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Something nobody's mentioned yet - you should also check if you qualify for the home sale exclusion of up to $250,000 ($500,000 for married filing jointly). This applies if the property was your primary residence for at least 2 of the last 5 years before the sale. Doesn't sound like this applies in your case since it's vacant land, but just throwing it out there in case part of the property included a residence.
Thanks for mentioning this, but no, it was just empty desert land that nobody lived on. No structures at all. It literally sat empty for decades until someone decided it was valuable because of the highway exit nearby.
Good to confirm. One other thing to consider - check if your state has different rules for inherited property taxes. Some states have their own tax treatment that might be more favorable than federal. For example, some states might use their own version of stepped-up basis or have special provisions for long-held family property.
Has anyone considered that the $800K sale might trigger a federal gift tax return requirement? If the property was owned by multiple family members across generations and they're all receiving proceeds, there might be gift tax implications depending on how ownership was structured and transferred over the years.
This wouldn't trigger gift tax because it's a sale at fair market value, not a gift. The inheritance portion already happened when OP's mother passed away, and that would fall under estate tax rules (though with only a 15% interest in land worth $800K, it would be well below the estate tax threshold). The sale itself is just converting an asset to cash at market value - no gifting involved. OP and their sister would just each report their portion of capital gains based on their stepped-up basis.
One thing nobody has mentioned yet is that you should be tracking your income and expenses using accounting software designed for small businesses. I use QuickBooks Self-Employed for my house cleaning business, and it has built-in features to handle exactly the issues you're describing. You can record income when earned (accrual) but still reconcile with your 1099s at tax time. It also has excellent mileage tracking that lets you categorize drives by client, so you can easily separate deductible business miles from personal ones. Really worth the money for peace of mind!
Does it handle tips well? My dog walking clients sometimes tip in cash and sometimes in the app, and I'm worried about mixing them up. Also, is there a way to mark certain expenses as "office supplies" vs "pet supplies" so I can track which deductions are for what?
It handles tips perfectly! You can create separate income categories for "service income" and "tips" and then further categorize as "cash tips" vs "app tips" if you want that level of detail. This makes it easy to reconcile against what shows on your 1099 vs. what you received in cash. For expenses, yes, you can create custom categories beyond the standard ones. I have categories for "cleaning supplies" and "office supplies" since they're different types of business expenses. For your situation, "pet supplies" would be a great custom category to track those specific deductions separately.
This might be a dumb question but it's my first year doing pet sitting... do I need to make quarterly tax payments? I started in October and have made about $3,200 so far. The app doesn't withhold any taxes from my payments. I'm worried I'll get hit with a huge tax bill and penalties in April.
You should consider making quarterly estimated tax payments if you expect to owe $1,000 or more in taxes. For self-employment income, you need to pay both income tax and self-employment tax (15.3% for Social Security and Medicare). At $3,200 since October, you're looking at around $490 just in self-employment tax, plus whatever income tax applies based on your total annual income. If you have other income with tax withholding (like a regular job), that withholding might cover your tax obligation from pet sitting.
16 Has anyone tried requesting the 120-day extension to pay in full? My accountant mentioned this might be better than an installment agreement if you can pay within that timeframe since there's no setup fee like with an installment plan.
3 I did this last year. You can request it online through the IRS website or by calling. No setup fee, but you still pay interest and the failure-to-pay penalty during those 120 days. It was straightforward - I just needed to specify how much I owed and that I'd pay within 120 days. No financial statements needed.
23 Whatever you decide, DONT NOT FILE!!! That's the worst thing you can do. The failure-to-file penalty is 10x worse than the failure-to-pay penalty. File your return, pay what you can on April 15th, and then work with the IRS on the rest. The IRS is actually pretty reasonable to work with when you're proactive and communicate with them.
For net salary calculation specifically, you should also consider these non-tax factors: 1. Health insurance costs are likely much higher in the US than Poland. Expect $400-800/month for decent family coverage, even with employer subsidies. 2. 401k retirement contributions - most experts recommend putting at least 10% of your salary here, especially if your employer matches. 3. Cost of living varies DRASTICALLY depending on location. A $150k salary in San Francisco might give you a lower standard of living than $90k in Pittsburgh. 4. Don't forget state taxes - they range from 0% (Texas, Florida) to over 13% (California). From personal experience with intracompany transfers, a good rule of thumb is that your net take-home will be roughly 65-70% of gross in moderate tax states without 401k contributions, dropping to 55-60% with recommended retirement savings.
Really helpful breakdown! My transfer would be to North Carolina. Any idea where that falls on the state tax spectrum? And is there a good online calculator you'd recommend that lets me input all these factors?
North Carolina is actually pretty straightforward with a flat 4.75% state income tax rate - so middle of the road compared to other states. Not as high as California or New York, but not tax-free like Texas or Florida. For calculators, I recommend using the ADP Salary Paycheck Calculator (just Google it) - it lets you input your salary, state, filing status, and deductions including 401k and health insurance to get a realistic take-home estimate. SmartAsset's paycheck calculator is another good one that shows the breakdown of all taxes. Both are free and pretty accurate based on my experience relocating employees to various states.
Don't forget the foreign tax implications! I'm Polish and moved to the US 3 years ago. Since Poland taxes based on citizenship/residency, you may still have Polish tax obligations even while in the US. The US-Poland tax treaty helps prevent double taxation, but you must file properly. My mistake was assuming I only needed to deal with US taxes after moving. Also, ask your employer if they're providing any tax equalization benefits. Many companies with intracompany transfers will cover the difference if your US tax burden is higher than what you'd pay in your home country. This benefit alone added about 8% to my effective compensation!
Natasha Kuznetsova
Has anyone tried this same approach with H&R Block software? I'm having the same issue with my MPLX K-1 TXF import, but the steps seem a bit different in H&R Block's interface.
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Javier Morales
β’I use H&R Block and did something similar last year. The interface is different but the concept is the same. You need to create two separate K-1 forms and split the income between them. The tricky part in H&R Block is you have to manually go to the forms view and find the right schedule to enter the rental real estate portion.
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Natasha Kuznetsova
β’Thanks for the guidance! Do I need to do anything special to make sure the basis calculations carry forward properly in H&R Block? And should I be entering any tax credits on the first or second K-1 entry?
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Emma Anderson
Is there any way to edit the TXF file directly instead of doing this workaround? I'm comfortable with text editing if that would be easier than creating two separate K-1s in the software.
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Zainab Ibrahim
β’You actually can edit the TXF file directly if you're comfortable with text editing! I tried this approach too. TXF files are basically formatted text files, and you can open them with Notepad or any text editor. Look for the sections related to your K-1, and you'll see entries for each box. You can create a duplicate of the partnership entry with a slightly different name, then remove line 2 from the original and remove everything except line 2 from the copy. It's a bit technical but doable if you're careful.
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