The purpose of the IRS Form 1040 is to determine how much of your income is to be taxed, and how much that tax is to be.
If you are like far too many people, you simply do not understand the U.S. federal income tax system, how to best navigate it in your interests.
For instance, it is common among a disproportionately high percentage of people (not you) who get income tax refunds, that they think that they either didn't pay any income taxes (they got them back as the refund), or that...well they don't go much beyond that.
Remember: the purpose of the IRS Form 1040 is to determine how much of your income is to be taxed, and how much that tax is to be.
This one-page (front and back) form, then, should be of immense interest to you.
It should be studied and mastered so that it becomes a tool for you instead of a weapon used against you (by you). And passive disinterest in its purpose, its organization, and its content, by you, automatically turns it into a weapon against your financial interests.
So let's begin.
The IRS Form 1040 is organized into eight sections. They are:
1. Filing Status
2. Exemptions and Dependents
3. Income
4. Adjusted Gross Income
5. Tax and Credits
6. Other Taxes
7. Payments
8. Refund or Amount Owed
Note: Items marked in blue in this course are items you should focus on (in case you hadn't figured that out).
That's it. Now take a look at an IRS Form 1040. If you don't have a hardcopy available to you, you can view one here:
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf
Go ahead. Look it over. It won't bite. See how it is organized into the eight sections? (nod if you really do see it; look at it some more if you don't)
Don't be concerned about the various lines in each section. Just peruse it generally to identify the eight sections. If you don't have a hardcopy of the form, you may want to print one from the above link. We will be referring to its various parts and lines repeatedly in this course. And just as a basketball or football coach advises young players to carry around a football or basktball as much as possible to increase familiarity and connection to it, the same applies here. In each case, familiarity with the tool of the game breeds increased skill on the playing field.
While we're at it, let's also get acquainted with the only other tool you will need in this Part I of the course--the 1040 Instructions booklet.
If you don't have a hardcopy of this booklet available to you, you can view one here:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf
Let's first take a tour of the booklet, to see how it is organized.
Open to the table of contents on page 3.
The first section to focus on, for purposes of your learning how to use this rulebook are pages 7, 8 and 9: Filing Requirements.
For your initial perusal of it, do the following exercise
(consider it your first assignment):
(1) Read pages 7, 8, and 9.
(2) Identify the page numbers of the rulebook for
the eight sections above in the table of contents.
Hint: Here is the answer, with one wrong page
number. Which of the eight sections below has
the wrong page number next to it?
1040 Instructions
Page Number
1. Filing Status 12
2. Exemptions and Dependents 14
3. Income 19
4. Adjusted Gross Income 25
5. Tax and Credits 33
6. Other Taxes 41
7. Payments 43
8. Refund or Amount Owed 69
(3) Go to the tax tables starting on page 74. Peruse
them to see the different filing statuses. Find
your approximate annual income in the tables
and see the different amounts of taxes you
would pay depending on your filing status.
Now grade yourself on this lesson. If you gave yourself a C or lower, study the lesson again until you get at least a B, but strive for an A. No cheating.
In the comments section, tell us what grade you got, and make any comments about how you liked or disliked the lesson, and why. Your comments after each lesson can help us make improvements in the lessons. Plus, you get extra credit if you make (clean and helpful) comments.
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