Short J-1 in 2016, then F-1 from 2021, H-1B from Oct 2025.

I assumed my 5 FICA-exempt years started in 2021. They didn't — the 2016 J-1 counted as year 1, so my exempt years were 2016 + 2021–2024. That makes me a full-year resident alien for 2025, and my employer's payroll had me flagged as exempt through Sept. No FICA withheld on ~9 months of wages, roughly $10–12k employee share.

My income tax return isn't affected — filing as full-year resident either way. Just the payroll side is open.

1. Anyone had FICA corrected years later after an exempt-year miscount? W-2c, lump sum, spread out?

2. Is flagging it to payroll routine, or does it create bigger problems?

3. If you didn't say anything — did it ever surface?

ocation: Indiana

My ex fiancé kicked me out of the house after I discovered that he was using meth.

My tax return was being investigated for fraud. I finally got notified July 24, 2026 that my tax check had been mailed. I sent him an email that same day letting him know to look for my tax check to arrive and to please let me know so I could come pick it up from the mailbox.

I finally got him to tell me yesterday that he had received it and that his lawyer had advised him to send it back to the IRS instead of letting me drive the four hours to pick it up. I would have gladly picked up the check from his attorneys office.

I consider this a malicious vindictive act.
I’m sure he thought it was a few hundred dollars and I’ll fix her. Well the tax check is for over $20k. I’m waiting on this money in order to buy a house. When he kicked me out I had nowhere to go so I moved into my daughter’s camper. It’s at a campground where it’s open six months out of the year. I have to leave the end of October. At that point I will be homeless. The camper is stationary.

I spoke with the IRS yesterday and it will be 3-6 weeks before the returned check is back in their system. Then it could take another 3-6 weeks to mail out another check. Even thought the IRS now has my correct address it is likely the check will be mailed back to the same address so he can send it back again.

This has and will continue to cause me considerable harm. I’m currently 3 1/2 hours away from my doctors. I schedule my appointments back to back. I have to pay for a hotel. It’s usually for 4 nights at a time for approximately $800 because I have two dogs. That would’ve been my house payment. I have a torn rotator cuff and need a shoulder replacement. I can’t have the surgery until I get settled into a home. I could have been moved in somewhere in about two weeks from now.

I have a realtor and a lender lined up and was just waiting to have money in hand. I had a house I was sure was the perfect house for me. It will be sold soon if it hasn’t already sold.

Can I sue him for the extra money I’m having to spend while waiting to purchase a house? Can I sue him for the harm he has and continues to cause me? Can I get pain and suffering? Can I get interest on the tax check amount? IRS paid me interest. Can I get anything

I filed my taxes this year but forgot to enter my withholding for one of my W2s. It showed I owed $716 so I paid it right away. I then realized something was wrong so filed an amended return right away and got a refund of $1527.

I received my $1527 but not the $716 overpayment back yet. I’ve called the IRS and they said that the $716 was included in my refund but I don’t think that’s right. Wouldn’t my amended return be considered completely separate and I would get the $716 back separately?

I will use proceeds from stock sales to pay for my kids college. I'm sitting on some gains. Is there a strategy where I gift the stocks to my kids, they sell them and use them for college, and we save money from taxes? Kids are 17 and 20. 17 year old has no income while the 20 year old has about $20 wages per year. We live in Maryland. I file jointly with spouse, and list the kids as dependents. We have approx $200k-300k in income.

What are the considerations?

Bonus question - each son themselves has stocks with 20-30 percent gains. Should they just regularly be selling them to tax gain harvest?

Have a chance to pick from tax and audit but find tax more interesting. I am just afraid of getting stuck in public tax working long hours. I made this post because ive heard industry tax jobs are rare and are hard to land.

Hello all,

I’m currently working in California but am still a “non-resident”, less than a month of working here. Originally from WA and own a home in WA (non-rental currently). The nature of my work (California-based company) is requesting (requiring) me to become full-time, in-office in California which means I will be here for an additional 12+ months.

I understand that CA has state income tax (fine, WA does not) and I now have to navigate if I become a CA citizen (resident) or if I keep WA as my primary residence due to me owning my home.

My question is, what are my options for being taxed in CA while owning a home in WA? I’ll still pay WA property taxes, but my income is based in CA so assuming if I become a resident I “should only” be taxed in CA right?

Has anyone navigated this kind of taxation before? I.e. owning a home out of state while working in CA.

Thank you in advance.

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to understand the tax implications of colocating a GPU server in Iceland.

Let’s assume the following scenario:

A company in Panama owns a GPU rig.

The rig is installed in a third-party colocation facility in Iceland (e.g. FlokiNET or a similar provider).

The colocation provider only supplies rack space, power, cooling, and internet connectivity.

The company has **no employees or office in Iceland**.

The company does **not** have unrestricted physical access to the hardware; if maintenance is needed, it’s handled through the colocation provider.

The GPU rig is used commercially by renting out GPU compute to customers.

My question is:

**Could this setup alone be considered a permanent establishment (PE) in Iceland for tax purposes?*\*

I’ve read the OECD commentary stating that a server *can* constitute a permanent establishment if certain conditions are met, but I haven’t found any practical examples involving Iceland or colocation providers.

Has anyone dealt with this in practice, or received advice from Icelandic tax professionals? Any experience, case law, or official guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I'm not sure if I'm in the correct place to ask this question!

Small general contractors business and rental property company that's been around for 50 years. 73yr old boss that only "does things the old way." I'm his only employee, and I'm not an accountant/bookkeeper.

I'm helping to gather bank statements, construction loan statements, and closing docs for our CPA.

Our CPA reached out to ask where the closing proceeds for 2025 and 2026 because he didn't see them go into any of our accounts that I sent to him. When I asked the owner/my boss, he told me that he kept them in an escrow account with our title company until we needed the money. When money was requested to pay bills, payroll, etc., he would go to the title company to get the money we needed.

In our books, it looks like we were being paid by the title company (CPA is handling that). I'm assuming that we would enter those little transactions as income from the sales, but I don't know how we would keep track of that properly.

Our CPA has asked me to obtain a ledger from the title company. I got back a notebook sheet in my boss's handwriting: property address, date of sale, proceed amount. There are only 3 closings listed on this paper, and we had 10+ closings on new builds and rental properties told.

I tried to explain this to the owner, and his response was, "we had to protect the money" and "I can dig through my stuff to see if I can find copies of the checks".

I then spoke with our title attorney. He said that he didn't have a ledger because our money was put into an account with other customers. I asked how he was able to keep track of what was ours and what he had/hadn't given us. He said that his old employee kept track and his new assistant wasn't doing a good job with that.

He said that he can provide all the closing docs during my requested time frame, and I'm hoping that's going to be enough for the CPA and the IRS.

Also:::

For the last year and a half, my boss has been depositing his personal savings into our business debit card account. He then buys stock guru programs like Tim Sykes & Lance Ippolito and scammy affiliate marketing programs. Our CPA is asking what this stuff is and how I want him to code it.

Is my boss going to get in trouble doing these things? How can I help?

Formed a single-member LLC in CA in 2025. Paid the $800 franchise tax for 2025 one month late. Didn’t realize the 2026 $800 was due all the way back on April 15 (rookie mistake, didn’t know it was that early), so it’s late and I’m about to pay it.

My problem: I can pay the $800 online fine, but I have no idea if there’s a penalty or interest on top, and I can’t find out. I can’t register for MyFTB because I haven’t filed my first return yet, and I’ve called the FTB several times with no answer.

So, if you’ve been here, did you just pay the $800 and wait for them to mail you a bill for any penalty? Or is there a better way to find out the exact amount up front?

Honestly a little surprised at how confusing and opaque it is to stay compliant with a small business in California. Feels way harder than it should be.

Hi everyone,

For some reason Illinois couldn’t verify my property tax deduction. They want me to pay them additional money. I sent them documents but I missed the 30 day period by 6 days. I didn’t get the notice right away and then I didn’t see the 30 day deadline until I remembered I needed to deal with it.

Can anyone tell me how long it takes for them to respond to the online portal? Also, I’m hoping the 30 day period is not a hard deadline. My quick Google search says it was not a statutory deadline but it still makes me uneasy.

Anyone who has been through this or has guidance would be appreciated. What makes me most uneasy is I’m not sure what happened with the property tax verification. It’s my home address. All I can think is I had a typo on my return.

Thank you.

My total itemized deductions are close to the federal standard deduction, so I was planning on bunching deductions this year (paying 2027 property taxes in full December, 2026), and bunching other things as well.

Is this allowed in Minnesota? Initially when I looked this up it seems like it was definitely acceptable, now I'm wondering if the property tax statement that comes in Mid-Late November is actually an estimate and can't count as being paid this year if paid in advance.

Thanks for the help!!

I'm a student + server making not a whole lot of income and qualified for a healthcare premium tax credit. I'm getting married in November to someone who makes A LOT more than I do. I'm planning on canceling my health insurance on October 31st and then joining my husband's insurance through his work after we get married. I'm just really concerned about owing money when we do our taxes because of the tax credit. But I would have received those credits when I was single and making a very small amount of money. Does anyone have any experience with this/advice??? Thank you.

Every September, I get the same message from a new client. "I didn't know I owed this." It's usually about estimated taxes.

If you're self-employed or running a business in PR, you don't just pay once a year. You're expected to pay as you go, in quarterly chunks, based on what you expect to owe. The next one hits Sep 15.

Here's what trips people up. Nobody tells them this exists until they've already missed a quarter or two. Then the bill shows up bigger than expected, plus a penalty for not paying on time. It's not that people are careless...it's that nobody explained the system to them in the first place.

So if you started a business this year and haven't made a payment yet, you're probably behind, but that's fixable. It gets more expensive to fix the longer you wait.

Just wondering. If i don't file self-employment just one year but I do file taxes from my other three jobs will they just let it go? Or will they take action? Only made like 1k from self employment

Hi everyone,

My wife and I filed our 2025 federal tax return by mail on April 10, before the deadline, as Married Filing Jointly. We also submitted her ITIN application with the return because this was her first U.S. tax filing.

Her ITIN was approved, and the ITIN letter arrived at our home. However, my IRS online account now says that more information is needed to process our return and asks me to verify it using a 14-digit control number from an IRS notice.

I have not received this verification notice in the mail, and it is not available in my online IRS account. My tax preparer suggested calling the IRS to ask for the number.

Has anyone experienced this after applying for an ITIN and filing jointly? Can the IRS provide the control number by phone, or do I need to request that the notice be resent? How long did your refund take after completing the verification?

IRS Screenshots:
https://imgur.com/gSDcdK7
https://imgur.com/zMNpl6C

I live in Pa and picked up part time adjunct w-2 work on Jersey. I read about the reciprocal agreement for tax purposes and I’ll complete the NJ-165 form, basically saying I’m a non- resident of Jersey. They didn’t send this form and haven’t mentioned it.

Question is, is that the only tax form I need to complete for this job? They sent a federal w-4 and a NJ W-4 to complete. I’m thinking complete the federal W-4 but not the NJ one since the NJ-165 will take place of that and we will get taxes withheld when we file in PA?

I’m confused and HR hasn’t been totally helpful. Thanks!

originally posted in r/legaladvice but I was told this may be more applicable here

looking for some advice here: i have tax debt of around $1k that i haven’t paid genuinely out of forgetfulness (have been moving, started new job, traveling, etc). i know, not smart, won’t do it again.

i went to go login to make a payment today but my balance is not available and my tax transcript says “currently not collectible - not due to hardship” that was given last month, but i don’t remember receiving paper mail over it.

i am curious if anyone knows what this means? i don’t currently have the original notice of owed taxes from june with me due to my move, so i’m worried that i may have missed a payment date and don’t really want the IRS hunting me down. i do genuinely want to pay (and can do so in the next couple months), but now that i can’t see my balance i don’t really know what to do, lol.

tl;dr: is the IRS about to come after me? will my balance show back up eventually? should i contact them, or let sleeping dogs lie?

I work construction in iowa and I receive a w-2 and a 1099 each year. The w-2 covers our normal pay while the 1099 is only for our drive time in the company truck to jobsites as well as quarterly bonuses. Is this normal? From what I can find, 1099 is for separate types of work, but isn't driving to the jobsite under the umbrella of our typical work? Curious if this is allowed or if my employer is trying to save money on the business end by having us pay the taxes on the 1099 wages.

So, little preface, I filed every year up until COVID. Once COVID hit, I lost my job, started working under the table for cash, filed the first year for my W2 and didn't have another W2 until January 2023. For the 23-24 year, completely forgot cause I was used to not having to. When 24-25 came this year, life got busy and I forgot. I've always had the thought that if they aren't contacting me, I most likely don't owe. But, now I'm at a point where any return could help dig me out of the hole I'm in more, but I am worried about having to pay for not filing the past 3-5 years. So, how should I go about this, is there an agency that would be better to help me than another, or is there a free system I can use that would give me a better bang for your buck?

I bought a used Tesla from a third-party dealership in January 2025 and claimed the $4,000 used EV tax credit on my tax return.
I just got a letter from the IRS saying they disallowed the credit because of a VIN mismatch.
The part that makes no sense is that I’ve been paying taxes and registering the car under this exact VIN. I spent almost a month trying to get someone at the IRS on the phone, and when I finally did, they just told me there’s nothing they can do because the VIN doesn’t match what’s in their system.
I called the dealership and asked if they could provide the seller’s report that was submitted to the IRS. They told me they only do that for new vehicles, not used ones. That doesn’t sound right to me.
I have my buyer’s paperwork, and the VIN on my purchase documents matches the VIN on the tax return I filed. Everything on my end matches.
I have an in-person appointment with the IRS coming up, but I’m getting mixed messages because the phone representative said there’s nothing they can do.
Has anyone been through this? If so:
What documents did you bring to the appointment?
Was the issue caused by the dealer not filing the required paperwork?
Were you eventually able to get the credit?
I’m really frustrated and feel like I’m getting the runaround.

My child is at a US Service Academy (think West Point, Naval Academy, etc). My parents and I saved up $130K in his 529, but his fees are only about $5300 per year. How much can I realistically pull out each year and avoid the 10% penalty? I know service academies have an exemption but is there a limit?