Laid Off, Rolled over 401k to IRA, received unemployment, help!

[C1duncan]

I was laid off in April 2025 and rolled over my 401k to a traditional IRA.  My 2025 income will be less than half of my 2024 income (under $55k). Additionally, I also received 6 months of unemployment benefits, Medi-Cal, and SNAP. What is the likelihood that I will get a federal and state (California) tax refund? Are there any tax advantages I should file for? Do I need a standard or itemized deduction?

[C1duncan]

Additional info for the Q above: I am file as single, no dependants. I own my home, but it is not in my name. i also sold about $5k in stock last year. 

[RobertB4444]

Your income up until you were laid off should have had withholding like every other year which hopefully is enough to cover any tax obligations for that.  You don't say whether you had any taxes withheld from your unemployment benefits which will make a huge difference on your federal return.  

If you did not have anything withheld then you may have to pay in for those benefits.  California does not tax unemployment, however, so you may still be entitled to a state refund.  Whether the sale of the stock helps or hurts your chances depends on how much you paid for the shares that you sold.

Itemized deductions consist of state and local taxes, property taxes, medical expenses over 7.5% of your AGI, charitable contributions and mortgage interest.  The standard deduction for this year for a single person is $15,750 so if you have deductions from that list that are greater than that then you will itemize.  Otherwise, the standard deduction is for you.

(edited 01/14/25  12:14 PM PST)

@C1duncan 

[C1duncan]

Thank you for the reply @RobertB4444 . Sounds like a standard deduction will be best. 

To clarify, based on your response: 

• I did have taxes withheld from my unemployment benefits. 
• For the stock I sold, there was a major upside versus what I paid for the stock (they were purchased through an employee stock purchase plan in 2021).

[RobertB4444]

If you did have taxes withheld from your unemployment benefits then you should be ok on your federal and state taxes.  Whether you'll have a refund or not is tough to say but hopefully you won't owe anything.

The stock sale is not going to help, though.  If it was all profit then that gets taxed at at least 15% as long as you made more than $48,350 for the year.  So you could owe anywhere up to $750 on that.

The best advice I can offer for finding out about your refund is to start your TurboTax return right now.  You don't have to file the return until you're ready so you can plug in all of the numbers and see what that gets you.  If there isn't a refund then you can wait until April 14th and file it then.

[C1duncan]

Thank you so much for the advice!!