With Tax Day coming up this week, a quarter of Gen Z members are seeking therapy after the stress of filing.
While financial uncertainty in young adulthood is a fairly regular phase for many people, tax season has pushed Gen Z over the edge. A recent survey found that over half of Gen Z respondents “said tax stress has brought them to tears.”
Gen Z faces a number of hurdles, from student loan debt to a general lack of financial literacy and basic knowledge of how to manage finances. In fact, Yahoo! Finance reports that “Americans ages 18 to 29 have the highest rates of delinquency, with 10% of credit card owners in the age bracket at least 90 days late on payments.”
But not all of Gen Z’s woes are due to a lack of financial literacy. In some ways, they too are savvy, as they turn to the stock market and the gig economy as ways to make some more money and hopefully boost their security.
Using apps to freelance or engage in gig work from photography and video editing to rideshare driving and food delivery is common, especially among younger people.
Unfortunately, such methods do make taxes much more complicated.
New reporting requirements were instituted to help fund President Biden’s American Rescue Plan in 2021. Democrats in Congress lowered the income threshold for online transactions that trigger IRS income reporting on Form 1099-K from $20,000 and 200 transactions to just $600.
By sending money to friends via Venmo and CashApp, selling used clothes and furniture on eBay or Etsy, or engaging in gig work, Americans can easily hit this threshold. Although the IRS delayed implementation for this tax year, it will be back next year—unless Congress acts.
And Gen Z’s dalliance into the crypto world makes it even worse:
In theory, reporting cryptocurrency earnings on your taxes shouldn’t be complicated, as long as you only have one currency, such as Bitcoin, and use a centralized wallet such as Coinbase, George Shakro, crypto tax associate with Gordon Law Group, told Fortune.
But that’s not how Gen Z is investing and trading with cryptocurrencies, he said. Gen Z prefers decentralized, peer-to-peer trading with options for blockchain gaming and finding meme coins…
For an everyday crypto trader with a decentralized wallet, it’s not unusual to have 10,000 to 20,000 transactions a year, making trades difficult to trace and record come tax season.
…
Young crypto traders also have the misconception that they don’t owe taxes until they cash out after long-term capital gains. That’s not the case, Shakro said. Anytime there’s a cryptocurrency transaction, the trader owes a tax.
Tax season brings stress to many people, old and young. Hopefully, Gen Z will learn from any financial missteps and experience will reduce their tax-filing stress in the future. In the meantime, at least they have a way to get through the season!