Reminder: Khan Academy still has basic explanations on taxes in the U.S. This should help you with understanding tax brackets, deductions, and other related information.

[u/zonination]

Basically a repost from last year, but I felt the need to remind people that this resource exists. There are some simple explanations of tax law in the U.S. over at Khan Academy. Here are a couple links:

• Introduction to Tax Brackets
• Introduction to Deductions
• A link to all lessons in the Tax Portal

And since retirement accounts tie into deductions:

• Link to the Retirement Accounts lessons

Let me know if there's anything related I should add to this list. Happy filing!

[u/[deleted]]

Thank you so much for this. I'm one of those "pay it" people and never actually know what I'm paying or why.

I sat down and worked everything out on paper along with the videos (using my own states brackets of course) and now I'm angry about the amount of my check that goes to taxes. At least I know where it's going now

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

[removed] — view removed comment

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

I was really curious to explore the no pay in/pay out. Do we have some good faqs I could check out so I can start working on next year's taxes?

[u/ScrumpleRipskin → u/[deleted]]

It's kind of a guessing game-- I've never got a perfect zero balance. You have to know your best guess for your annual income and adjust your withholdings for the year so by the end you owe nothing and get nothing back. Which means you maximized your income to stay in your hands without giving the government an interest-free loan.

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/taxes/08/owe-nothing-federal-tax-return.asp

If you're shit with money and love a huge tax return, just claim zero on your W4 with your employer. See, the W4 is you telling the government and employer how much or how little tax you want taken throughout the year. The W2 is what you get at the end of the tax year that says exactly what you made. Then you pay or receive the difference between the two documents.

Be careful! If you take too little throughout the year out of your pay, you may have to pay a penalty. Which sucks because if you pay a ton of taxes in payroll deductions, you don't get a bonus at the end. It's a one way street in the governments favor.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5377159_difference-between-w.html

[u/[deleted] → u/ScrumpleRipskin]

Some believe paying come tax time is a good thing. You got more money through the year

[u/TallDude12 → u/[deleted]]

Unless you're able to invest the extra money as you go, most are probably better with a bigger refund that can be used as a form of "forced savings". That way when tax refund time comes, you can finally have something bigger that you need/want instead of actually having to budget for it.