Posts Tagged ‘filing status’

Close your eyes. Breathe in. Now visualize your taxes:

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

where-did-my-tax-dollars-go.png

This is a pretty neat Eyebeam/ Google project. They offered money and fame (okay, just money) to the person who could come up with the best way to help you understand where your tax dollars are going, and then had a jury full of design types choose the best.

Click here to play with the “Grand Award Winner” of the interactive visualization competition, and see the rest of the winners and finalists here.

You just enter your approximate yearly income and your filing status, and the site estimates how much federal tax you’ll pay based on what tax bracket you’re in. Then it breaks down where all of that tax money you pay during the course of a year actually goes. For example, do you know how much of your paycheck goes toward funding the Department of Agriculture?

Do you even know what tax bracket you’re in? (If you don’t, you can find out here.)

How do you know if you have to file an income tax return?

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Income tax filing requirements are easy to describe but difficult to state specifically. Basically, you have to file a tax return if your income for the fiscal year is above a certain level. What is that level? That’s the tricky part. The numbers can vary from year to year, so if you’re not sure whether you qualify, you can check the IRS website to find out. But here are some general rules of thumb that determine the relative level you have to reach:

Here are the minimum income requirements for several filing statuses for 2008:

  • Single and under 65: $8,950 (though if someone else can claim you as a dependent on their tax return, this number will be slightly lower)
  • Single and over 65: $10,300
  • Head of household and under 65: $11,500
  • Qualifying widow(er) with dependent child and under 65: $14,400

Hungry for more filing facts? We’re here for you:

  • If you are over 65, your income has to be greater than a younger person’s to qualify for taxation.
  • If your filing status is head of household or qualifying widow(er) with dependent child, your income has to be greater to qualify than if you file as single.
  • If your filing status is married filing separately, you must file a tax return.
  • If someone has claimed you as a dependent on his or her tax return but you still received income for that year, you have to file a tax return if your income is above a certain level (usually relatively lower than for non-dependents).
  • You may also have to file a one-time-only tax return if you don’t normally make these levels but you come into a sudden sum of money (say you’re unemployed and win the lottery, for example).

So while the numbers may change, the basic principles behind them are that the IRS cuts you more of a break if you’re over 65, the head of a household, or widowed with a dependent child.

Filing Status is…

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Filing status is the category you fill out on your income tax return that determines the rate of your income tax (for example, a filing status of “single” will result in your paying more taxes than someone who has approximately the same income but files as “head of household”). There are five filing statuses: single, married filing separately, married filing jointly, head of household, and qualifying widow(er) with dependent child.

What kind of taxpayer are you?

Friday, July 24th, 2009

You have a different filing status (taxpayer type) depending on your living situation. Your filing status helps determine your eligibility for certain credits and deductions and how much those deductions are worth, how you should submit tax information to the government, and how much you need to pay in income taxes. There are five main filing statuses, each generally designating a different level of financial dependence or independence.

“Single” is basically the square one of filing statuses: it means you’re only responsible for yourself.

If you’re married, you and your spouse can choose either the “married filing jointly” or “married filing separately” statuses. If you file separately, you’re basically treated as two “single” individuals, while joint tax returns make the two of you more like one entity.

If you file as “head of household,” it means that you have at least one dependent. A dependent is someone who has someone else (you, in this case) provide at least half of his or her income. Children and elderly or retired parents are the most common dependents, but you can claim anyone who fits this description as your dependent. When you file as head of household, you’re saying that you’re responsible for supporting at least one other person, so in return you have to pay less in taxes yourself. Lastly, you can file as qualifying widow/widower with dependent child; this status also decreases your taxes because you have a dependent to support and you’ve lost a source of income with the death of your spouse.