Help Please! W2?

_Ben · January 2012

Turbotax is extremely easy to use, but Id highly recommend contacting your parents or family to help you through the process

Bahet · January 2012

I've been doing taxes and financial advising for 20 years. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

A W2 is an end of the year tax form that your employer sends out to all of their employees. It breaks down how much you made and how much was withheld in taxes for both federal and state. How you fill out your form will depend on a lot of factors. If you cannot be claimed as a dependant then you will file as single (assuming you do not have children and are indeed single) Depending on your income level you may be eligible for the EIC (earned income credit). This is a credit for lower income people. There is a maximum amount you can make before you are not eligible for the credit. That amount varies based on the number of dependants you have.

The government takes money from your paycheck for taxes. Sometimes you get some or all of it back and sometimes you owe them more. They take it out of your regular check to avoid people having a very large tax bill at the end of the year. If you are lower income or have a lot of deductions then you will likely get back everything you paid in and possibly even more than that if you get things like the EIC. If you do get back everything you paid in and don't expect any major income increases or other changes for the coming year you can go into your HR department, get a W4 form (you filled one out when you first started working for your company) and claim exempt. Then the government won't take that money out of your regular check. It will mean a smaller amount back when you file next year's taxes but you will get to keep your money rather than loaning it to the government.

siouxperwoman · January 2012

I've been doing taxes and financial advising for 20 years. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

A W2 is an end of the year tax form that your employer sends out to all of their employees. It breaks down how much you made and how much was withheld in taxes for both federal and state. How you fill out your form will depend on a lot of factors. If you cannot be claimed as a dependant then you will file as single (assuming you do not have children and are indeed single) Depending on your income level you may be eligible for the EIC (earned income credit). This is a credit for lower income people. There is a maximum amount you can make before you are not eligible for the credit. That amount varies based on the number of dependants you have.

The government takes money from your paycheck for taxes. Sometimes you get some or all of it back and sometimes you owe them more. They take it out of your regular check to avoid people having a very large tax bill at the end of the year. If you are lower income or have a lot of deductions then you will likely get back everything you paid in and possibly even more than that if you get things like the EIC. If you do get back everything you paid in and don't expect any major income increases or other changes for the coming year you can go into your HR department, get a W4 form (you filled one out when you first started working for your company) and claim exempt. Then the government won't take that money out of your regular check. It will mean a smaller amount back when you file next year's taxes but you will get to keep your money rather than loaning it to the government.

This helped a TON!! Thank you

Elizabeth_C34 · January 2012

Asking for tax help in these forums is like asking H&R Block for a diet plan.

For your own sake, since you are young and have never done this before, get some actual help. Getting your taxes done should be easy and cheap for you since it is a very simple form. Next year you will be able to do them yourself if you pay close attention.

Plus your W2 only has 4g of fiber, the rest is pure sugar and isn't part of your diet plan.

OH MY GOSH! This is a forum for diet plans? I thought I clicked on the topic of "chit-chat, fun, and games".
And thank you SO much for this helpful information. I had no clue that THESE people on the diet forums aren't capable of providing me with basic information about taxes, seeing as how I have no clue what a W2 even is.

WOOFTA. Saved my life.

1. Calm down.

2. Can you ask your parents or someone close to you for some tips? Individual taxes are very easy even if you have educational expenses. Sign up for H&R block individual tax return on the website. You can likely file for free unless you make a lot of money. It will walk you through it.

3. It's really not hard, so don't get all worked up.

1. I don't like it when people post on a topic, just to be mean. Not cool.

2. I don't have parents or any other "elders" that I am able to confide in. If I did, I wouldn't be asking strangers.

3. And I wasn't looking for "how to" fill out taxes, I wanted to know ABOUT taxes. What is a W2? Do I have to file taxes? How do I tell by looking at the W2 if I have to file taxes? Why does the government take money and then give it back to me? I thought that money was for repairing roads and such?

Yikes.

Well, glad you got your situation worked out.

In the future, however, you may wish to include your answer to point #3 in your opening thread. Your topic was vague, and you are very defensive when people try to help with suggestions on where to go and how to file (a natural assumption given your original post), which does you absolutely no good in this situation as it just irritates you even more.

I would also suggest digging around IRS.gov and reading a little more about how taxes work. There's a lot of good information on there.

Elizabeth_C34 · January 2012

I've been doing taxes and financial advising for 20 years. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

A W2 is an end of the year tax form that your employer sends out to all of their employees. It breaks down how much you made and how much was withheld in taxes for both federal and state. How you fill out your form will depend on a lot of factors. If you cannot be claimed as a dependant then you will file as single (assuming you do not have children and are indeed single) Depending on your income level you may be eligible for the EIC (earned income credit). This is a credit for lower income people. There is a maximum amount you can make before you are not eligible for the credit. That amount varies based on the number of dependants you have.

The government takes money from your paycheck for taxes. Sometimes you get some or all of it back and sometimes you owe them more. They take it out of your regular check to avoid people having a very large tax bill at the end of the year. If you are lower income or have a lot of deductions then you will likely get back everything you paid in and possibly even more than that if you get things like the EIC. If you do get back everything you paid in and don't expect any major income increases or other changes for the coming year you can go into your HR department, get a W4 form (you filled one out when you first started working for your company) and claim exempt. Then the government won't take that money out of your regular check. It will mean a smaller amount back when you file next year's taxes but you will get to keep your money rather than loaning it to the government.

This is an excellent answer to your questions.

Jorra · January 2012

Try making an appointment with your school's financial aid advisors. They should have some helpful information for you. The first time I filed taxes in college, the school provided information and help sessions where you could file online with someone nearby to ask questions.