anyone else noticed TaxAct has gotten worse with self employment stuff lately? last year navigation was much smoother. now I keep hitting these weird roadblocks like the OP mentioned. might switch to FreeTaxUSA next year tbh. they handled my wife's doordash depreciation so much better than taxact is handling mine.

I ran into this exact same issue last year! The key thing to understand is that once you've claimed depreciation on a business asset, the IRS requires you to continue tracking it on your tax returns even in years when you don't use it for business. What worked for me in TaxAct: Go to the vehicle section and enter your car information exactly as you did in 2021, but put 0 for business miles (you can put your actual total personal miles). This will give you 0% business use. Then in the depreciation section, select the same depreciation method you used before - the software will automatically calculate $0 depreciation for 2023 since your business use is 0%. The important part is NOT to delete the vehicle entirely from your return. You need to show it exists but wasn't used for business. This maintains the proper depreciation trail for IRS records without affecting your 2021 claim or causing problems if you use the vehicle for business again in future years.

Why is everyone making this so complicated? Just check "Married Filing Jointly" on both W-4s and be done with it. If you're worried about underwithholding, just put an extra $100 per paycheck in the additional withholding line on the higher income spouse's W-4. That's what my wife and I do (I make $150k, she makes $65k) and we always get a small refund.

As someone who went through this exact situation last year, I'd recommend using the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator first before making any changes. My husband makes $140k and I make $82k, so very similar to your situation. What we learned is that the "married filing jointly" checkbox on both W-4s can actually cause overwithholding when both spouses work, because each employer's payroll system assumes it's withholding for your entire tax liability when it's really only responsible for a portion. The estimator told us to select "married filing jointly" on both forms but to add $75 per paycheck in additional withholding on my husband's W-4 (the higher earner) and $0 additional on mine. This ended up being perfect - we owed about $50 at tax time. The income gap itself isn't really the issue - it's more about making sure the total withholding from both jobs covers your combined tax liability correctly. Don't stress too much about it though - you can always adjust your W-4s mid-year if needed once you see how your first few paychecks look.

Just wanted to add one more resource that might help - if you're a US citizen living abroad or have lived abroad, consider reaching out to your local US embassy or consulate. They often have tax attaché services or can connect you with IRS representatives who specialize in expat tax issues, including FBAR compliance. I had a similar situation with accounts in multiple countries and the tax attaché at the US embassy in London was incredibly helpful. They confirmed that using partial account numbers with proper documentation is standard practice and even provided me with a template for the explanation letter to include with my amended filing. The embassy route can be especially useful because these representatives deal with foreign banking complications regularly and understand the practical challenges of getting complete account information from overseas financial institutions. Plus, having guidance directly from an official IRS representative gives you extra confidence that you're handling everything correctly.

I've been following this thread closely since I'm dealing with a similar FBAR amendment situation. Just wanted to share that I found my old account numbers by checking the "account details" section in my email - turns out when I initially opened those foreign accounts, the bank sent welcome emails with full account information that I had completely forgotten about. Also, for anyone still struggling with this, I discovered that some banks will provide account numbers if you fill out a formal "account information request" form on their website, even when they won't give the same information over the phone. It's worth checking if your bank has this option in their customer service portal. The partial number approach with "XX" definitely seems to be the standard solution based on everyone's experiences here. The key really is documentation - I'm keeping a detailed log of every attempt I make to get complete information, including screenshots, email confirmations, and reference numbers from phone calls. Better to have too much documentation than not enough when it comes to FBAR compliance!

I'm a newcomer here but this thread has been absolutely incredible to read through! I had no idea how widespread this dealership issue was with EV tax credits. Reading everyone's success stories gives me so much hope for resolving similar situations. What really stands out to me is how the magic formula seems to be: use specific technical language ("Energy Credits Online Portal," "used clean vehicle credit"), escalate to the finance director (not just any finance person), mention the IRS waived the 3-day deadline, and come prepared with all documentation. The consistency across everyone's successful approaches is remarkable. Brandon, I hope you're still following this amazing discussion that grew from your original question! The fact that people are succeeding with purchases 8+ months old should give you total confidence that your July timeline is absolutely fine. The "too late" excuse has been thoroughly debunked by multiple success stories here. For anyone else dealing with uncooperative dealerships - you now have a complete playbook from people who've fought this exact battle and won. Don't give up on thousands of dollars you're legally entitled to! The IRS specifically made the process more flexible to help consumers in these situations.

As a newcomer to this community, I'm absolutely amazed by this thread! I just bought a used EV last week and had no idea about the ECO Portal requirements until I stumbled across this discussion. Reading through everyone's experiences has been both educational and slightly terrifying - it sounds like dealership confusion about these requirements is incredibly common. What's really encouraging is seeing the clear pattern of success once people know how to approach this properly. The combination of using specific technical language ("Energy Credits Online Portal," "used clean vehicle credit"), asking for the finance director by name, and having all documentation ready seems to be the winning formula. Brandon, I hope you're still following this incredible thread that started from your question! Based on all the success stories here with purchases 8+ months old, your July timeline is definitely not an issue. The "too late" excuse has been completely debunked by multiple people's experiences. I'm going to proactively contact my dealership tomorrow to confirm they've handled my ECO Portal registration. Thanks to this thread, I now know exactly what to ask for and how to escalate if needed. This community is amazing - turning one person's frustration into a comprehensive guide that's helping so many others!

Another simple trick - look at your 2020 tax return PDF file size. If it's bigger than usual, you probably itemized because Schedule A adds pages. My standard deduction returns are always like 10-15 pages but my itemized years are 20+ pages with all the extra forms. Just a quick way to check before digging into the actual numbers.

UGH im looking at my 2020 return right now and line 12 shows $24,800 but there's also something on line 8 that says "Schedule A" with a checkmark? Super confused!!! Why would it have schedule A but also the standard deduction amount??