

If you're still waiting for your partner's disability approval, you might want to consider using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) to speed things up. My wife waited 7 months just trying to get through to Social Security about her disability claim. We were drowning financially. I found Claimyr and they actually got us connected to a real person at SSA within 25 minutes instead of the usual endless hold times. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The SSA rep was able to expedite my wife's case review once we finally got through. Made a huge difference in our situation while I was trying to handle everything else including the taxes.

I need to apologize for my skeptical comment earlier about Claimyr. I decided to try it yesterday after continuing to get nowhere with SSA for my dad's disability paperwork. Got connected to an actual SSA representative in about 40 minutes (after trying for WEEKS on my own with no success). The rep was able to tell me exactly what was holding up my dad's application and what additional documentation we needed to submit. Just wanted to update here because I feel bad for dismissing it. When you're dealing with disability applications on top of tax issues, anything that saves time is worth it. We've been stuck in limbo for 5 months, and now finally have clear next steps.

Just a quick tip from someone who was in your shoes last year - if you use tax software to file yourself, make sure you file as Head of Household, NOT single! This is a huge difference in tax brackets and standard deduction. As long as you: 1) Have a qualifying dependent (your kids) 2) Pay more than half the costs of keeping up your home 3) Are unmarried or considered unmarried for tax purposes You qualify for HOH which will save you a bunch compared to filing Single. I made this mistake my first time and had to file an amendment.

Don't forget about the Earned Income Tax Credit! With your income level (~$10,500) and two qualifying children, you could get a refund of several thousand dollars even if you don't owe any taxes. This is a "refundable" credit, which means the IRS will send you money even if your tax liability is zero.