How much prep work do you still have to do before meeting with your CPA? Do you have to categorize all your expenses or do they do that for you?

I still have to do quite a bit of prep work. I organize all my income documents (W-2s, 1099s, investment statements), categorize my business expenses in a spreadsheet, and summarize any major financial changes from the previous year. For business expenses, I do the initial categorization (office supplies, travel, meals, etc.), but my CPA often reclassifies some items to more advantageous categories I wouldn't have known about. She doesn't do basic bookkeeping - that would cost significantly more. The more organized you are, the less you'll pay because they bill by the hour. The real value comes from their knowledge of the tax code, not data entry work.

I've never heard of Enrolled Agents. What's the difference between them and CPAs? Are they as qualified to handle complex situations?

That's a really important point I hadn't considered. So even though I'd be working for a US company, I could end up being a UK tax resident because of the 183+ days rule. Do you know if there's any way to maintain Irish tax residency instead, since that's where my permanent home would still be?

You could potentially maintain Irish tax residency by ensuring you spend enough time in Ireland and limiting your time in Scotland to under 183 days per UK tax year. Ireland has a similar 183-day rule, but also considers other factors like maintaining a permanent home there. One approach some people use is careful day counting across tax years - for example, spending just under 183 days in the UK in each UK tax year, but timing it so those days fall across two different Irish tax years. This requires very careful planning and documentation of your whereabouts. Keep in mind though that if you're physically performing the work in Scotland, the UK will have taxing rights on that income regardless of your residency status. The difference is that as a UK resident, they tax your worldwide income, while as a non-resident, they only tax UK-source income.

Really good point about social security! When I moved from Ireland to the UK for work, I was able to get a form from the Irish authorities confirming I was still covered under the Irish system, which meant I didn't have to pay UK National Insurance. I believe it was called Form E101 or something similar. Worth looking into!

Thank you for the practical advice. When you say "gathering all financial records" - what about for years where we might not have complete records anymore? Especially for the crypto stuff, I don't think she's kept detailed records of trades from years ago.

For missing records, you'll need to reconstruct as much as possible. For traditional income, you can request wage and income transcripts from the IRS that show reported W-2s and 1099s. For bank accounts, most banks provide at least 7 years of statements if you request them. For crypto, this is trickier but not impossible. Major exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, etc. usually maintain your transaction history even from years ago. She should log into all platforms she's used and download complete transaction histories. There are also specialized crypto tax services that can help reconstruct trading histories by analyzing blockchain transactions if you know the wallet addresses. Some of these can even identify trades across multiple platforms and calculate proper cost basis. The key is to make a good faith effort to reconstruct everything. The IRS understands that records might be incomplete, but they'll expect you to make reasonable attempts to recreate them. This is definitely an area where professional help is worth the cost.

This is exactly what happened to my cousin. He moved several times and wasn't filing, so he never got the notices. By the time they finally tracked him down, the penalties and interest had nearly tripled the original amount owed. The IRS doesn't just "forget" about people - they're just working through their backlog.

Oh wow, I had no idea there were income thresholds that could complicate this further! Thankfully I'm nowhere near $170k with my side gig, but good to know for the future. Are these thresholds adjusted for inflation each year?

Yes, these thresholds are adjusted for inflation annually. For 2023 they increased to $182,100 for single filers and $364,200 for joint filers. For 2024 they're $191,950 for single and $383,900 for joint filers. The whole QBI system is probably one of the most complex parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. For most small side-hustlers with 1099 income well below these thresholds, the calculation is relatively straightforward as discussed earlier. But it definitely gets much more complicated once you hit those higher income levels!

I think it's intentionally complicated to benefit big corporations with accounting departments. When I finally figured out the right QBI calculation, it saved me almost $700! But I spent like 10 hours researching it. Regular people don't have time for that and just accept whatever TurboTax tells them even if it's wrong. The system is rigged.

Yeah that's a good point about big corporations having an advantage. The 10 hours you spent researching probably cost you more in lost time than you saved! But that's how they get us - make it just complicated enough that we either give up on deductions we deserve or pay someone else to figure it out.

7 I tried TurboTax last year with my Korean husband. It works but you have to know what you're doing. When it asks for your spouse's SSN, you can't just leave it blank - you have to type "NRA" and then it'll let you proceed. It also gets confused about the residency test questions so you might need to override some of their recommendations.

15 Thanks for the tip about typing "NRA" in the SSN field! I didn't know that was an option. Did you have any issues with state taxes as well, or just federal? I'm in California which seems to have its own complicated rules for everything. I'm a bit concerned because my wife might have some minimal US-source income from an investment account we opened together last year. Does that complicate things further?

18 Wait really? I didn't know about losing all those benefits! I've been filing separately from my Ukrainian husband for 3 years now and I claim both student loan interest AND education credits. Are you sure about this?