tax time

Normally I do my taxes as soon as the documents come in. This year I’ve been dragging my feet because there’s a complication.

For the first time since I started the RVwiki afflinks finally made more than the $600 reporting hurdle. In 2024 the wiki made $634.97. That sounds nice but:

1. I’ve been paying for hosting since 2016 and it still hasn’t broken even (my goal is break-even); and
2. there’s not a lot of info out there that tells how free tax services handle hobby income

Because my 2024 income was (as usual) below the personal exemption amount all my taxes paid ($200.00) would be returned to me.¹ If I have to use a paid service ($25?) to report hobby income then it’s a bunch of grief for $175.

Yes, $175 is a lot of money for someone living marginally like me. So I’ll do it. More importantly, I’ll need to prove income next year when I apply for SNAP. Those benefits, if granted, would life-changing especially with grocery prices continuing to rise.

Update: filed and should get $189 back. I forgot about the $11 ding for pre 59.5yo 401k withdrawals. That should be the last penalty since

1. I am now >59.5yo; and
2. it doesn’t look like I’ll need to raid the 457/401 in 2025 anyhow.

I put Amazon on 1099-MISC as TaxSlayer recommended. They moved that to schedule 1 item 10. Online sources suggested it should be in 8 but I can’t control that. We will see.

aside: I logged into my 457/401 account to doublecheck some info and it was crawling. Multiple pop-ups that said things (in effect) like “don’t panic!”. Pages loaded incompletely and required many refreshes to see anything. And, yes, Orangeymandias’ delusions of competence are negatively affecting my retirement accounts.