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Probably yes. If your net self-employment income tops $400, the IRS requires a return — even if you owe nothing. The threshold is surprisingly low because self-employment tax (Social Security + Medicare) kicks in at $400, not $12,950. File a Schedule SE along with your 1040 and you're covered.

You still report the income. The IRS receives copies of 1099s filed on your behalf, and matching programs catch unreported income automatically. Gather your own records — invoices, PayPal statements, Venmo exports — and report the total on Schedule C. Missing a 1099 form is not the same as missing the income.

The four deadlines for 2026 are April 15, June 16, September 15, and January 15 (2027). Miss one and the IRS charges an underpayment penalty — currently around 8% annualized. A safe harbor: pay 100% of last year's tax liability in four equal installments and you owe no penalty regardless of what you earn this year.

Yes. The home office deduction doesn't require ownership. You need a space used regularly and exclusively for business — a dedicated desk in the corner of your bedroom doesn't qualify, but a spare room set up as a studio does. The simplified method lets you deduct $5 per square foot up to 300 sq ft ($1,500 max) without tracking utilities.

Ordinary and necessary costs of running your business. That includes advertising, bank fees, business insurance, contracted labor (with 1099s filed), equipment under $2,500 (Section 179 or bonus depreciation covers larger items), professional subscriptions, vehicle mileage at 70¢/mile for 2025, and 50% of business meals. The key word is "ordinary" — the IRS expects the expense to be common in your field.

Self-employment tax is 15.3% on the first $176,100 of net earnings (2026 wage base), then 2.9% above that. On $80,000 net profit, you'd owe roughly $11,304 in SE tax. The silver lining: you deduct half of SE tax from your adjusted gross income, which lowers your income tax. An S-Corp election can reduce SE tax significantly if your profits are consistently above $60K — worth a conversation.

Legally, a sole proprietor doesn't. Practically, yes — always. Commingling funds is the single fastest way to lose deductions in an audit. It also makes Schedule C preparation take three hours instead of thirty minutes. Open a free business checking account and run every business dollar through it.

It depends on your "combined income" (adjusted gross income + nontaxable interest + half of Social Security). If that number falls between $25,000–$34,000 for single filers, up to 50% of benefits are taxable. Above $34,000, up to 85% is taxable. For married couples the thresholds are $32,000 and $44,000. Many retirees are surprised by this — but strategic Roth conversions in earlier years can reduce it significantly.

Not if the rollover was done correctly. A direct rollover (trustee-to-trustee) is non-taxable and coded with a "G" or "H" in Box 7 of your 1099-R. An indirect rollover — where the check came to you — required you to deposit 100% of the gross amount within 60 days. The plan withheld 20%, so you had to make up that 20% out of pocket. If you didn't, that withheld amount is treated as a distribution and is taxable.

For tax year 2025: $14,600 for single filers, $29,200 for married filing jointly, and $21,900 for head of household. If you're 65 or older (or blind), add $1,550 per qualifying condition ($1,950 if single). Most W-2 employees take the standard deduction — you'd need to itemize more than these amounts for it to make sense.

No. Holding cryptocurrency is not a taxable event. Tax is triggered when you sell, swap, spend, or receive crypto as income. Receiving staking rewards or mining income is taxable as ordinary income at the fair market value on the day received. Swapping ETH for USDC is a sale — you calculate gain or loss based on your cost basis in the ETH.

Yes — and this is one of the few silver linings. Capital losses offset capital gains dollar-for-dollar. If losses exceed gains, you can deduct up to $3,000 against ordinary income per year and carry the remainder forward indefinitely. Crypto doesn't have the "wash sale" rule that stocks do (as of 2025), so you can sell at a loss and immediately rebuy to harvest the loss.

No. The IRS added a direct question to Form 1040: "At any time during 2025, did you receive, sell, or exchange any digital assets?" Answering "Yes" without reporting transactions — or answering "No" when the answer is "Yes" — both create problems. The IRS receives data from major exchanges and is increasingly matching it. Report what you have; we can help reconstruct missing records.

Both, most likely. Your "domicile" state taxes all your income. Any state where you physically worked — even temporarily — may also tax the income earned there. Most states offer a credit for taxes paid to other states to avoid double taxation, but the mechanics vary. New York, California, and New Jersey are particularly aggressive about claiming remote workers. We sort out which forms go where.

File Form 1040-X. You have three years from the original filing date (or two years from when you paid the tax, whichever is later) to claim a refund on an amended return. The IRS processes paper 1040-X forms in 16–20 weeks. E-filing 1040-X is now available for most situations and cuts that to 3–4 weeks. We prepare the amended return, calculate any refund or balance due, and walk you through submitting it.

Most IRS letters are not audits. The most common are CP2000 notices (proposed changes because income on your return didn't match what was reported to the IRS), CP504 (balance due warning), and LT11 (final notice before levy). Read the notice carefully — the top-right corner lists the notice type and the specific issue. Don't ignore it. Bring it to us and we'll tell you exactly what it means and what to do.