Does anyone know if the rules are different for state taxes? We're in California and their tax rules sometimes differ from federal. Can my son be my dependent on federal but independent on state? He's 19, in college, I pay more than half his support.

This is such a common confusion that comes up every tax season! Your son can absolutely file his own return to get his refund AND you can still claim him as your dependent - these two things are completely separate. The key is that when he files his return, he needs to check the box that says "Someone can claim you as a dependent." This tells the IRS that while he's filing to get his withholdings back, he's not claiming his own personal exemption. Based on what you've described, your son clearly qualifies as your dependent under the "qualifying child" test - he's under 19 (or under 24 if a full-time student), lives with you more than half the year, and you provide more than half his support. His $4,800 in earnings doesn't disqualify him at all. The benefits work out much better for your family this way too. You get to claim valuable tax credits like the Child Tax Credit, while he still gets back whatever was withheld from his paychecks. It's really a win-win situation, even though it might take some explaining to convince him that this is the smart financial move for the whole family!

This is a really helpful thread! I'm dealing with a similar situation where my spring semester payment from January 2024 isn't showing up on my 2024 1098-T yet, but I made it in early January. Based on what everyone's saying here, it sounds like I need to keep track of my actual payments regardless of what the 1098-T shows. One question though - if I'm claiming expenses that aren't on my 1098-T, do I need to attach any additional forms or documentation when I file my taxes? Or do I just keep the receipts in case of an audit? Want to make sure I'm doing this correctly and not setting myself up for problems later.

I had a very similar situation with my university last year! My December 2023 payment of about $3,200 didn't show up on my 2023 1098-T either, and I was really worried about how to handle it for my taxes. Here's what I learned: you're absolutely right that schools often have reporting cutoffs in November, so late payments get rolled into the next year's form. But the key thing is that for tax purposes, what matters is when YOU made the payment, not when the school reports it. I ended up claiming my December payment on my 2023 taxes even though it wasn't on the 1098-T, and I kept all my payment confirmations from the university's online portal as backup. When I got my 2024 1098-T this year, sure enough, that December payment showed up on it. Just make sure you have good records of all your payments - screenshots from your student account, bank statements, whatever shows the payment date and amount. The 1098-T is helpful but it's not the final word on what you can claim for education credits.

Does anyone know if the VITA certification tests are the same difficulty level as last year? I barely passed the Advanced certification and am nervous about doing it again.

Thanks everyone for all the helpful info! I just wanted to share my experience as someone who's been coordinating a VITA site for 3 years. A few additional tips for returning volunteers: - Start checking the Link & Learn system regularly starting in early November - sometimes the new year's tests roll out gradually - Don't wait until the last minute! Sites usually want all volunteers certified by mid-December so we can schedule training sessions - If you're planning to do Advanced certification again, I'd recommend reviewing Schedule C (business income/expenses) and the retirement savings contributions credit - these seem to trip up a lot of people Also, for anyone worried about the difficulty level - the IRS actually provides really good feedback when you get questions wrong during practice tests. Use that to your advantage! The goal isn't to make the tests hard, it's to make sure volunteers are prepared to help taxpayers accurately. Looking forward to another great tax season helping folks in our community!

This has been such a helpful thread! I'm transitioning from paper filing to IRIS this year and was completely lost on the CSV requirements. Reading through everyone's experiences has given me a much clearer roadmap. I wanted to add one thing I discovered during my research - the IRS has a dedicated IRIS help desk at 866-455-7438 that's separate from their main taxpayer service line. The wait times are usually much shorter (typically 15-20 minutes vs hours on the main line) and the agents are specifically trained on electronic filing formats. They walked me through the exact CSV layout for 1099-NEC forms and even sent me sample files to use as templates. For anyone else making the switch, I'd recommend calling them before you start building your CSV files. They can provide form-specific format guides that are much clearer than the general documentation on the IRS website. The agent I spoke with also confirmed that you can submit multiple test files without any limit - so definitely take advantage of that feature to perfect your format before the real submission. Thanks again to everyone who shared their experiences here. This community knowledge is invaluable for navigating these IRS systems!

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm a CPA who's been putting off the IRIS transition for way too long, and reading through everyone's real-world experiences has finally given me the confidence to make the switch. A few additional tips I'd like to share based on my research and conversations with other tax professionals: **Backup Strategy**: Always keep your original data in a separate format (Excel, database, etc.) before converting to CSV. I've heard horror stories of people losing data during the CSV conversion process and having to recreate everything from scratch. **Timing Considerations**: Submit your files early in the day if possible. The IRIS system can get slower during peak filing periods, and if you encounter format issues, you'll have time to fix and resubmit the same day. **Documentation**: Keep screenshots of your successful test submissions. If you run into issues later with similar files, having that proof of what worked before can be invaluable when troubleshooting. For those mentioning third-party validation tools - while I haven't tried taxr.ai personally, having any kind of pre-validation seems smart given how strict IRIS is about formatting. The cost of fixing rejections in terms of time and stress probably makes these tools worth it. Thanks to everyone who shared phone numbers and specific tips. This is exactly the kind of practical guidance that's missing from the official IRS documentation!

This is exactly why having a second opinion is so valuable for complex tax situations. Your Big 4 tax preparer should definitely know better than to classify insurance proceeds as ordinary business income without proper analysis. Based on what others have shared here, it sounds like you have a strong case for treating this as an involuntary conversion under Section 1033. The key factors working in your favor are: (1) you received insurance proceeds for property damage, (2) you reinvested those proceeds in repairing the same property, and (3) you completed the repairs within the allowable timeframe. Since your total repair costs ($158k based on your comment) exceeded the insurance payout ($135k), you actually have a net casualty loss of $23k rather than taxable income. For S-Corp business property, this loss should flow through to your K-1 without the personal casualty loss limitations. I'd strongly recommend getting documentation together showing the total damage, insurance settlement, and complete repair costs, then having a frank conversation with your tax preparer about why they're not considering the involuntary conversion rules. If they're not familiar with this area, it might be worth consulting with a tax professional who specializes in casualty losses and Section 1033 elections.

This thread has been incredibly helpful - I'm dealing with a similar situation where my accountant wanted to classify flood damage insurance proceeds as regular business income. After reading through all the responses here, I realized I needed to educate myself more on casualty loss rules. One thing I'd add for anyone in a similar situation: make sure you understand the difference between insurance proceeds that exceed your property's adjusted basis (which could result in a gain) versus total repair costs that exceed the insurance payout (which results in a loss). The distinction is crucial for tax treatment. Also, timing matters a lot. If you received insurance money in one tax year but made repairs in another, you need to be careful about which year you report the casualty event and whether you're making a Section 1033 election to defer any potential gain. The documentation aspect can't be overstated - keep everything related to the damage, insurance claim, and repairs. I learned this the hard way when I had to reconstruct my records months later. Having a clear paper trail showing the progression from damage → insurance claim → actual repair costs makes the tax treatment much clearer to defend if questioned.