• to print your half-finished tax return: PreviousTaxes
• Always pay attention to the change to FederalRefund amount
• to skip the wife details, I chose head of household in Mar 2021
• I chose the same Ohio address, so Jay.Hu can receive letters for me
• My registered mobile is 610-751-6995  (SY.Chang) as of 2023

— bank account to receive direct deposit :

• to find citibank account number:  You must download statement. BofA is easier.
• routing number: Use PaperAndElectronic. Need leading zero
• HRBlock would ask you to re-enter routing + acct numbers [similar to password re-entry].

— lots of documents needed by HRblock to complete the return. (It’s inconceivable that I could walk to a tax prep office to get the job done within a few hours.)

• routing + acct num — https://tanbinvest.dreamhosters.com/12554/citibank-ny-account/
• driver’s license, useful even if expired
• income forms from payers
• previous year’s return
• address in credit card
• address in tax forms

— contact HRBlock .. I think there’s no email support.

Every year, this mental burden weighs on my mind for month after month, until I muster up my courage and energy to remove the cancer. As the Apr 15 deadline approaches, the cancer grows, so it’s best to start as early as you can, such as mid Feb, or as soon as Rbh is ready. You can always come back to add an item.

Meaningfully Reward myself for starting the process earlier in the year. The earlier the better.

— main challenge: jargon, similar to the 3rd type of dnlg.
Primarily due to this challenge, millions of Americans engage tax consultants every year.

1099-NEC is a huge jargon and probably more than 50% of the entire annual effort.
— bedbug comparison .. After we acquire the competence, the challenge becomes more manageable, less overwhelming
==== best practices
tbudget: 10-30H, spread over a few days

We could find a low-stress (zero-stress is rare) weekend to kick start the process. It’s possible that kickstart day is the hardest, due to zero momentum. Prepare healthy food, rewards, in the most comfy setting i.e. office-sanctuary, with music, printer, ideally after everyone is gone,,,

Start early. Incremental chip-away and plenty of reviews. No hurry to submit.

We can take a half-day leave to focus on this challenge and chip away.

Q: Can we take up the challenge just like an investment … An opportunity to save?

I started filing as HOH in Mar 2021 (for 2020 taxes).

— the how-to

In HRBlock, I think I must choose “Single” rather than Married, Widowed. This choice can later give two filing statuses — Single and HOH.

— what is HOH

https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/filing/personal-tax-planning/how-to-choose-tax-filing-status/ explains it.

It’s valuable to claim boy as dependent. There are many tax benefits. For that, you need to use HOH, not Single

• you get 6M grace period to file by 15 Oct
• I simply filled up a simple form 4868 and handed it to the tax payer assistance center. Immediately accepted. Better keep the photocopy as proof
• beware you may get charged interest on shortfall (i.e. unpaid tax or negative refund) if you delay that payment. So it’s best to estimate the tax amount in advance.
• .. I think I was charged $11 interest on the ($1000+) shortfall because withholding tax was insufficient.

It’s challenging. Most options end up in automated messages.  Much worse than Singapore system.

When asked SSN, enter nothing, nothing… Then you get another menu. Choose 2 (personal income tax)

I found this instruction on https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3831462-the-irs-number-and-code-you-gave-me-did-not-get-me-to-a-live-person

==ITIN:

Need to file W7 form to reactivate wife’s itin. Otherwise, my tax will be higher every year. After sending in W7, need to call back to IRS hotline. IRS can only refund the additional ($2762 – $2155) amount after reactivation.

565 Metro Place South, Suite 300. Dublin, OH 43017 — is the official address in IRS record

–todo

make appt at 1844-545-5640; print out w7 form + copy of last entry + wife’s passport

Arrive 8.30am for 9am appt 5 Mar …. 290 Broadway. Confirmation # 2755364

It takes 9 – 11 weeks to receive the passport (1877 777 4778 staff says IRS is serious about these timelines). I feel we don’t need to consider a replacement passport.

Jay agreed to courier it to Singapore. I will need to give him the address.

If you self-file, these small amounts add huge mental burden and information overload, even with the best software tool.

For “relatively” small amounts of income,

• the tax consultant would need to ask you questions and make professional decisions. Like professional doctors, lawyers, accountants, she has to be prudent not to get herself into trouble. Her extra effort would be … remembered and come back to “haunt” you when you finally discuss her professional fees.
• if you use DIY software, then the the small amounts could require an software upgrade 🙁

— Q: is it unlawful (not “illegal”), unethical,, to put incorrect data on tax returns?

%%A: I contributed tax dollars during my 8Y stay, and won’t receive any benefit in return. This is “The_system”, unfair to H1B immigrants like me.

Q: Why do we bother with these small amounts of income?
A: OK the paying institution already sent the same data to IRS, so we are on the hook….

In reality, millions of tax payers omit deductions/credits and incomes.  Probably 1 in 3 had zero omission.   Even if IRS determine it’s an amount of tax evasion, they would probably leave it aside and focus on the big fish.

Suppose you omitted some small incomes. If you also omitted some deductions/credits, they could offset the omitted small incomes. Net impact of all the omissions could be an even smaller figure, like a “rounding error”. Therefore, I think IRS would evaluate the dollar impact.

IRS is understaffed. Their fraud surveillance system is increasingly automated to reduce labor cost. It takes effort to find evidence and prove a tax evasion case.

The ROI of the audit system has a numerator measured in tax_dollars_recovered. Their decision is guided by expected_tax_dollars_to_be_recovered. Therefore, if your taxable income is a small sum, then I doubt they would bother analyzing it.

A comparable situation — California state law holds that stealing merchandise worth $950 or less is just a misdemeanor, which means that law enforcement probably won’t bother to investigate, and if they do, prosecutors will let it go.

Similarly, when I set out to free up my gmail storage, I won’t spend time on small disk hogs.

https://www.irs.gov/faqs/filing-requirements-status-dependents-exemptions/dependents-exemptions/dependents-exemptions-9

— the states shown in W2 forms

if NY is shown on W2 form then part of my income is withheld at NY tax department. If you do nothing then probably no refund from NY withheld amount.

— I don’t see any motivation to do this, but if I say my home address is foreign (HRBlock can take my foreign address)…..

I should still specify the same federal income as “nonresident state income”. If I specify $0 state income, then state tax payable becomes $0 and the entire state withholding tax would become refundable. This is unfair to the state and would likely raise a red flag.

However, if state withholding tax is $0, then I won’t bother filing state tax.

---

Your actual residential address — doesn’t matter. I could move from state to state.

When I first entered my 1099-NEC data into HRBlock, I noticed the amount of income (the Figure) doesn’t show up [1] in my final “tax return document”. I believe this is wrong, because IRS expects me to report this income and pay self-employment tax.

Each Form 1099 is matched to your Social Security number, so the IRS can easily spew out a tax bill if you fail to report one. In fact, you’re almost guaranteed an audit or at least a tax notice if you fail to report a Form 1099.

https://www.freetaxusa.com/help/display_faq.jsp?contract-business-enter-1099-nec-without-entering-business-independent-contractor-contractor-contractor&faq_id=1655 (another tax software) says

The IRS considers consulting or contractor income as business income that needs to be entered on a Schedule C. If you have self-employment income from a 1099-NEC, which is the case with most Form 1099-NECs, you’ll need to report the income on Schedule C.

— sporadic
https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2011/oct/20114408.html says “Carrying on a trade or business involves ongoing efforts, and the activity may be so sporadic as to perhaps escape SE tax.”

https://www.etax.com/help/doc/other-income-business-related.htm (another tax software) says

Generally, the taxpayer should report income as “other income not subject to self employment tax” as long as the activity which generated the income is not regular and done so without intent to generate a profit on a long-term basis. Reporting occasional income as “other income not subject to self employment tax” on your tax return saves you from having to pay self employment tax

[1] In the end, I chose Sporadic. The Figure finally showed up as “OtherIncome” on my submitted “tax return document”