Most U.S. citizens and permanent residents who work in the United States need to file a tax return if they make more than a certain amount for the year.
\nThe IRS has a variety of information available on IRS.gov to help taxpayers, including a special \u201cfree help\u201d page. Here are some specific details to help people if they need to file a tax return.
\nFactors that affect whether someone needs to file a tax return
\nHere are some of the things that affect whether someone must file a tax return.
\nGross income. Gross income means all income a person received in the form of money, goods, property and services that aren’t exempt from tax. This includes any income from sources outside the United States or from the sale of a main home, even if you can exclude part or all of it.
\nRequired filing threshold. People need to see if their gross income is over the required filing threshold. Filing statuses have different income thresholds, so individuals may need to consider their potential filing status as well.
\nThere are five filing statuses:
\n\u2022 Single
\n\u2022 Head of household
\n\u2022 Married filing jointly
\n\u2022 Married filing separate
\n\u2022 Qualifying surviving spouse
\nFind details on tax filing requirements with Publication 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information.
\nTax year 2023 filing thresholds by filing status<\/p>\n
Self-employment status. Self-employed individuals must file an annual return and pay estimated tax quarterly if they had net earnings from self-employment of $400 or more.
\nStatus as a dependent. A person claimed as a dependent may still have to file a return. It depends on their gross income, including:
\n\u2022 Earned income. This includes salaries, wages, tips, professional fees and other amounts received as pay for work performed.
\n\u2022 Unearned income. This is investment-type income and includes interest, dividends and capital gains, rents, royalties, etc. Distributions of interest, dividends, capital gains and other unearned income from a trust are also unearned income to a beneficiary of the trust.
\nA parent or guardian must file a tax return for dependents who need to file but aren’t able to file for themselves.
\nPotential benefits when people file a tax return
\nGet money back. In some cases, people may get money back when they file a tax return. For example, if their employer withheld taxes from their paycheck, the person may be due a refund.
\nAvoid interest and penalties. People can avoid interest and penalties by filing an accurate tax return on time and paying any tax they owe before the deadline. They should file on time or request an extension to avoid some penalties. If they owe a tax debt and can’t pay all or part of it, the IRS can help.
\nBuild Social Security benefits. Reporting income on a tax return is important for self-employed people because this information is used to calculate their Social Security benefit. Unreported income can lead to an incorrect calculation.
\nGet an accurate picture of income. When people report all their income, they give lenders an accurate financial picture to determine the loan amounts and rates they may receive.
\nGet peace of mind. When people file an accurate tax return and pay their taxes on time, they know that they’re doing the right thing to follow the law.
\nSome people should consider filing even if they aren’t required
\nPeople may want to file even if they make less than the filing threshold because they may get money back. This could apply to them if they:
\n\u2022 Have had federal income tax withheld from their pay
\n\u2022 Made estimated tax payments
\n\u2022 Qualify to claim tax credits such as:
\no Earned Income Tax Credit
\no Child Tax Credit
\no American Opportunity Tax Credit
\no Credit for Federal Tax on Fuels
\no Premium Tax Credit
\no Health Coverage Tax Credit
\no Credits for Sick and Family Leave
\no Child and Dependent Care Credit
\nThe Interactive Tax Assistant can help people determine if they need to file
\nThe Interactive Tax Assistant is an online tool that provides answers to common tax law questions based on an individual’s specific circumstances. Based on a user\u2019s input, it can determine if they should file a tax return. It can also help them understand:
\n\u2022 Their filing status
\n\u2022 If they can claim a dependent
\n\u2022 If the type of income they have is taxable
\n\u2022 If they’re eligible to claim a credit
\n\u2022 If they can deduct expenses
\nThe information is anonymous and only used to help answer the person’s question. The tool will not share, store or use information in any other way, and it can\u2019t identify the individual using it. The system discards the information the user provides when they exit a topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most U.S. citizens and permanent residents who work in the United States need to file a tax return if they make more than a certain amount for the year. The IRS has a variety of information available on IRS.gov to help taxpayers, including a special \u201cfree help\u201d page. Here are some specific details to help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,6,5],"tags":[272,53,271,270,274,41,195,273],"class_list":["post-7369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irs","category-sex-workers","category-taxes","tag-400-income","tag-child-tax-credit","tag-gross-income","tag-heres-who-needs-to-file-a-tax-return-in-2024","tag-money-back","tag-self-employment","tag-tax-credits","tag-tax-withheld"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexworkertaxes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexworkertaxes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexworkertaxes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexworkertaxes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexworkertaxes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sexworkertaxes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7370,"href":"https:\/\/sexworkertaxes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7369\/revisions\/7370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sexworkertaxes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexworkertaxes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sexworkertaxes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}