Has anyone mentioned the Failure to File penalty yet? It's 5% of unpaid taxes for each month your return is late, up to 25%. If you're more than 60 days late, minimum penalty is either $435 (for returns due after 1/1/2020) or 100% of the tax owed, whichever is less. Since you mentioned 1099 income in your reply, you definitely have unpaid taxes, which means these penalties are already applied to your account in the IRS system. The sooner you file, the sooner you can work on resolving this!

Clay, given that you had $25-28k in 1099 income for those unfiled years, you're definitely looking at owing taxes AND penalties that have been accumulating since those returns were due. The self-employment tax alone on that income would be around $3,500-4,000 per year, plus regular income tax. Here's what I'd recommend as your next steps: 1. File those back years immediately - every month you wait adds more penalties 2. When you file, consider requesting First Time Penalty Abatement if you've been compliant since then (sounds like you have been with 2021-2023) 3. If you can't pay everything at once, set up a payment plan with the IRS - they're much more cooperative when you come forward voluntarily The good news is that filing those returns might actually help your FAFSA situation too. The Department of Education can flag accounts with unfiled tax obligations, and having everything properly filed removes any potential complications with your financial aid eligibility. Don't let your tax preparer's casual attitude discourage you - this is serious business with the IRS, and getting compliant now will save you money and stress in the long run.

11 When I first started my business, I made the mistake of just applying 15.3% directly to all my earnings and ended up overpaying by quite a bit! The 0.9235 factor is actually a benefit for us self-employed folks. Quick tip: Don't forget that after calculating your SE tax, you also get to deduct HALF of that amount from your income for calculating your income tax. That's another benefit most people miss! It's on Schedule 1 of your 1040.

The confusion around the 0.9235 multiplier is totally understandable! I had the same question when I first started freelancing. Think of it this way: when you're a regular employee, your employer pays half of your Social Security and Medicare taxes (7.65%) and you pay the other half (7.65%). As self-employed, you're both the employee AND the employer, so you owe the full 15.3%. But here's the key part - employees effectively get a "discount" because their employer's portion (7.65%) is tax-deductible to the business. The 0.9235 factor essentially gives you that same advantage by reducing the income subject to SE tax, which mathematically works out to be equivalent to making half of your SE tax deductible. So instead of paying 15.3% on your full income (which would be unfair compared to employees), you pay 15.3% on 92.35% of your income, resulting in an effective rate of about 14.13%. It's actually designed to keep things fair between employees and self-employed individuals!

Have you moved recently or changed banks? Sometimes that triggers additional verification. Also if this is your first time filing as HOH that can trigger a review.

Moving is definitely a common trigger for these reviews! The IRS uses automated systems that flag returns when they detect changes in address, especially combined with HOH status and credits like EITC. Since you moved and this might be your first time filing HOH at the new address, their system probably just wants to verify everything matches up. The good news is that address verification is usually pretty straightforward - they might just want to confirm you actually live where you say you do, especially since HOH requires you to maintain a home for a qualifying person. Keep an eye out for that letter, but don't stress too much. Address-related holds typically resolve faster than income verification issues. In the meantime, make sure your address is updated with the post office so you don't miss any IRS mail!

Filed my PA state return on 2/12 electronically and just got my refund yesterday (3/10), so about 4 weeks total. It was definitely on the longer side of what Andre mentioned but still within the normal range. For anyone still waiting, I found that the PA Department of Revenue's "Where's My Refund" tool was more accurate than calling - it updated me when my return moved to "approved" status about a week before the money actually hit my account.

Filed my PA return on 1/31 and received my refund on 2/25 - so about 3.5 weeks with e-file and direct deposit. I was getting anxious around the 3 week mark but it came through right when Andre said it would. The PA Department of Revenue website was super helpful for tracking - way better than trying to call and wait on hold forever. For anyone still waiting, hang in there!

One thing to consider for next year - you might want to adjust your withholding on your W-4s since your tax situation has changed significantly. If you're owing a lot now, updating your withholding could help prevent a big surprise next year. The IRS has a Tax Withholding Estimator tool on their website that can help with this.

I feel your pain! This exact thing happened to us when we got married in 2023. We went from getting a nice EIC refund to owing money, and it was such a shock. One thing that helped us was really diving into ALL the credits and deductions we were now eligible for as a married couple. Yes, we lost the EIC, but we found some other benefits that partially made up for it: - The Child and Dependent Care Credit has higher income limits for married couples - We could contribute more to retirement accounts (like IRAs) which reduced our taxable income - Some education credits we hadn't been aware of - Better health insurance premium tax credits I'd strongly recommend getting a second opinion from another tax preparer or using one of the online tools mentioned here. Your current preparer sounds like they didn't fully explore your options. Sometimes paying for a more thorough consultation upfront can save you hundreds or even thousands in the long run. Also, don't forget you can amend previous returns if you discover you missed anything! We ended up amending our 2023 return after finding some missed deductions and got back an additional $1,100.