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Income Tax Help
By: LeeAnna
There are many websites on the Internet today that gives much needed income tax
help for those who have no idea of what's going on during tax time. Income tax
is a tax paid on income, unfortunately no matter how little it is. It's paid by
employees and people who are self-employed and may also be payable if you are
not working but you have an income, such as a retirement pension or an
occupational pension. Not all types of income are taxable and it will seldom be
the case that all of your income is taxed. There is no minimum age at which a
person becomes liable to pay income tax. What matters is your income. If this is
below a certain level, no tax is payable. There is actually no single definition
in tax law of income. Income tax law divides various types of income into
schedules. If an item comes within a schedule it counts as income and income tax
must be paid on it. The way the tax must be paid will depend on which schedule
it falls into. The most common schedules are Schedule E for employees and
Schedule D for the self-employed.
There are five main steps in calculating income tax:-
Step 1: Add together all your yearly income, including social security benefits,
income from renting out accommodation, wages, occupational pension, interest
from bank and building society accounts.
Step 2: Take off any income which is exempt from tax. Calculate whether you can
claim tax relief on any of the money you have spent over the year (tax relief
usually applies to people who are self-employed and have to buy items for the
business). Deduct this tax relief. This leaves income on which tax may be
payable (taxable income).
Step 3: Work out which tax allowances you are entitled to. You will be entitled
to a personal allowance (plus age related additions if appropriate). These
allowances are deducted at this stage in the calculation.
Step 4: Multiply the taxable income by the correct tax rate. This gives the tax
due to be paid that year, unless you are entitled to married couple's allowance
for over 65 year olds.
Step 5: If applicable, deduct the appropriate percentage rate of married
couple's allowance for over 65 year olds.
Some income is exempt from income tax, which means that tax is never paid on
this income. This income should therefore be put to one side before any tax
calculation can be done. Examples of income which is exempt from tax include
premium bond prizes, housing benefit, child benefit and profit-related pay. It
is therefore necessary to check whether any income is exempt from tax before
doing a tax calculation. For more income tax help, all the help you need in on
the internet. The IRS itself can give you income tax help and answer any tax
questions you may have.
About the Author:
Leeanna is an expert author who writes for Income Tax Help
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