All Posts

You invest in an IRA or 401k to get the long term tax savings and have money when you retire, not because you might get a couple hundred dollars of a saver's credit from the feds.  The first question is, do you want to invest some more money for retirement? (Knowing that there are limits on withdrawing it before retirement)?   If you do want to invest more money for retirement than you already have, the next issue is that the 401k contribution rules and IRA contribution rules are different and don't add or subtract from each other.   The contribution limit for any kind of IRA is $7500 if you are under age 50.  It doesn't matter if you already contributed $10 or $10,000 to your 401k.    The third issue is that if you were covered by a workplace plan for even one pay period in 2025, then you follow the IRA rules for someone who is "covered" by a plan, even if your plan was not maxed out.   There are three ways you can contribute to an IRA. Traditional IRA pre-tax (deductible) Traditional IRA after-tax (non-deductible) Roth IRA (non-deductible)   At your income, you are probably disallowed from making a deductible contribution to a traditional IRA, but you should be eligible to contribute non-deductible funds to a traditional IRA or to a Roth IRA.  For several reasons, the Roth IRA is preferred if you are eligible.  Mixing pre-tax (deductible) and after-tax (non-deductible) contributions in a traditional IRA has some complications and paperwork issues that you need to know about.  Instead, if you already made a non-deductible contribution to a traditional IRA, you could reverse that and contribute to a Roth instead (that is called recharacterizing, and you would have your broker do that for you).   Then you could contribute additional funds directly to the Roth IRA.   

@redbullcaddy wrote: It was the California Franchise Tax Board, not the IRS, that assessed the penalty.  The penalty was assessed after I filed.  The IRS advises you to write "Los Angeles County Fires" on the top of the first page of your return if you are mailing the return. Are these returns being similarly flagged as entitled to the automatic extension to October 15, 2025 to file and pay if filed electronically with Turbo Tax?  You're asking the wrong question to the wrong people.  Anything the IRS tells you to do, and any benefit the IRS extends (like an extended deadline) is not automatically passed on to the state or binding on the state.  You would have to make sure the FTB also offered an extension (maybe they did, maybe they didn't, I don't live in CA).  You would have to check the FTB rules to see if there was any special procedure you were supposed to follow, and you need to call the FTB to straighten this out.  

It can, but you would need a US credit card to pay the fees and you need a US bank account to get any refund by direct deposit (otherwise the IRS will mail a paper check).  The desktop version (CD or download) is not allowed for overseas sales (export restriction, probably due to the built-in encryption technology) so if you wanted to use the desktop version, you would need to find someone in the states to buy it for you and ship it to you somehow.  If you need customer service, they won't accept calls from foreign numbers.    You also can't claim the automatic 2 month extension for overseas filers electronically (IRS limit, not Turbotax).  You can e-file before April 15 to get the automatic 6 month extension, but if you wait until after April 15 and want to use the automatic 2 month extension for overseas, you will have to print your return and file by mail (after adding a handwritten statement). 

Duplicate. https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/if-i-file-as-head-of-household-and-i-have-two-individuals-who-live-in-my-house-but-did-not-work-or/01/3716030/highlight/false#M1376328   you don't need to post twice 

This answer assumes your 2024 return was prepared in Online TurboTax.   Any return prepared in desktop TurboTax will not be in an Online account.  Here's how one would normally find past-year online returns and how to troubleshoot for multiple accounts (User IDs) if necessary.  Many people end up with more than 1 account.  The pathway to download the PDF or tax data file depends on whether or not you have started an online 2025 return.  I provide both scenarios below, so choose which one is appropriate for your situation.   If you have not yet started a 2025 online return: Sign in to your account.   What you see next depends on whether or not you have already started a 2025 return in that account.   If your left column menu is minimal, and does not have a Tax Home tab displayed, that would imply you have not started preparing a 2025 return in that account.  If you haven't yet started a return, it will start asking you some questions.  Answer those preliminary questions on a few screens (you don't actually have to prepare a return), and then when you are far enough into the process, the left menu column will change, and you'll then see a Tax Home option in the left menu column.  Do not click the Documents tab.  Instead, click on Tax Home.  Then on the Tax Home screen, scroll way down to the bottom to "Your Tax Returns & Documents".  Expand that section and choose the past year you want.   If your past returns are not shown there, then you likely have multiple accounts and signed into the wrong one.  I'll tell you below how to troubleshoot.   If you have already started a 2025 online return: Log in, and if you've already started a 2025 return in that account, then it may already open at the Tax Home.  If not, click the Tax Home tab in the left column menu.  Do not use the Documents tab.  At the Tax Home scroll down and expand "Your Tax Returns & Documents."   If the past returns are not there, see the steps below.   If you do all that and can't find the past return, here's how to look for multiple accounts: You can have up to 5 accounts that use the same email address for notification purposes.  A User ID may be an email address, but it doesn't have to be.  It might be only part of an email address, or it can be anything at all.   To get a list of your User IDs, reset password, and recover account access, etc., you can use the tool at the link below.  When using the Account Recovery tool, try using your phone number first if you can still access it.   After that, if necessary, then run the tool on your email address(es) you can access. NOTE: Before running the account recovery tool below, log out of all Intuit accounts including this user forum, or you might end up in a loop.  Then clear your browser Internet cache, close your browser, then reopen it, and go to the link below.  You may wish to copy this link so you can paste it into the new browser session. https://myturbotax.intuit.com/account-recovery If still no luck after running that on your phone number you can still access and email address(es) that you can access,  here's another method:          Go back to the tool again, but this time leave the data field blank, scroll down a bit, then choose the small blue link that says "Try something else", and it will look you up by other parameters.

@M-MTax wrote: If you're buying after a loss, it's 31 days after the sale (that produced a loss) to repurchase.   Do you know if you include the date of the sale or if the start date is the day after the sale? That really isn't precisely specified anywhere in the Code or Regs that I can find (just not within "30 days"), but I include the day of the sale and every other example and hypo seems to do the same.  The code says: "In the case of any loss claimed to have been sustained from any sale or other disposition of shares of stock or securities where it appears that, within a period beginning 30 days before the date of such sale or disposition and ending 30 days after such date..."   "ending 30 days after such date" would mean that the date of the sale is day zero.  Then you count 30 days from the date of the sale.  That's the blackout period.  31 days after the date of the sale (not counting the date of the sale) is when it is allowed to buy again.     So in effect, the entire black out period is 61 days; 30 days before, then the day of, then 30 days after.