Learn how tax credits are applied to income taxes

Most Americans take the standard tax deduction

A tax deductible is an expense that a taxpayer or business can subtract from adjusted gross income, reducing their taxable income and therefore reducing the amount of taxes owed. Governments often use tax deductibles as a way to reward people who do things that are considered beneficial to society, like charitable donations.

Watch a breakdown of tax breaks most Americans don't know about

Programs like healthcare savings accounts or flexible spending accounts are tax-free accounts that are designed to help lower healthcare costs. However, many Americans don't use them and don't understand how they work.

How to owe nothing on your federal tax return

Do you know you can avoid owing the IRS money come tax season by making changes to your W-4? For context, a W-4 is the form you fill out when you first start a new job. It tells your new company how much money to withhold from each paycheck for taxes. Find out how to avoid writing a check to the IRS each April in this article.

Learn how tax brackets actually work

The US has a series of tax brackets which grow progressively larger based on the amount of income a taxpayer makes. Contrary to common belief, most people don't pay just one tax bracket, but all of them progressively until they reach their income.

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

Tax-loss harvesting is a way that some people attempt to trim their tax bills

Specifically, tax-loss harvesting is a way to lower your tax bill by offsetting investment gains with losses. It can be tricky to practice and comes with a few important rules, so working with an expert may be your best bet before Tax Day.

Run your numbers in this marriage tax calculator

When it comes to federal income taxes, not every couple benefits from getting married. This calculator lets you see how much two specific people might pay if they were to get married based on their individual income levels and more. Specifically, the calculator compares the taxes a married couple would pay if they filed a joint return with what they would pay if they were unmarried and each filed as single.

Before the 16th Amendment, US tax law required direct taxes to be directly apportioned to a state's population

Due to these requirements, the federal government could not impose many direct taxes. Direct taxes include property and income taxes, whereas indirect taxes include duties and excises.

Estate taxes are paid out of the estate, while inheritance taxes are paid by beneficiaries

When a person dies, any estate taxes owed are paid out of their finances before being transferred to their beneficiaries—unlike inheritance taxes that are paid by the beneficiaries themselves. In addition to a federal estate tax, 12 states and the District of Columbia have a state estate tax with varying rates.

Credit limits can be lowered as well as increased

Some common reasons for someone's credit limit being lowered include missed payments, an inactive account, and more.

Read about a dating simulation game that helps prepare your income taxes

For the 2022 tax year, prank-playing creative studio MSCHF created a dating simulation game that helped taxpayers prepare their income taxes. In "Tax Heaven 3000," players interact with anime love interest Iris (it's like IRS), and run through a series of questions that complete their taxes. Iris also warns the player to stay away from tax-preparation companies like TurboTax.

If you miss the April 15 tax deadline, you could be subject to penalties

This does not apply if you file for an extension. Otherwise, you could face failure to file penalties no matter how late you file your taxes—whether it's April 16 or May 16. The penalty is 5% of the tax due for each month (or part of a month) that your return is late, minus any taxes paid on time and available credits. If you file more than 60 days late, you could owe a minimum penalty of either $525 or 100% of the unpaid tax—whichever is less.

States with the highest (and lowest) tax rates

WalletHub researchers evaluated not just income taxes but real estate, sales, and other levies in order to rank every state by its total effective local and state tax rate (not including federal). Alaska scored the lowest total tax rate and Illinois...

How to get out of debt

This article provides a few helpful tips for getting out of debt, such as learning more about the debt itself and asking for better interest rates. It also explains the popular "debt snowball" and "debt avalanche" methods for getting out of debt. Curious to learn more? Read the full article here.

Tax policy can have a direct impact on the national debt

Past presidents' changes to tax codes have inflated the deficit. An expert on the topic explains the interplay between policy and the national budget while debunking 10 tax-related myths in this podcast.

In addition to collecting taxes, issuing tax refunds, and performing audits, the IRS is tasked with enforcing the laws listed in the Internal Revenue Code

The Internal Revenue Code is also known as Title 26 of the US Code. It was enacted in 1925 and outlines income, estate, sales, payroll, and excise tax laws.

What are tariffs and how do they work?

Tariffs are taxes on imported goods paid by importing companies but typically passed on to consumers. They vary by country and product and, despite recent spikes, have historically accounted for less than 2% of federal revenue. Explore more with these data visualizations from USAFacts.

Learn about the differences between traditional and Roth IRAs

Traditional IRAs allow tax-deductible contributions, but withdrawals in retirement are taxed as income. Roth IRAs use after-tax dollars, offering tax-free withdrawals later, but income limits may restrict eligibility. Choosing between the two depends on your financial situation today and your future tax outlook.

Workers need 40 ‘credits’ to qualify for Social Security retirement benefits

Forty credits are equal to about 10 years of full-time work. If someone has never worked, they won’t be eligible for benefits on their own, but they could qualify via a spouse, ex-spouse, or dependent.

Public libraries are funded by a mix of local taxes, state grants, and federal programs

Property taxes form the backbone of most library budgets, covering staff and operations. State grants expand access to literacy and technology programs, while federal funding helps libraries in rural and low-income communities.

Read about what happened when one woman started filing income taxes again

Even though she was 35 and had a 14-year-old son, Gabriela Gallegos's mother had claimed her as a dependent on her tax forms for roughly a decade. After that particularly tumultuous ten-year span of Gallegos's life came to a close, she decided to file income taxes again.

Who actually pays for your credit card rewards?

In 2018, 92% of all credit card spending was made on a rewards card, which seems like a good deal to many who apply for rewards cards offering discounted flights, points, and more. But in actuality, the customers are often the ones who end up paying for the rewards in the grand scheme of things.

Reinvested dividends are not a way to dodge paying capital gains taxes

When an investor holds stock in a company that pays a dividend—a portion of its profits directly returned to shareholders as monthly or quarterly payments—they can choose to hold that dividend in cash, spend it, or reinvest it into more shares of that company’s stock.

529 plans can affect college financial aid

Income affects FAFSA financial aid determinations. FAFSA also takes 529 college savings plans into account. The percentage of savings it uses in its calculations depends on who owns the account (parent, student, or someone else). Other schools use a program called CSS to determine financial aid, and those determinations vary.

Credit unions, explained

Proponents of credit unions often point to the fact they’re not-for-profit cooperatives instead of for-profit businesses as a key selling point. This explainer dives into what this looks like in action—instead of pocketing the profits from interest rates, credit unions reinvest that money into the products and services they offer. For customers, this tends to create a more personal and community-oriented experience.

Calculate the value of a paper savings bond

An IRS tax refund is the only way to buy a paper savings bond, but if you have an old paper savings bond you can determine its current value with this calculator. The calculator only works for paper savings bonds of Series EE, Series I, Series E, and savings notes.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

This poison ivy knowledge quiz—accompanied by photos of the plant's varied forms—may help you identify this common rash-inducing growth.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.