As someone who's navigated a similar 1099-C situation, I want to emphasize a few key points that might help you make the best decision: First, regarding the 80% amount - this partial discharge could actually work in your favor. The creditor may have already written off or sold the remaining 20%, which means they can't later claim it was "discharged" if they're still actively trying to collect it. Keep an eye out for any future collection activity on that remaining balance. The technical deficiencies you've identified (missing phone number, incomplete SSN, nickname instead of legal name) are legitimate concerns, but here's the strategic consideration: challenging these errors now could potentially alert the creditor to review your account right before the statute of limitations expires. Given that you're literally weeks away from the statute expiring, I'd suggest documenting all these deficiencies thoroughly but waiting until after the limitation period passes to address them with either the creditor or IRS. This gives you the best of both worlds - protection from future collection activity AND the ability to challenge an improper 1099-C. One thing to verify: make sure you know the exact statute of limitations date for your state and the specific type of debt. Some states have different limitation periods for different types of contracts, and the clock can restart based on various actions. The European creditor angle is particularly interesting - many overseas companies use US tax preparation services that may not be fully compliant with IRS requirements, which could strengthen your case for challenging the form later.

One additional consideration that hasn't been mentioned yet - you should verify whether the debt cancellation actually occurred in 2022 (the year on your 1099-C) or if it happened earlier. Sometimes creditors issue 1099-Cs years after the actual discharge event, which can be grounds for challenging the form. Check your credit reports from 2022 and earlier years to see when this debt was actually "charged off" or marked as uncollectable. If the debt was written off internally by the creditor in, say, 2019 or 2020, but they're just now issuing a 1099-C for 2022, that's a significant discrepancy that violates IRS timing requirements. Also, since you mentioned this is a European creditor, it's worth noting that some foreign companies mistakenly issue 1099-Cs when they sell debt to collection agencies rather than when they actually forgive it. If your debt was sold rather than forgiven, you shouldn't receive a 1099-C at all. Given that your statute of limitations expires this month, I'd echo the advice others have given about waiting until after that date passes before taking any action. Document everything now, but challenging the form's validity can wait a few weeks to ensure you don't accidentally restart the collection clock. The combination of technical errors (missing phone number, incomplete identification) plus potential timing issues gives you multiple grounds to contest this 1099-C once you're safely past the statute date.

The Credit Karma Tax Advance program changed their policies this year. For 2024 tax season, they implemented a new verification process that requires either: 1) waiting for the physical card and activating it before transfers are permitted, or 2) completing their enhanced identity verification through the app. This wasn't widely announced but is mentioned in their updated terms of service. If you go to Settings > Security > Identity Verification, you might find the option to complete this process and unlock transfers sooner.

I had this same frustrating experience with my TurboTax advance through Credit Karma earlier this month! Here's what I learned after spending way too much time figuring this out: The transfer restrictions are indeed a security measure, but there are a few workarounds. First, check if you received an email with virtual card details - mine went to spam. You can add this virtual card to your digital wallet immediately. Second, if you need to transfer to your bank account, you'll need to complete the enhanced identity verification process that @Amina Diallo mentioned. Go to Settings > Security > Identity Verification in the app. Once I completed this (took about 10 minutes with photo ID), I was able to set up external account transfers within 24 hours. The daily limits are still there ($500/day, $2000/week), but at least you can start accessing the funds. Hope this helps save you some headaches!

This is actually pretty common! I work in payroll and see this happen when companies don't properly remove terminated employees from their systems before year-end processing runs. The automated W-2 generation picks up everyone in the database and creates forms even when there's no income to report. Since your W-2 shows zero dollars across all fields, you don't need to include it when filing your taxes. The IRS only cares about forms that show actual income, withholdings, or other reportable amounts. Keep the document with your tax records though - it's good documentation that you received it and verified it contained no reportable income. If you're concerned about why this happened, you could always check your credit reports to make sure there's no other unusual activity, but blank W-2s from former employers are usually just administrative oversights rather than anything suspicious.

I had the exact same thing happen to me last year! Got a W-2 from a company I left in 2022, completely blank with all zeros. I was so confused and stressed about it at first. After doing some research and talking to a tax preparer, I learned that this is actually super common. Companies often don't clean up their payroll systems properly when people leave, so when they run their year-end W-2 processing, it generates forms for everyone still in the database - even if no money was paid out. The bottom line is you can safely ignore it when filing your taxes. Since there's no income, withholdings, or other amounts reported, there's literally nothing to add to your tax return. I kept mine with my tax documents just in case, but never had to use it for anything. Don't stress about it - this is just a harmless paperwork glitch that happens more often than you'd think!

I went through this exact situation last month as a first-time H&R Block customer! My timeline was pretty similar to what others have shared - got IRS acceptance in about 26 hours, and the refund advance approval came through about 6 hours after that. What really helped me was making sure I had all my homeowner documents (mortgage interest, property taxes) uploaded clearly from the start. The Tax Pro Review definitely seems worth it for the peace of mind and potentially faster processing. One tip: I set up text notifications in addition to email because I got the approval text about 3 hours before the email arrived. The waiting is stressful but it sounds like you've done everything right! Keep us posted on how it goes.

I'm also going through this process right now as a first-time H&R Block customer! Filed with Tax Pro Review on Thursday and still waiting for IRS acceptance. Reading through everyone's experiences here is really reassuring - it sounds like the 24-48 hour window is pretty accurate. I'm a homeowner too and made sure to have all my mortgage interest statements and property tax documents properly organized before filing. My expected refund is around $3,200, so based on what Louisa mentioned about the median being $2,847, I'm cautiously optimistic about the advance approval. Has anyone noticed if filing earlier in the week (like Monday/Tuesday) versus later affects processing times? I'm wondering if I should have waited until Monday to avoid any weekend delays, but I was eager to get the ball rolling. Thanks for all the detailed timelines everyone - this community is so helpful!

PRO TIP: your transcript will tell you way more than WMR. Go pull those if you can access them

I feel your pain! Been in the exact same situation - filed in late January as Head of Household and got stuck with that same "delayed beyond normal timeframe" message for what felt like forever. The worst part is how vague they are about timelines. From my experience, the Head of Household status does seem to trigger extra reviews more often. They want to make sure you actually qualify (supporting a qualifying person, paying more than half the household costs, etc.). I ended up having to wait about 8 weeks total before it finally moved to "Refund Approved" and then got deposited within a few days after that. The key thing is that once you see that delay message, you're basically in a manual review queue. No amount of checking the app will speed it up unfortunately. I know it's frustrating but try to check maybe once a week instead of daily - it'll save your sanity and your phone battery! 😅 Hang in there, it will eventually process!