Tax Form Guide
Fill in your name at top and a made up spouse name if filing jointly (optional)
Choose one filing status:
Single-you live alone or have a roommate, but don’t own your own home
Married filing jointly-you have a spouse, but they don’t work or don’t make enough to support themselves
Married filing separately-you have a spouse that works and makes enough to support themselves and therefore, files for themselves
Head of Household-you have others that live in your home that you own, but they aren’t your children or spouse
Qualifying Widow(er)-your spouse has died and you have at least one child
Exemptions:
Always check yourself-the only ones who leave this blank are those who work, but their parents still take care of them
Check spouse if you are filing jointly, not separately
Dependents-these are your children-you can file up to 4 on taxes.
Add total exemptions and put in box at #6d
Income:
If are salaried-you work for someone else-put your annual salary before any taxes are taken out under #7
If you are an entrepreneur and are your own boss, your income from business profits goes under #12, not #7
There are many other ways people get money that counts as their income, some with many sources.
Adjusted Gross Income:
These are expenses you pay that the government allows to be non-taxed
If you are a teacher, you might budget some of your money for educator expenses
Under #29, if you run your own business and pay your own health insurance, you can count it as non-taxed. Health insurance varies, but can be on average 1500 a year
Under #33, if you still are in school and pay your own tuition, this is not taxed, figure out how much tuition you might be paying
There can be many other things that come out of your pocket, but help reduce tax owed
Sum these up to get #36
On #37, #37 = #22 - #36
#38 is just the same as #37, to make it easier to use
Under #40, look on the left to find your standard deduction, this is based on filing status. Write the dollar amount for #40
For #41, #41 = #38 - #40
For #42, refer back to your total exemptions in the box from #6d. Take this times 3700 to figure out your exemption deduction. Write this under #42
For #43, #43 = #41 - #42, if negative, put zero; meaning you will not owe taxes
For #44, though in reality the amount varies, take 10% of your taxable income in #43 and put that number under #43
We will not do anything for alternative minimum tax, so put nothing for #45, and #46 will be the same as #44. This is your total tax owed
#s 47-53 are your tax credits. These are things that you can do that count as small payments toward your taxes. With the right forms we could fill these out in more detail, but for now skip these.
#54 should be 0; normally it is the sum of your credits
For #55, #55 = #46 - #54. Since we put 0 for #54, there should be no change. If the credits would exceed the taxes owed, you would put zero.
For other taxes we will skip for now. These taxes are more specialized and most people don’t have to pay them.
On #62, for federal tax withheld, take 7% of your original total income under #22 and place that number here.
On #69, your social security tax paid will be 4.2% of that same income number under #22.
Add #62 and #69 to get your total payments onto #72.
If your payments #72 > Taxes owed #61, you will get a refund of the difference. This number goes under #73
Otherwise, of #61 > #72, you will owe more taxes to be paid and this number goes under #76.