I work as a tax preparer and see this confusion constantly! You've gotten some great advice here, but let me add one more important point that often gets overlooked. Since you're making non-deductible traditional IRA contributions (due to having SEP-IRA coverage and income limits), you need to be extra careful about tracking these contributions over time. Each year you make non-deductible contributions, you're building up what's called "basis" in your traditional IRA. When you eventually start taking distributions in retirement, you'll need to figure out what portion is taxable (the earnings and any deductible contributions) versus non-taxable (your after-tax contributions). This requires keeping good records and filing Form 8606 every single year. Many people mess this up and either pay tax twice on their non-deductible contributions or forget they made them and don't pay tax on the earnings portion. The IRS doesn't track this for you - it's entirely on you to maintain these records. Given the complexity and record-keeping burden of non-deductible traditional IRA contributions, you might seriously want to consider whether Roth IRA contributions make more sense for your situation, assuming you're income-eligible.

I've been following this thread as someone who went through almost the exact same situation a couple years ago. The confusion between SEP-IRA employer contributions and personal IRA contributions is so common, and I made the same mistake of thinking they were the same account. One thing that really helped me was creating a simple spreadsheet to track everything once I figured out I had separate accounts. I track my SEP-IRA employer contributions (which are tax-deductible for my business and tax-deferred for me personally), and separately track my traditional IRA contributions and whether they were deductible or non-deductible each year based on my income. For what it's worth, I ended up switching to Roth IRA contributions once I realized my traditional IRA contributions weren't deductible anyway. The simplicity of knowing that money is completely tax-free in retirement was worth paying the taxes upfront. Plus, no Form 8606 to worry about every year. The key insight for me was understanding that just because both accounts have "IRA" in the name doesn't mean they follow the same rules. Your SEP-IRA is essentially a workplace retirement plan (even though you're both the employer and employee), which is why it affects the deductibility of your separate traditional IRA contributions.

i think everyone is overcomplicating this. I've got W-2Gs for years and just give em to my tax guy with all my other forms. he puts them in the right spot. if u dont have a tax person just use turbotax or something, it literally asks you if you have gambling winnings and where to put the numbers from the form. its not rocket science lol

Just to add to what others have said - make sure you check Box 4 on your W-2G form to see exactly how much federal tax was withheld. This is crucial because it gets reported on Line 25b of your Form 1040 along with your other tax withholdings. Also, keep in mind that gambling winnings can push you into a higher tax bracket, so you might end up owing more than what was withheld. The casino typically withholds at 24%, but if your total income puts you in the 32% or higher bracket, you'll owe the difference. One last tip - if you're thinking about claiming gambling losses, you need to have them documented BEFORE you file. You can't go back and recreate a gambling log after the fact if you get audited. The IRS has seen every trick in the book, so proper documentation from the start is essential.

Does anyone know if you need to collect sales tax for garage sales? My neighbor said her cousin got fined in California for not collecting sales tax at her yard sale.

I had a similar situation last year and ended up consulting with a tax professional just to be safe. They confirmed what others have said here - if you're selling personal items at a loss (which is almost always the case with garage sales), there's no taxable income to report. The key test is whether you made a profit. Since you mentioned selling items for way less than you originally paid, you're dealing with personal losses, not income. The IRS doesn't allow you to deduct these losses, but they also don't tax them as income. Keep some basic records of what you sold and approximate original costs just in case, but you shouldn't need to complicate your tax return with this. A one-time garage sale of personal household items is very different from running a business or regularly buying/selling for profit.

One thing I'd add that might be helpful - make sure you understand the frequency limitation too. You can only use the Section 121 exclusion once every two years. So if either you or your husband used this exclusion on a previous home sale within the past 2 years, you wouldn't be eligible this time around. But assuming this is your first time using the exclusion (or it's been more than 2 years since either of you last used it), you're all set. The fact that you've lived there continuously since 2019 makes this a very straightforward case. Also, while you don't need to reinvest the proceeds to get the exclusion, you might want to consider the timing of your sale relative to when you plan to buy your next home for cash flow purposes. Having that $130k gain tax-free gives you nice flexibility for your next purchase!

Great question about Section 121! I went through this exact situation when I sold my home last year. You're absolutely right that married couples can exclude up to $500,000 in capital gains, and it sounds like you're in a perfect position to take advantage of this. Just to reinforce what others have said - the 2-year ownership and use requirement is very straightforward in your case. Since you've been living there continuously since November 2019, you've got over 3 years of both ownership and primary residence use, which far exceeds the minimum requirement. One small tip I'd add: when you do your taxes next year, you'll report the sale on Form 8949 and Schedule D, but if your gain is fully excluded under Section 121, you won't owe any tax on it. Keep all your closing documents and any improvement receipts in a safe place - you'll need them for your records even though you probably won't owe taxes on the gain. The fact that you can rent for as long as you want without affecting the exclusion is such a relief, isn't it? We ended up renting for 8 months after our sale and it was great to have that flexibility to find exactly what we wanted. Best of luck with your sale and house hunting!

19 Surprised no one mentioned this, but double check that you put the correct filing status on your W-4. If you accidentally selected "Married filing jointly" instead of "Single or Head of Household," that could explain the zero withholding. The tax brackets for MFJ are much wider, so it would assume you need less withholding. This happened to me last year!

This is a classic multiple jobs withholding issue that catches a lot of people off guard! Each employer's payroll system calculates your withholding as if that's your only job, which means they're using the standard deduction and tax brackets for a much lower income level than what you're actually earning combined. With $102,000+ total income, you're definitely in a tax bracket where federal taxes should be withheld. The fact that you're seeing zero withholding from both jobs strongly suggests the W-4 forms weren't filled out correctly for multiple job situations. Here's what I'd recommend doing immediately: 1. Use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator online - it's free and accounts for multiple jobs 2. Update both W-4 forms, making sure to check the box in Step 2(c) for multiple jobs 3. Consider adding a substantial additional withholding amount in Step 4(c) to catch up on what you've missed this year Don't wait on this - the longer you go without proper withholding, the bigger your tax bill will be next April. You might also want to look into making estimated quarterly payments if you're already significantly behind for this year.