Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 1, 1992 TAG: 9202010195
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
HOW TO KNOW IF YOU SHOULD FILE
The Internal Revenue Service is expecting tax returns this year from 114 million couples and individuals. Here's how to find out if you should join that number.Some people should file even if they don't have to. If taxes were withheld from your paychecks, you must file to get a refund, even if your income was below the threshold. You will need to file if you qualify for the earned-income credit for low-income working families with children.
Regardless of income, you must file if you netted at least $400 from self-employment last year or if you owe any special tax, such as tax on a premature withdrawal from an Individual Retirement Account.
Here are the basic filing thresholds for each type of return:
Single. A person who was under age 65 at year end must file if gross income was $5,550 or more. For a person 65 or older, the threshold is $6,400.
Married, filing jointly. For two spouses under age 65, you must file if income was $10,000 or more. If one spouse is 65 or older, the threshold is $10,650; if both are at least 65, it is $11,300. To qualify for a joint return, the couple must have been living together at year's end and neither may be claimed as a dependent by another person.
Married, filing separately. File if income was $2,150 or more.
Head of household. If you were under 65 at year's end, you must file if income was at least $7,150. If you were older, the threshold is $8,000.
A head of household pays a lower tax rate than a single person. To qualify, you must have been unmarried on Dec. 31, 1991, and paid more than half the cost of maintaining the principal home of a qualified relative for more than half the year. That includes a child, grandchild, parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew or an in-law. Cousins don't count.
Qualified widow or widower. File if you were under 65 at year's end and income was $7,850 or more. If you were 65 or older, the threshold is $8,500. This filing status allows you to save money by using a joint return. If your spouse died in 1989 or 1990 and you had not remarried by the end of 1991, you may file as a qualifying widow if:
You paid over half the cost of maintaining for all of 1991 the principal home for a child you were eligible to claim as a dependent and you were entitled to file a joint return the year your spouse died.
You may file a joint return if your spouse died in 1991 and you did not remarry during the year. The same is true if your spouse died in 1992 before filing a return.
A student or other person who can be claimed as a dependent on the return of someone else must file if:
Under 65, earnings - wages, tips and the like - exceeded $3,400 ($2,850 if married), and unearned income, such as interest and dividends, was zero.
Single and 65 or older, earned income exceeded $4,250, OR unearned income exceeded $1,400. A third test: File if total income was more than the sum of $850 plus earned income (up to $3,400) or, if larger, the sum of $850 plus $550.
Married and under 65, earned income exceeded $2,850, OR gross income was more than $550 and there was $1 or more unearned income.
Married and 65 or older and had earned income above $3,500, OR unearned income exceeded $1,200. File if total income was more than the sum of $650 plus earned income (up to $2,850) or, if larger, the sum of $650 plus $550.