
Missed the tax deadline? Here’s what you should do
If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, don’t panic — but act fast.
Tax bracket is a money term you need to understand. Here’s what it means.
The tax rate applied to high-income earners is greater than that applied to those who earn less. The method used to manage the increase in taxes is through the use of tax brackets. For example, a single person earning more than $418,400 per year is placed in the highest tax bracket and pays 39.6 percent tax on all income above $418,400, while someone earning slightly less will be in the 35 percent tax bracket.
In a progressive tax scheme, a taxpayer’s tax liability increases the more the person earns. The increase in the tax rate is not linear, and the IRS sets certain income bands to which a fixed marginal rate of tax applies. These are known as tax brackets. There are four major tax categories:
Each taxpayer falls into one of these categories, depending on their circumstances.
Within each schedule, there are a number of tax brackets. When someone falls in a particular tax bracket, say at 25 percent, it’s tempting to think that all income is taxed at 25 percent. This is not the case:
Consequently, the average tax rate is lower than the marginal rate of the tax bracket that the taxpayer falls into.
Nicholas has recently graduated from college. He is confused about tax brackets because colleagues complain about the cost of moving into higher tax brackets. His understanding is that he’ll have less take-home pay.
He consults with a tax adviser who explains the higher tax rate only applies to that portion of income that’s above the cutoff point for the bracket. As he is earning $90,000 now, his taxes before adjustments is $18,240 (20.3 percent). After an increase to $93,000, his tax increases to $19,022, while his average tax rate increases slightly to 20.5 percent. His take home pay has increased by $2,218.
If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, don’t panic — but act fast.
Typically, taxpayers have two options: Take the itemized deductions or take the standard deduction.
Regardless of what may cause a person to miss the tax-filing deadline, there are potential consequences.
Applying for more time to file your taxes is easy. Just don’t put off paying your tax bill.
The fast-approaching deadline for filing your 2021 taxes is April 18, 2022.
There are seven tax brackets for most ordinary income: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%.
The credit was confusing even before Congress revamped it for 2021.
Here’s how to use a Roth IRA to pay for your child’s college tuition.
This popular tax break can be one of the trickiest.