Has anyone faced an audit for not reporting small gig income? I made like $200 on DoorDash last year and just didn't bother reporting it... now I'm worried.

I went through this exact same situation last year with about $400 in combined earnings from DoorDash and Grubhub. What worked for me in TaxAct was going to the "Business Income" section and selecting "I didn't receive a 1099-NEC" when prompted. You'll enter your total earnings as business income on Schedule C. For the payer information that TaxAct asks for, you can just put "DoorDash" and "UberEats" as separate business income sources and use your own SSN as the tax ID since you're operating as a sole proprietor. The key thing is to gather your own records - check your bank deposits, the payment history in both apps, and any email confirmations you received. The IRS accepts your own documentation when you don't have a 1099. Even though your amount is small, you'll still owe a bit of self-employment tax (about 15.3% of your net earnings after expenses), but it's usually not much on $350. And definitely track any car expenses you had - even without perfect mileage records, you can often reconstruct a reasonable estimate from your delivery history in the apps.

Has anyone actually gone through an IRS audit with an S Corp home office deduction including depreciation? Curious what documentation they asked for and how detailed the review was?

This is such a comprehensive discussion! As someone who went through a similar S Corp home office depreciation headache last year, I wanted to add one more consideration that nearly tripped me up. Make sure you're properly coordinating the depreciation method between your personal and S Corp books. I was using MACRS 39-year straight line for the business portion on my personal return, but my S Corp was trying to reimburse me based on a different calculation my bookkeeper had set up. The IRS expects consistency - the depreciation your S Corp reimburses you for should match exactly what you're claiming as a deduction on Schedule E. Also, don't forget about the Section 280A limitations! Even with an accountable plan, you can't deduct home office expenses (including depreciation) that exceed the gross income from the business use of your home. This rarely comes up, but if your S Corp is having a tough year, it could potentially limit your depreciation deduction even if the reimbursement goes through properly. One last tip: consider setting up your accountable plan to reimburse monthly rather than annually. It makes the cash flow smoother and creates a better paper trail for documentation purposes. My CPA said it also makes audits less likely to raise red flags since the transactions look more like regular business operations rather than year-end tax planning moves.

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned this, but most tax software has a specific "part-year resident" wizard or interview section. For example, in TurboTax, there's a separate section for "I lived in more than one state." Have you specifically completed that section? Also, double-check your W-2s. Sometimes employers mess up and put the wrong state code on your W-2, which can cause exactly the issue you're describing. My company once put CA on my W-2 even though I had moved to OR, and it caused a similar double-taxation problem.

This is a classic multi-state tax issue that trips up a lot of people! The key thing to understand is that you should NOT be paying full income tax to both states - that's definitely wrong. Here's what's likely happening: your tax software is treating you as a full-year resident of both states instead of a part-year resident. This causes it to calculate taxes on your entire annual income for both states, which is exactly what you're seeing. To fix this, you need to: 1. Make sure you've selected "part-year resident" (not just "resident") for both NY and VA 2. Enter your exact move date (July 1st, 2024) 3. Verify that your NY income is only what you earned Jan-June while living in NY (~$52k) 4. Verify that your VA income is only what you earned July-Dec while living in VA (~$19k) The taxable income amounts you're seeing ($61k for NY, $58k for VA) suggest the software is applying deductions incorrectly or double-counting income. Once you fix the residency settings, those numbers should drop dramatically. Also, just to confirm - you mentioned having separate W-2s from each employer. Make sure when you enter each W-2, you're telling the software which state that job was performed in. This helps the software properly allocate the income. Good luck! This should result in a much better outcome once sorted out properly.

Does anyone know if the gift tax exclusion amount changes every year? I remember it being much lower like $14k or $15k in the past. Want to make sure I'm using the right number for 2024.

Just wanted to add another perspective on the timing aspect of stock gifts. If you're gifting stocks that have appreciated significantly, consider the potential impact of the wash sale rule if your daughter might sell them soon after receiving them. Also, make sure to coordinate with your brokerage about the actual transfer process. Most brokerages have specific forms and procedures for gifting securities between accounts. Some require both parties to have accounts at the same institution, while others can facilitate transfers to external brokerages. One more tip - if you're planning to make this an annual gift to help build her portfolio over time, consider setting up a systematic approach. You could gift a portion of your holdings each year to stay within the exclusion limits and spread out the tax implications for her over multiple years. This strategy works particularly well with growth stocks that you expect to continue appreciating.

Has anyone used Credit Karma Tax (now Cash App Taxes) to file an amended return for a missed 1099-R? I'm in a similar situation but don't want to pay TurboTax's fees again just for an amendment.

Just wanted to share my experience since I went through something very similar last year. I also had a job change situation where I over-contributed to 401k plans and received a corrective distribution in 2022 that I completely forgot to include on my return. The good news is that since you found the 1099-R and can see it shows code "P" with only $276 taxable, your tax impact should be pretty minimal. I was in a similar boat - my taxable portion was only around $300 and the additional tax owed was less than $100. I filed the 1040-X amendment myself and it was processed without any issues. The key things I learned: 1) File the amendment as soon as possible to show good faith, 2) Include a brief explanation that you're self-reporting an omitted 1099-R, and 3) Make sure to pay any additional tax owed with the amendment to minimize interest charges. The IRS was actually pretty reasonable about the whole thing since I caught and corrected it myself before they sent any notices. Don't stress too much - this happens more often than you'd think with job changes and retirement account corrections.