Could it be asking about school district? In my state we have to select our school district for local taxes even if we don't have kids in school.

That's a good point about school districts! In many states, school districts have their own tax rates separate from the city/municipality. The software should have dropdown options for all applicable localities including school districts. The important thing is to select where you physically lived during the tax year, not where you work. Local income taxes are usually based on residency, not employment location (though some areas do both).

Try a different software maybe? I switched from TurboTax to FreeTaxUSA this year and found it much more straightforward on these locality issues. It clearly explains what it's asking for.

That's really helpful info! My AGI is around $95k so it sounds like I would qualify. Do I need to do anything special to claim these losses, or does it happen automatically when I file Schedule E?

It should flow through automatically when you complete Schedule E and Form 1040. The key is that you need to be "actively participating" in rental management decisions (which it sounds like you are). The tax software should handle this calculation, but just make sure the loss from Schedule E is being applied against your other income on your 1040. One caveat - if you use a property manager and aren't making most of the management decisions yourself, you might not qualify as "actively participating," so keep that in mind.

And remember that if you do keep part of the pet deposit for damages when a tenant moves out, you can offset that income with the actual cost of repairs! So if you keep $300 of a deposit but spend $300 fixing chewed baseboards, it's a wash for tax purposes.

Woah, that sounds complex and potentially expensive. So how do you determine if your foreign LLC is considered a corporation for US tax purposes? Is that something I actively choose or does the IRS decide for me?

By default, a foreign LLC with a single owner is treated as a disregarded entity (essentially a sole proprietorship) for US tax purposes, unless you elect otherwise. If there are multiple owners, it's typically treated as a partnership. You can file Form 8832 to elect corporate treatment if that's beneficial for your situation. The key thing to understand is that the US tax classification might be completely different from how your entity is classified in the foreign country. So your "LLC" abroad might be treated as something entirely different by the IRS. This is why getting proper advice early is crucial - the filing requirements and tax treatment vary dramatically based on the classification.

Yeah, this is a common problem. Many foreign banks don't want to deal with US citizen customers because of the FATCA reporting burdens. I had to shop around in Thailand to find a bank willing to work with my company. Usually larger international banks are more willing to deal with US citizens than smaller local ones.

Thanks for the info. I'll check with some of the bigger banks here. It's super frustrating that being a US citizen makes banking so difficult abroad even when I'm legitimately running a business in another country where I also have citizenship.

Is there any risk to reporting someone like this? I'm worried my provider would find out I reported her and make things difficult with my kid's care situation.

The IRS keeps information about who submitted a Form 3949-A confidential, but your provider might guess it was you if you're the only client asking for their SSN. That's the tough part about this situation. If you're concerned about retaliation affecting your child's care, you might consider looking for a new provider anyway. Someone willing to lie about income for tax purposes might not be the most trustworthy person to care for your child. In the meantime, file your taxes correctly with "REFUSED" and your proper documentation, but maybe hold off on the formal fraud report until you've secured alternative childcare if you're worried about potential fallout.

That's a really good point. In my state you can look up licensed providers on the department of human services website. I found out my kid's "daycare" wasn't licensed after a similar tax issue. Ended up reporting them and found out they had way too many kids for an unlicensed home daycare.

3 Do you need to make a certain amount from freelance work to claim the home office deduction? I only make like $2000-3000 a year from occasional design projects while my kid is at preschool a few hours a week. Is it even worth claiming?

9 There's no minimum amount required to claim a home office deduction for freelance work. Even with just $2000-3000 in annual income, it's definitely worth claiming if you have a dedicated space for your design work. The key requirement is that the space must be used "regularly and exclusively" for business. If you have a desk or corner that's only used for your design projects, you can deduct a percentage of your home expenses (rent/mortgage, utilities, etc.) based on the square footage of that space. You can also deduct business-specific expenses like design software, equipment, etc. For someone in your situation, this could easily save you several hundred dollars on your taxes.

21 I use Mint for tracking all our family expenses and just tag childcare-related stuff with a specific category. Makes it super easy at tax time to pull a report of all those expenses. There's also apps specifically for co-parenting expense tracking like Splitwise that work well even if you're not separated/divorced.