Income Tax Return Filing Requirements Explained! (How To Know When To File An Income Tax Return) - YouTube

Channel: Money and Life TV

[0]
well what's going on everybody it is so good to see your smiling faces once
[4]
again I hope you guys have been doing well as you guys know I am Mike the CPA
[8]
and on this channel we teach people how to be fiscally fit as we teach finances
[12]
investing and taxes and today's video is a tax video and a crucial one at that so
[20]
this is one of those tax topics that I feel that really really really should be
[25]
taught in school! But unfortunately school does not teach it in today's
[29]
video we're going to be covering the 2018 1040 individual income tax return
[35]
filing requirements so that if you're out there and maybe you just started
[39]
working or maybe you're uncertain of what the filing requirements are you're
[43]
gonna learn what they are today you're gonna know whether or not you actually
[46]
need to file a tax return or not now like I said it's a shame that school
[51]
doesn't teach this it's a it's really sad they don't but hey you know what I
[55]
should be thanking the school system for dropping the ball here I'm teaching a
[58]
very crucial life skill because gives me more opportunity and it gives me a
[63]
chance to explain this stuff to you guys over YouTube so what I've done guys is I
[66]
put this Word document together for you and it's free to download I'm gonna have
[70]
a Dropbox link I'm gonna put a Dropbox link in the description section below
[74]
the video and in the comment section of this video so you can find it and
[79]
download it for yourself it's completely free no strings attached
[88]
okay so before we look at all the other stuff let's start with the income let's
[94]
explain what type of income we're talking about here on this form so it
[98]
includes earned income so earned income is what is what guys it's it's probably
[103]
as you guess it's your wages it's your salary
[105]
it could be tips if you're like a waiter or waitress professional fees if you're
[110]
a lawyer or an accountant you charge our consulting fees things like that taxable
[114]
scholarship income fellowship grants that are taxable so those are all the
[119]
things that would count towards your earned income now you're in terms of
[122]
gross income that what they mean by gross income is that is your total of
[126]
your unearned income plus all of your earned income so gross income is your
[131]
total of your on earned income plus your earned income so what the heck is on
[137]
earned income because I would love some of that it sounds great right it
[140]
actually is so aren't earned income where we have right here what it says is
[146]
unearned income includes taxable interest ordinary dividends and capital
[150]
gain distributions it also includes unemployment compensation taxable Social
[156]
Security benefits pension distributions and new T distributions and
[161]
distributions of on to earn income from a trust so those are examples of onto
[166]
earned income and you're gonna see why that's important in just a little bit
[169]
back to the top of this worksheet and work our way down and this won't take
[173]
too long because like I said guys I'm not gonna read everything to you because
[176]
it's because everybody has different filing situations I'm just gonna focus
[180]
on the status for Finke single filers let's just do that because the rest of
[185]
these are just different filing statuses but the idea is the same so as long as
[190]
you understand this first one and how what these columns mean you're good
[194]
you're gonna be able to figure out the rest for yourself so I'm just gonna
[197]
cover this area but you can see here I have information for married filing
[200]
joint if you're head of household filer or if your status is married filing
[204]
separate all the information it's in here for you remember guys this
[207]
worksheet is for educational purposes only and I really do mean that is
[212]
there's always a chance I make them I can make a mistake
[215]
I am I human there is no cyborg Terminator
[219]
skeleton hiding beneath my skin I actually am a human and so there's
[223]
always a chance I can make mistakes now where did I pull this information just
[226]
so you guys know I did pull this information from if you go to Google I'm
[230]
showing you this here so you how you how you can find it for yourself if you type
[234]
in 2018 1040 instructions click this first link and voila here they are so
[242]
here's the actual instructions and this is where you can go as the each year
[246]
goes by so for you know next year they'll have 2019 1040 instructions the
[251]
year after that left 2020 1040 instructions well if you scroll down
[254]
here a little bit I'll show you where you can find this filing requirement
[258]
information it's all in the instructions so if you go down a little bits a little
[263]
bit and here we go so it starts right here so about like 10 pages an or so
[268]
this is where it starts so there's a chart a that talks about the filing
[273]
statuses income limits etc chart B is when you're you're a child or who you're
[279]
a dependent of somebody else that's where these rules apply and chart C is
[285]
the other filing situations where other reasons or times you might have to file
[289]
regardless if you have income or not so though there are special circumstances
[293]
to definitely look into
[300]
alright guys so the way to look at this is there's seven primary factors that
[306]
really determine whether or not you have to file the first one's your filing
[310]
status the tax you're in is gonna matter because the requirements are always
[314]
changing from year to year whether or not you're a dependent of somebody else
[319]
matters your age matters how much earned income you have how much unearned income
[326]
you have and if your are self-employed so those are the seven leading factors
[332]
that determine whether or not you have to file a tax return for this video I'm
[336]
primarily just gonna focus on the filing requirements for a single person or a
[341]
person who files single but also scroll through the worksheet just real quickly
[344]
real briefly so you can pause the video if you're another filing status such as
[348]
married filing joint qualifying widower or head of household the way to read
[352]
this is start from left to right and now in this example the person's gonna be
[356]
single right but I did include tax year 2017 so you can compare and contrast how
[361]
things have changed from 17 and into 18 so in 2018 if your filing status is
[367]
single and you're not a dependent of somebody else and you're under the age
[371]
of 65 you don't have to file a tax return and tell your income exceeds
[377]
$12,000 of earned income from from wages tips fees etc you don't have to worry
[382]
about under income at this point it's just in total if you're if you're 12 if
[386]
your total earned income is $12,000 or less you're fine the logic behind that
[390]
is because your standard deduction is $12,000 it would if you had $12,000 in
[397]
income and you had $12,000 in standard deduction it would completely net to
[401]
zero then so that's why you don't have to file and tell your income exceeds
[405]
that amount I will say just real briefly here before we move on is that you might
[411]
even though even if you aren't required to file if let's say so let's say this a
[415]
person made 10 grand and they paid some income taxes in the federal if they had
[420]
federal income taxes withheld on our check they had state income taxes
[423]
withheld on their check well even though technically they don't have to file they
[427]
still might want to because they would able to they would be able to get a
[431]
refund for those taxes they're not going to
[433]
only tax but they were able by filing a tax return they would be able to receive
[438]
a refund back for all the taxes the federal and state income taxes that were
[443]
withheld from their paychecks so that's that's a reason to file even if you
[446]
don't need to and the IRS unfortunately you know once the money's in their hands
[451]
they're not gonna send it back to you until you file a tax return so that's
[454]
why you if you want your money back you have to file a tax return to get it you
[458]
guys are gonna know this for self-employed individuals all you have
[461]
to do is make a 400 bucks and when it says 400 bucks it's a net income of 400
[466]
bucks so it's if your tol self-employment income after income you
[470]
take your income minus your expenses is $400 or greater then you're gonna have
[474]
to file a tax return even if your income doesn't even reach these other amounts
[479]
all it takes is 400 bucks of net and self-employment income and you're gonna
[483]
be needing to file a tax return the only other thing I want to point out for you
[487]
guys here for a single status filer is if you are a dependent of somebody
[491]
else and somebody else you know if you if you lived F with them full-time
[493]
they're paying the majority of your expenses and so on and so forth you
[497]
would have to file if one if you're on during if your earned income was 12,000
[502]
or more or two even if you just had honored and income of one thousand fifty
[507]
dollars or more you would have to file so that's when this on earned income
[510]
column comes into play if you guys remember on an income as your capital
[514]
gains your interest dividends and things like that I'm just going to scroll
[518]
through this real slowly now so you guys can see the other filing statuses feel
[522]
free to pause the video at any point I'm not going to take the time to explain it
[525]
but you can look at it on screen to see if you need to file
[558]
couple things I want to point out if you're somebody who files married filing
[562]
separate there's some special rules so it's they're pretty silly but these are
[567]
the rules so if you if you're under the age of 65 and you want to file married
[570]
filing separately and somebody else can claim you as a dependent your if your
[574]
income was at least five dollars I'm not kidding it actually says five dollars on
[579]
the instructions as well and your spouse files a separator and itemizes
[583]
deductions you're gonna have to file if your gross income was more than the
[587]
larger of 1,050 bucks or your earned income was up to six six thousand three
[592]
fifty dollars or greater you're gonna have to file so there's
[595]
very special circumstances if you are income I should say requirements for
[600]
filing if you filed married filing separately so be looking for that and I
[605]
included in the word document for you guys there's so here's the filing
[608]
statuses for a qualifying widower but down at the bottom of this word doc if
[612]
we go down to chart a which I've included in the word doc directly from
[617]
the instructions this is where it talks about married filing separately as you
[620]
can see if your income is at least five bucks I don't know who comes up with
[624]
this stuff five dollars really five bucks why not
[627]
$4.99 oh gosh but that's what it is for married filing separately higher if you
[632]
are over the age of 65 you get a higher standard deduction so let me go back up
[637]
the single so as you notice that there you get a little bit higher income
[642]
threshold before you hit the file if you're over the age of 65 there's also a
[646]
special provision if you're 65 and older and blind you give me an even higher
[651]
increment I didn't include it here because it just it was taking so much
[654]
time to include all this detail if you want to find what those amounts are just
[659]
come down here and within these instructions is where you're gonna find
[663]
that information it's on shard B in chart B it will talk about it within
[669]
this area if you're if a person is 65 years of age or older or blind
[679]
these are six areas are things to look for that would require you to file a tax
[685]
return besides the ones we discussed up here and like I said guys all this
[690]
information can be found in the instructions but really I think if you
[695]
like to download this word document for free that I've put together for you and
[698]
I think it's gonna be a great resource for you to use going forward like I said
[703]
it's a really it's a shame in my opinion they don't teach this stuff in school
[705]
because so many kids when they first enter the workforce they don't know
[709]
anything about this stuff they have zero knowledge so the only way they're gonna
[712]
find out is if they talk to their parents are trying to look up stuff
[715]
online they're completely lost and it's such a shame I understand you guys might
[718]
have some questions so if you have any questions at all about this stuff I'm
[721]
happy to answer them to the best of my ability just leave those questions down
[724]
in the comments section down below and I would be happy to get back to you and
[728]
besides if you just even if you just want to say hi that's fine I love
[732]
reading what you guys have to say about all this stuff alright guys if you liked
[735]
the video make sure you drop a like before you leave I'd really appreciate
[738]
it share this information with a friend especially somebody who's brand-new to
[741]
the workforce if somebody who doesn't have any clue of how this stuff works or
[745]
if they just need to know what these new tax filing requirements are for 2018 I
[750]
know they'll find this helpful I'm sure of it last but not least if your needs
[754]
money in life TV I just want to say welcome on this channel we're all about
[758]
teaching people like yourself finances investing taxes and more on a regular
[762]
basis so if you're new to the channel you want to join our community all you
[765]
gotta do is hit that red subscribe button down below
[767]
to not miss any of our future uploads thank you so much for hanging out with
[771]
me I look forward to reading your comments down below and I really hope
[774]
you found this helpful hope you guys have a great week stay
[777]
chill and I'll see you in the next episode bye guys love y'all peace