In the US, the government refunds you for all the excess tax you paid the previous year. Your tax refund figure is the difference between the actual tax you owed and the tax you paid. So for instance if you owed $3500 in a tax year but you paid $6300, all things being equal your tax refund should be $2800. However, not everyone is required to file taxes.
The tax year in the US begins January 1st and ends December 31st and tax season starts on January 1st and ends on April 15th. The annual tax season is the period during which you are required to file all your financial documents and fill tax forms to be submitted to the IRS. The deadline for submission is April 15th.
The IRS recommends filing your taxes electronically and requesting for direct deposits. This makes the entire process easier and with direct deposits, you will have your tax refund within three weeks instead of the usual six week wait period if you want to get your tax refund as a check in the mail.
You can even decide to spread your tax refund over three accounts with up to three financial institutions just in case you want to invest some, put some away as savings and spend the rest.
As a single citizen, there are two categories that you can fall into. First, if you are single and less than 65 years of age, you must have earned a gross income of at least $12000 in the previous tax year to be eligible to file for taxes. Second, if you are single and older than 65, you must have earned at least $13600 to be eligible to file for taxes.
As a student, your parents can claim you as a dependent until the age of 19 or up to 24 if you decide to continue school. Some students are able to deduct a portion of their school expenses or claim tax credits such as the American Opportunity Credit so it’s worth looking into. You may also be eligible to file for taxes as a dependent so continue reading to learn more.
As a dependent, your eligibility to file for taxes depends on your age, earned income, unearned income and whether or not you are blind. Unearned income refers to any income that is earned as a result of dependency while earned income as the name implies is income earned from your occupation.
Single dependents who are not blind and younger than 65, are eligible to file for taxes if unearned income in the previous tax year was more than $1050 or earned income in the previous tax year was more than $12000.
If you are a single dependent who is blind OR older than 65, you are also eligible to file for taxes provided your unearned income in the previous tax year was more than $2650 or your earned income in the same period was more than $13600.
Finally, if you are a single dependent who is blind and older than 65, you are eligible to file for taxes if your unearned income in the previous tax year was more than $4250 or your earned income in the same period was more than $15200.
Married dependents who are not blind AND younger than 65, are eligible to file for taxes if unearned income in the previous tax year was more than $1050 or earned income in the same period was more than $12000 or gross income was more than $5 and your spouse is filling for taxes separately (itemizing deductions).
If you are a married dependent who is blind OR older than 65, you are also eligible to file for taxes provided your unearned income in the previous tax year was more than $2350 or your earned income in the same period was more than $13300 or your gross income was more than $5 and your spouse is filling for taxes separately (itemizing deductions).
Finally if you are a married dependent who is blind AND older than 65, you are eligible to file for taxes if your unearned income in the previous tax year was more than $3650 or your earned income in the same period was more than $14600 or your gross income was more than $5 and your spouse is filling for taxes separately (itemizing deductions).
For married folks, there are a lot of categories. If you and your spouse are both younger than 65 years and you are planning to jointly file for taxes, your cumulative gross income for the previous tax year must be more than $24000.
If you OR your spouse is more than 65 years old, the cumulative gross income in the previous tax year must be more than $25300. If you and your spouse are both more than 65 years of age, the minimum cumulative gross income is set at $26600. However, if you are married but you want to file for taxes separately you have to make only $5 in gross income to be eligible to file for taxes. Finally, if you lost your spouse within the tax year, you are eligible to file for taxes as a “qualifying widow”. Qualifying widows younger than 65 years must earn at least $24000 while the minimum is $25300 for qualifying widows older than the age of 65.
Another category of people who can file taxes is the “Heads of Household” category. To qualify as the one you must fulfill these three conditions:
- You must be unmarried before the end of the previous tax year.
- You must have been responsible for more than half the cost running your house or the house of a qualifying parent.
- Should have someone who lived with you in the house for more than half of the previous tax year the only exception being that you are a dependent parent.
If you qualify as a Head of Household, you are eligible to file for taxes under that status. Heads of Households who are younger than 65 years are eligible to file for taxes if they earned a gross income of more than $18000 in the previous tax year while those who are older than 65 years are eligible if they earned a gross income of $19600 or more in the same period.
So whether you are a college student, single, married, seperated, widowed, retired or blind you now know just how much you have to earn to file taxes. You can check out this article on the IRS website for even more information https://www.irs.gov/publications/p501.
