Best Accountants in Marietta, GA

If you make a charitable contribution of $250 or more, you should obtain written acknowledgement from the charity and keep it with that year's tax file. You do not have to enclose the receipt with your filing to the government. This is an ever changing area of the tax law.

If you have a child you must have his/her social security number in order to claim an exemption. This is true regardless of your child's age. Make you life easy and just fill out the forms in the hospital when your child is born.

The earned income tax credit (EITC) is a refundable credit. (A refundable credit is a tax credit that you may use to generate a refund even if you have no tax liability.) The EITC is available to certain individuals and families who have low to moderate levels of earned income (from wages, salaries, tips, bonuses and/or net earnings from self-employment) and are taking care of at least one child and up to three qualified children. In certain cases, a taxpayer with low earned income and no children may also qualify. The IRS has a variety of tools available to see if you qualify. You can access them at the IRS EITC Home Page.

Forms 1040 and 1040A are the only two forms that have a line where you can report taxable social security. The instructions for both those forms have a worksheet that you may use to calculate taxable social security.

Whether or not you have to file will depend upon whether your earned and/or unearned income exceeds certain limits. See the two sections in IRS Pub 501 called "Self-employed Persons" and "Dependents." If you find that filing a return is not required, you should file a federal income tax return to obtain a refund of any income tax withheld from your pay.