One thing nobody has mentioned - make sure you're not deducting anything the organization reimbursed you for! Our soccer club has a process where coaches can submit receipts for equipment purchases and get reimbursed up to $150 per season. You can only deduct unreimbursed expenses, so track what you paid for personally vs what the organization covered. Also, take photos of the equipment being used at practices as additional documentation that it was for team use. The IRS loves documentation if you ever get audited!

Great question! I've been coaching youth hockey for several years and have navigated these same deduction issues. A few additional points that might help: The equipment you bought (cones, practice jerseys, pucks) is definitely deductible as charitable contributions since it's for a 501c3. Just make sure you have receipts and get written acknowledgment from the league if your total contributions exceed $250. For mileage, you can deduct trips that are specifically for coaching duties beyond normal parent activities - like equipment runs, coach meetings, or early arrival for setup. Keep a separate log for these coaching-specific miles at 14 cents per mile for 2025. The $300 volunteer credit does reduce your deductible amount - it's considered a "quid pro quo" benefit. So if you spent $400 on equipment but saved $300 in fees, you can only deduct $100. Regarding personal equipment like skates and helmets - unless they're required specifically for coaching and you wouldn't need them as a regular parent spectator, they're generally not deductible. The "primary purpose" test is key here. One tip: consider formally donating the team equipment to the organization rather than just lending it. This makes the deduction cleaner and removes any question about personal vs. charitable use. Get a donation receipt that lists the items and their fair market value.

Just wanted to add my experience since I was in almost the exact same situation last year! My income was around $98k and my husband made about $800 from a few months of part-time work. We have twin 3-year-olds. I spent way too much time researching this and even considered filing separately thinking it might help with the child tax credit. But after running the numbers (and talking to a tax professional), filing jointly was definitely the way to go. We got the full $4,000 child tax credit for both kids, plus we qualified for other benefits we would have lost filing separately. The key thing to remember is that when you're married filing jointly, it doesn't matter which spouse "claims" the child - the credit applies to your household income. Your combined income of ~$105k is well below the phase-out threshold, so you'll get the full credit either way. Save yourself the headache and file jointly! The math almost always works out better for married couples, especially when there's a big income difference like yours.

This is exactly the kind of question that trips up a lot of married couples! The good news is that with your income levels, filing jointly is almost certainly going to be your best option. When you're married filing jointly, the child tax credit isn't about which parent "claims" the child - it's based on your combined household income. At around $105k total, you're well below the $400k threshold where the credit starts to phase out, so you'll get the full $2,000 credit for your daughter. Filing separately would likely cost you money in several ways: you'd have access to smaller standard deductions, lose eligibility for various credits and deductions, and potentially push one of you into higher tax brackets. The IRS basically designed the tax code to benefit married couples who file jointly. Your husband's minimal W-2 income actually helps your overall tax situation when filing jointly - it brings down your effective tax rate compared to if you were single. I'd strongly recommend sticking with married filing jointly and claiming your daughter on that joint return. You should get the full child tax credit plus keep access to all the other married filing jointly benefits.

One often overlooked issue with PTPs is how suspended losses affect your situation when selling. If you've received K-1s with losses that were suspended due to passive activity or at-risk rules, those suspended losses become deductible when you completely dispose of your interest. But for your scenario #2 (sell and rebuy), you technically haven't fully disposed of your interest for tax purposes if you rebuy within the same year. This means those suspended losses remain suspended despite the sale transaction. For the UBTI reporting on line 20V, death transfers can be especially confusing. Technically, the UBTI character passes through to the heir, but the step-up in basis can reduce future UBTI by giving you a higher basis to offset against UBTI income.

The relationship between capital accounts and UBTI/income allocation you mentioned is spot-on, and there's actually a specific reason for this. Partnerships are required to allocate items in accordance with partners' interests in the partnership, which is primarily determined by capital account balances under Section 704(b) regulations. When your capital account becomes more negative (through distributions exceeding your basis), your economic interest in future partnership income decreases proportionally. This is why you see lower per-unit income and UBTI when capital accounts are more negative - you're essentially getting a smaller slice of the same pie. For your death scenario question, there's an important distinction many people miss: while the step-up in basis applies to the fair market value of the PTP units, it doesn't directly reset your capital account with the partnership. The partnership maintains its own records of your capital account, which continues to reflect the cumulative income, losses, and distributions. However, for tax purposes, your new stepped-up basis can significantly reduce or eliminate the taxable gain when the inherited PTPs are eventually sold. One practical tip: if you're actively trading PTPs, keep detailed records of your holding periods and corresponding K-1 amounts. The partnerships' quarterly ownership snapshots mean your K-1 might not perfectly match your actual trading activity, and you'll need to be able to support any adjustments on your return.

I've been running music production workshops through Eventbrite for about 6 months and this thread has been absolutely invaluable! Made around £5,400 so far and was completely clueless about the tax side until stumbling across this discussion. Like so many others here, I had that same "is this really a business?" mental block, but reading everyone's experiences makes it crystal clear that HMRC doesn't care about our internal debates - they care about the fact that I've been getting paid regularly since last summer. A few music workshop-specific points I wanted to add: **Software and plugins**: I've invested heavily in music production software and plugin licenses that I use exclusively for teaching (simplified versions of what I use professionally). These digital purchases are legitimate business expenses, right? Some were quite expensive (£200-400 each). **Equipment transport**: I often need to bring keyboards, audio interfaces, and monitors to venues that don't have proper music setups. The wear and tear on my car from hauling equipment around - can I claim mileage for these business trips? **Licensing fees**: For some workshops I pay small licensing fees to use certain backing tracks or samples in teaching. These ongoing costs should be fully deductible as business expenses? The automatic 30% tax savings setup with Monzo sounds brilliant - I've been terrible about setting money aside and this would solve that completely. Also definitely getting my HMRC registration sorted this week rather than continuing to procrastinate. Thanks to everyone for sharing such detailed real-world experiences. This thread has transformed something that felt impossibly complicated into a manageable set of action steps!

I've been running creative writing workshops through Eventbrite for about 4 months and this thread has been an absolute lifesaver! Made around £2,800 so far and was completely lost about the tax implications until finding this discussion. Like everyone else here, I had that same mental barrier about whether my workshops counted as a "real business," but reading through all these experiences makes it clear that I need to stop overthinking and just get registered with HMRC. A few writing workshop-specific questions I wanted to add: **Books and research materials**: I regularly buy books, magazines, and writing guides that I reference during workshops and sometimes give as prizes. Are these fully deductible even if I also read them personally for enjoyment? **Printing costs**: I provide handouts, writing prompts, and feedback sheets for every session. The printing costs are adding up - easily £30-40 per workshop. These are straightforward business expenses, right? **Refreshments**: I often provide tea, coffee, and biscuits during longer workshops to keep energy up. Can I claim these hospitality costs, or is there a limit on this type of expense? The consistent advice about separate banking and automatic tax savings (30% into a Monzo pot) sounds like exactly what I need. I've been terrible about financial discipline and this automated approach would solve that completely. Going to get my HMRC registration sorted this week - no more procrastinating! Thanks to everyone for making this complex topic feel manageable through real-world examples.

I went through almost the exact same situation last year when my father-in-law passed away. We received two 1099-C forms after his death - one for about $12,000 and another for $7,500. It was really confusing at first because we didn't know if we needed to include this as income on our personal taxes or handle it through the estate. What we learned is that you definitely want to check the "reason codes" on each 1099-C form. If they have Code D (death of debtor), then the canceled debt isn't taxable income to the estate. But you still need to report it on Form 1041 and file Form 982 to show the exclusion. The tricky part was figuring out the timeline - one of the debts was actually settled before he passed away due to financial hardship, so that one was potentially taxable to the estate. We ended up having to dig through his records to understand exactly when each debt was canceled and why. My advice would be to gather all the documentation you can about when and why the debt was canceled, then either work with a tax professional who handles estates or use one of the tools others mentioned to make sure you're reporting everything correctly. The IRS will definitely be expecting to see that 1099-C addressed somewhere in your filing.

Just want to add another perspective based on my experience as someone who handles estate planning professionally. One thing that often gets overlooked with 1099-C forms in estate situations is that you need to be very careful about the timing of when debts are actually "canceled" versus when creditors stop collection efforts. Sometimes creditors will issue a 1099-C months or even years after someone passes away, but the actual cancellation date (shown in Box 2 of the form) might be from before death. This can happen when creditors are slow to process their paperwork or when there are multiple creditors involved in an estate. Also, don't forget that if the estate is required to file Form 706 (federal estate tax return), any canceled debt that's excluded from income still needs to be considered when calculating the gross estate value, since the debt reduction effectively increases the net value of assets passing to beneficiaries. I'd strongly recommend keeping detailed records of all your research into when and why each debt was canceled, including any correspondence with creditors. The IRS may ask for supporting documentation if they have questions about the exclusions claimed on Form 982.