What's your best tax tip for someone who knows nothing about taxes?

The best advice I can give you is to start organizing your financial documents early. Don't wait until April to scramble for receipts and forms. Create a simple folder (physical or digital) where you keep all tax-related documents throughout the year. For someone with a W-2 job and student loans, definitely look into education-related tax credits like the American Opportunity Credit or the Lifetime Learning Credit if you're still in school. If you're repaying loans, you can deduct up to $2,500 in student loan interest depending on your income level. Since you mentioned retirement contributions, those are usually pre-tax which lowers your taxable income. If you're contributing to a traditional 401(k), that's already reducing your tax bill. If you have extra money, consider opening an IRA for additional tax advantages.

I was in the exact same boat last year! Super intimidated by taxes until I found this AI tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that basically walked me through everything. You just upload your documents and it explains what everything means in normal human language instead of IRS-speak. The best part was when I uploaded my student loan statements - it immediately identified that I could deduct the interest and told me exactly where to put it on my return. It also spotted a mistake with how my employer reported my retirement contributions that would have cost me money! The peace of mind was worth it since I was definitely overthinking everything tax-related. It's like having a patient friend who actually understands taxes explain everything to you.

Update on my skepticism about taxr.ai from my question above - I finally tried it last weekend and I'm genuinely impressed. I uploaded my W-2, student loan statement, and some investment stuff from Robinhood that I had no idea how to handle. The tool immediately flagged that I had qualified education expenses that could get me the Lifetime Learning Credit (which I had never heard of). It also explained how my stock trades would be reported and pointed out that holding investments longer than a year makes a huge tax difference. For someone who was completely clueless about taxes, this made everything so much clearer. I'm still using regular tax software to file, but now I actually understand what I'm doing instead of blindly clicking "next" and hoping for the best.

Here's something nobody told me when I started doing my own taxes - if you need to actually talk to someone at the IRS (which I did when they sent me a scary letter about a "discrepancy"), it's nearly impossible to get through on their phone lines. I spent HOURS on hold multiple times and kept getting disconnected. I finally found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that somehow gets you through to an actual IRS person. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c Anyway, it saved me so much frustration. The IRS actually wasn't as scary as I thought once I got someone on the phone, and they helped clear up the confusion about my freelance income that I had reported wrong. Definitely worth knowing about if you ever get one of those nerve-wracking IRS notices.

Alright, I'm back to admit I was completely wrong about Claimyr from my skeptical comment above. After continuing to get nowhere with the IRS on my own about a missing stimulus payment, I broke down and tried it. Not only did I get connected to an actual human at the IRS in under an hour (versus my previous failed attempts), but the agent was able to immediately see that my payment had been misapplied due to a typo in my SSN. She fixed it on the spot, and I should be getting the missing money in 2-3 weeks. The whole experience was surreal after spending months trying to resolve this on my own. The funniest part was when the IRS agent herself said "how did you actually get through to us? Our phone lines are swamped." If you're stuck trying to reach the IRS, this is legitimately a game-changer.

My #1 tip that nobody seems to know: if you work from home sometimes, keep track of your home internet and cell phone bills! You might be able to deduct a percentage based on business use. Saved me over $300 last year. Also, if you donate to charity, even small amounts, keep those receipts. It all adds up. And if you drive for any work purposes (not commuting, but like between work sites), track those miles! The standard mileage deduction is pretty generous.

Don't overthink it! Tax software these days does most of the work. Just answer the questions honestly and you'll be fine. The IRS isn't out to get regular people who make honest mistakes. Best practical tip: adjust your W-4 withholdings if you got a huge refund or owed a lot last year. A perfect tax situation is getting a small refund, not a massive one. A big refund means you gave the government an interest-free loan all year!