Has anyone here actually gone over the $10k SALT cap? I'm wondering if it's even worth the effort to time my payments since I'm probably only going to hit about $9,700 with both property tax payments. Would the extra few hundred in deductions even make a significant difference?

Great question about the SALT cap timing! I was in a similar situation last year with my supplemental property tax bill. One thing I learned is that even if you're close to the $10k limit, it's worth doing the math on your total itemized deductions vs. the standard deduction. In my case, I was at about $9,800 in SALT taxes, but when I added mortgage interest, charitable donations, and some medical expenses, my total itemized deductions were still higher than the standard deduction. So that extra $200 in property tax deductions actually did save me money. Also, don't forget that the SALT cap includes both property taxes AND state income taxes (or sales tax if you choose that). So if you paid estimated state taxes or had withholding, those count toward your $10k limit too. I almost missed that and would have been over the cap without realizing it!

About your question on receipts - I learned this the hard way! Taking pictures is great, but you need to know WHICH receipts actually matter for taxes. For most young people with one job, receipts usually don't matter because you'll take the standard deduction ($13,850 for 2023 if you're single). The only receipts that might help you would be for: 1. Unreimbursed job expenses IF you're self-employed (not for regular W-2 jobs) 2. Charitable donations (only if you itemize, which most young people don't) 3. Medical expenses (only if they exceed 7.5% of your income AND you itemize) 4. Education expenses for certain credits 5. Moving expenses for military So unless you fall into these categories, you probably don't need to worry about keeping all those receipt pictures!

Don't stress too much about being "behind" - lots of first-time filers feel overwhelmed! Here's what I wish someone had told me when I filed my first return: **For your immediate situation:** File as soon as you can. Since you likely had taxes withheld from your paychecks, you're probably due a refund, which means no penalties for filing late. The IRS is actually holding YOUR money right now. **Quick answers to your main questions:** 1. **W-2s:** Your employer must provide them by January 31st each year. Check your employee portal or ask HR if you haven't received yours yet. 2. **Free vs Paid:** For a straightforward W-2 situation, free options are totally fine. The IRS Free File program (accessed through irs.gov) often has better features than the "free" versions companies advertise on their own sites. 3. **Receipts:** Unless you're itemizing deductions (unlikely at your income level), you won't need most receipts. The standard deduction is probably better for you. 4. **Quarterly payments:** Only needed if you're self-employed or have significant income without withholding. Your W-2 job already handles this. **One tip:** Don't overthink the investment tax strategies right now. Get comfortable with basic filing first, then add complexity as your financial situation grows. You're already doing great by starting early with IRAs and planning ahead! The most important thing is just to file. Even if it's not perfect, you can always amend later if needed.

Just wanted to share that this exact thing happened to a friend of mine at our company. Turns out there was a glitch in the payroll system that affected some employees but not others when they implemented the new withholding tables. The people who had submitted a new W-4 form after 2020 were fine, but people using their old W-4 settings got weird withholding amounts. When my friend finally figured it out and confronted HR, they admitted that they knew about the issue but didn't notify affected employees because they "assumed people would notice on their paychecks." Pretty frustrating! Definitely check with your HR department.

If you want to avoid this kind of issue in the future, use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator tool on their website. I check mine every January and June to make sure I'm on track. You can adjust your withholding mid-year if something looks off.

Just another perspective - my wife and I went through this same issue. We decided to just withhold the extra amount for the first year of marriage, which yes, was painful monthly. But then we got a big fat refund that we used for a delayed honeymoon! Now we have a better idea of our married tax situation and have adjusted our withholdings to be more accurate. The first year is definitely the hardest because everything is new and you don't have a married tax return to use as reference. Whatever you decide, just know it gets easier in future years once you have a baseline to work from!

I completely understand your shock! My partner and I went through this exact same situation when we got married last year. That $847 number is jarring, but there are definitely ways to approach this more strategically. First, definitely try the "Married but withhold at higher single rate" option that Freya mentioned - this alone might cut down significantly on how much extra you need to withhold. The regular "Married" setting assumes one spouse isn't working, which clearly doesn't apply to you two. Second, remember that the IRS calculator is being very conservative. It's designed to prevent underpayment at all costs, but you might not actually need to withhold the full amount. You could start with half that amount and see how things look mid-year. Also, keep in mind this is just a withholding timing issue, not necessarily that you'll pay more in total taxes. You might actually come out ahead overall when you factor in the higher standard deduction for married couples and other benefits. The first year of marriage is definitely the trickiest tax-wise because you're flying blind without a previous married return to reference. Hang in there - it gets much easier to plan once you have that baseline!

For anyone using tax software: TurboTax has a specific section for crypto transactions now, including staking. It walks you through each type of transaction. You can manually enter your staking rewards or import directly from Coinbase. I used it last year and it worked well, even for smaller amounts that didn't generate tax forms.

I actually just went through this exact situation last month! Had about $180 in staking rewards from Coinbase and was totally confused at first. What really helped me was creating a simple spreadsheet with three columns: Date, Amount of Crypto Received, and USD Value. Coinbase's transaction history export makes this pretty easy - just filter for "staking" transactions and it gives you both the crypto amount and the USD value at the time you received each reward. Then I just added up the USD column for my total reportable income. One thing I learned is to save screenshots of your Coinbase transaction history showing these rewards, just in case you need backup documentation later. The whole process took me maybe 30 minutes once I figured out where to find everything in Coinbase.