5 Main Terms You Should Know of Tax

The tax field has its own lingo, which adds to the complexity of the tax filing task. But don’t despair. Knowing these 10 key tax terms can help you cut through the jargon and have you talking taxes in no time.

* AGI

Adjusted gross income, or AGI, is all the income you receive over the course of the year, including wages, interest, dividends and capital gains, minus things such as contributions to a qualified IRA, some business expenses, moving costs and alimony payments. AGI is the first step in calculating your final federal income tax bill.

* Tax credits

Tax credits are much like credits you get from a store. After you calculate your tax bill, you can use the credit to reduce the amount that you owe to Uncle Sam. Tax credits are more valuable than tax deductions because they directly cut the amount of tax you owe, rather than reducing the amount of taxed income.

* Tax deductions

Tax deductions are expenses the Internal Revenue Service allows you to subtract from your AGI to arrive at your taxable income. In most cases, the lower your income, the lower your tax bill. If, for example, a single filer has income of $38,000 and $8,000 in deductions, then he would pay taxes on only $30,000. The IRS offers all filers a standard deduction amount (more on this later).

* Standard deduction

This is a fixed dollar amount that taxpayers can subtract from their income. The standard deduction is available to all filers and is determined by the taxpayer’s filing status. The amounts change each year because of inflation adjustments. You can find the current standard deduction levels listed on each of the three individual tax forms. Most taxpayers use this deduction method, which eliminates the need to itemize actual deductions such as medical expenses, charitable contributions and state and local taxes.

* Itemized deductions

These are expenses that can be deducted from your AGI to help you reach a smaller income amount upon which you must calculate your tax bill. Itemized deductions include medical expenses, other taxes (state, local and property), mortgage interest, charitable contributions, casualty and theft losses, unreimbursed employee expenses and miscellaneous deductions such as gambling losses. Some itemized deductions must meet IRS limits before they can be claimed.