22 Does anyone know if electric vehicles get any special depreciation treatment for business use? I'm looking at a Tesla Model Y which is around 4,500 lbs (so under the 6,000 threshold) but heard there might be extra incentives.

Just wanted to share my experience as someone who recently went through this exact decision! I ended up choosing the heavier vehicle (Ford F-150 at 6,100 lbs) over a smaller SUV, and it made a huge difference on my taxes. The key thing I learned is that you need to look at your total business use percentage and cash flow needs. Even though the heavier truck cost me $12,000 more upfront, the enhanced depreciation benefits meant I could deduct about $25,000 more in year one (at 80% business use). This significantly reduced my tax liability and improved my cash flow. One tip - make sure you get the GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) from the manufacturer's specs, not the curb weight. The GVWR is what the IRS uses to determine eligibility. Some vehicles that seem close to 6,000 lbs might actually qualify based on their GVWR even if their curb weight is lower. Also, don't forget to factor in your state taxes too - some states have additional depreciation benefits for business vehicles that can make the decision even more favorable toward the heavier option.

Has anyone actually tried just putting "0" (zero) in Box 6 on TurboTax to see if that works? I'm facing the same issue and wondering if that's a valid workaround.

I had this exact same problem last year! TurboTax was being super finicky about Box 6 even though my 1099-NEC had it completely blank. After trying several approaches, I found that entering just the two-letter state code where the withholding occurred worked perfectly. In your case, since you mentioned having state tax withheld in Box 5, try entering "PA" (assuming that's where the withholding went based on your earlier comment). This satisfies TurboTax's requirement without making up fake information, and it's actually the logical solution since state withholding has to correspond to some state. I was worried about doing this at first, but my return was processed without any issues and I never heard anything from the IRS or state about it. The key thing is that you're accurately reporting your income and the actual withholding amounts - the state identifier is really just for their matching systems.

I'm experiencing the exact same frustrating situation! Filed our first joint return on February 12th after getting married in November, and just received my second 60-day letter yesterday. Like everyone else here, I can access all our transcripts and everything appears completely normal - all W-2s, 1099s, and withholdings are showing up correctly. What's particularly annoying is that the second letter uses almost identical language to the first one about "waiting for tax information to be available in our system." If the information is already available (which it clearly is since we can all see it), why does it take them 4+ months to verify what should be a straightforward process? I'm starting to think there's a specific verification queue for newly married couples filing jointly, and they're just massively backlogged. The timing patterns everyone is describing are too consistent to be random - first letter around 3 weeks, second letter around 8-9 weeks later. Has anyone tried contacting their Congressional representative's office? I've heard they sometimes have dedicated liaisons who can expedite IRS issues, especially when taxpayers are experiencing unreasonable delays without clear explanations.

I'm in exactly the same boat as many of you here! Filed jointly for the first time after getting married in October, submitted our return on February 5th, and just got my second 60-day letter this week. The timing is almost spooky how similar it is to everyone else's experiences. What really caught my attention reading through all these comments is how we're ALL newly married couples filing jointly for the first time, and we're ALL getting the same vague "waiting for tax information" language despite being able to see everything perfectly fine on our transcripts. This can't be a coincidence. I think there's definitely a systematic issue with how the IRS processes first-time joint returns from previously separate filers. It's like their verification system flags the change in filing status and then gets stuck in some kind of bureaucratic loop. The Congressional representative suggestion from @Cedric Chung is really smart - I'm going to try that next week. At this point, we've all been patient enough with their internal processes. When multiple taxpayers are experiencing identical delays with identical explanations (or lack thereof), it starts to look like a systematic failure that needs external pressure to resolve. Has anyone tried reaching out to local tax preparation services to see if they're hearing similar complaints from other clients? It might help us understand just how widespread this issue really is.

I'm dealing with this exact same issue right now! Filed on January 22nd but my transcript shows March 5th. I was panicking thinking something went wrong with my return. Reading through all these responses is such a relief - I had no idea there was a difference between when we submit and when the IRS actually processes it in their system. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences. It's so frustrating that the IRS doesn't explain this anywhere obvious on their website. You'd think they'd mention that the "filing date" on transcripts isn't actually when you filed!

This is such a widespread issue that causes unnecessary stress every tax season! I filed on January 30th and my transcript shows March 8th - almost 6 weeks later. What's really frustrating is that I called the IRS helpline and even the first agent I spoke with seemed confused about the difference between submission and processing dates. It wasn't until I was transferred to someone in the taxpayer advocate office that I got a clear explanation. They confirmed that the transcript date is purely internal processing and has zero impact on refund timing or filing compliance. I wish the IRS would just add a simple disclaimer on the transcript that says "Filing date shown reflects internal processing date, not submission date" - would save so many people from this confusion!

Make sure you're aware of the wash sale rule too! If you sell stocks at a loss and buy the same or "substantially identical" securities within 30 days before or after the sale, you can't claim the loss immediately. This tripped me up big time last year when I thought I was being clever by tax-loss harvesting but kept jumping back into the same stocks when they dipped further.

One thing nobody's mentioning is that your capital losses can only offset $3,000 of ordinary income per year after offsetting capital gains. So if you had $550k in gains in year 1, then $550k in losses in year 2, you'd still owe taxes on the full $550k gain in year 1. Then in year 2, you could only use $3,000 of that loss against your regular income, and would have to carry forward the remaining $547,000 in losses for future years. At $3,000 per year against your ordinary income, that would take you 182 years to fully utilize those losses! This is why tax planning and realizing gains/losses in the same tax year is super important.