How do you actually buy treasury bills? Is it complicated? I've been keeping my house fund in a Marcus HYSA but would switch if there's a tax advantage.

You can buy Treasury bills directly from the government through TreasuryDirect.gov - it's actually pretty straightforward once you set up an account. You can also buy them through most major brokerages like Fidelity, Schwab, or Vanguard if you already have accounts there. The main thing to know is that T-bills are sold at a discount and mature at face value - so if you buy a $1,000 T-bill at $950, you get the full $1,000 when it matures. The process is much simpler than I expected, and you can ladder them to have bills maturing regularly to maintain liquidity for your house purchase timeline. Given that you're looking at a 12-18 month timeline, you could set up a ladder of 4-week, 8-week, and 13-week bills to keep your money accessible while getting that state tax exemption benefit.

Great point about FDIC limits! I hadn't thought about that aspect with such a large amount. Quick question - if I go with Treasury bills through TreasuryDirect, are there any limits on how much I can purchase? And do they have the same government backing as FDIC insurance, or is it considered even safer since it's direct government debt? Also, for the CD ladder approach you mentioned, have you found that banks are willing to negotiate rates on larger deposits like this? I'm wondering if having $325k to deploy gives me any leverage in getting better rates than what's advertised.

How do you even figure out how much to pay for these quarterly payments? My gig schedule is super irregular - some months I might make $300, others nothing at all.

You have a couple of options for estimated payments. The simplest is to take your total expected 1099 income for the year, calculate roughly what you'll owe (about 30-35% to be safe), then divide by 4 and pay that amount each quarter. If your income is very irregular, you can use what's called the "annualized income installment method" which lets you make different payment amounts each quarter based on what you actually earned that quarter. It's a bit more work but prevents overpaying when your income fluctuates. There's a worksheet (2210-AI) that helps you calculate this.

Yes, you absolutely can if they're used primarily for your music business. The key is to track what percentage is business vs. personal use. If you use Spotify 70% of the time to learn songs for paid gigs, you can deduct 70% of the subscription cost.

@AstroAce is right about the business percentage approach. I'd recommend keeping a simple log for a month or two to track your usage - like noting when you're using Spotify to learn songs for gigs vs. just personal listening. You can even deduct music notation apps, metronome apps, or other music-related subscriptions if they're helping you with your paid performances. Just make sure you can justify the business purpose if asked.

Thanks for mentioning this. I didn't even think about the part-year resident situation. So even though I haven't earned income in Idaho yet, I still need to file there as a part-year resident?

If you haven't earned any income in Idaho and don't have any Idaho-source income (like rental property there), then you generally wouldn't need to file an Idaho part-year resident return just for moving there. You'd only need to file in Idaho once you start earning income there. However, you should check if your last state of residence requires a part-year resident return to properly close out your tax obligation there. This is especially important if you had state tax withheld from your final paycheck in that state, as you'll want to file to potentially get a refund of any overwithholding.

I got audited specifically over mileage deductions 2 years ago. Had to pay back over $3700 plus penalties because I couldn't prove my miles. They absolutely do check this stuff. Don't learn the hard way like I did!

Thanks for this detailed response! The basis tracking part is what's confusing me. My K-1 has a supplemental statement about "tax basis capital" that changed after the exchange. Is this the basis I need to track, or is there something else I should be looking for? The statement mentions something about "704(c) forward section 1231 gain" that I don't understand.

The "tax basis capital" on your K-1 is related to your basis, but it's not necessarily the exact number you need to track for your personal tax situation. This gets complicated because partnerships can use different methods for tracking capital accounts. What you need to focus on is your "outside basis" in the partnership interest. Generally, your outside basis in the new partnership should equal your outside basis in the old partnership, adjusted for any boot received or liabilities assumed during the exchange. That "704(c) forward section 1231 gain" reference indicates deferred gain that's being tracked at the partnership level under section 704(c). This will affect how future depreciation and gains are allocated to you. It's essentially tracking your share of the built-in gain that was deferred in the 1031 exchange. When the new property is eventually sold (without another 1031), this deferred gain may become taxable to you.

Thanks for confirming! I'll stick with Premier then. Did TurboTax guide you through which numbers to enter where, or did you have to figure that out yourself? My supplemental statement has about 10 different numbers related to the exchange and I'm not sure which ones need to go on which lines of Form 8824.

TurboTax Premier can handle Form 8824, but honestly the guidance is pretty limited for complex partnership exchanges. You'll need to manually figure out which numbers from your supplemental statement go where on the form. I found myself constantly referring back to the IRS instructions for Form 8824 and Publication 544 to make sure I was entering things correctly. The software asks for the basic exchange information but doesn't really help you interpret the partnership-specific details from your K-1 supplemental statements. If your situation is straightforward it should work fine, but if you have complications like boot received or multiple properties involved, you might want to consider getting professional help rather than trying to navigate it solo in TurboTax.