Wednesday, January 13, 2016

What Everyone should Know about Personal Taxes

Being well-informed about personal taxes and the implications of not paying your taxes on time is very important since many complications can arise if you haven’t taken tax planning seriously and are not clear about the concept of tax evasion, caution tax lawyers.

Well thought out tax planning can help you compare various tax saving plans and enable you to make appropriate investments correlating with your tax bracket and based on several factors such as your preferences, liabilities, and age, to name a few. Often times, this could have your tax liability significantly reduced.

Tax Brackets

For the most part, a tax bracket is the rate at which a taxpayer is taxed. These tax rates or tax brackets are decided based on an individual’s income level. Individuals with a lower income are taxed at lesser rates while those with higher earnings are taxed at higher rates which many people believe is unethical and creates a system where some people, lower income people, are not paying their fair share. Millions of lower income people in America do not pay any taxes so some people believe this excludes them from reality and the American fabric but let’s not digress too much on why a flat tax system is needed.


These tax brackets are a threshold for a particular tax rate. Once a threshold for a tax rate is crossed, the individual is taxed according to the next higher tax bracket.

Tax lawyers confirm that the country has implemented a progressive tax system where the tax rates increase as the individual’s income increases. So you take on more responsibility, take on more work, work hard to impress your supervisors, and when you are rewarded with a higher income you are then taxed more. That is the American tax code.

Filing Status

The filing status is essentially the category to which the taxpayer belongs, which also determines his or her tax return. There are five filing statuses, which include:
  •  Single individual
  • Married individual filing jointly or surviving spouse
  • Married individual filing separately
  • Head of household
  • Qualifying window/widower with dependent child
It is essential to know your filing status since it determines your tax bracket. For the most part, your filing status is related to your marital status, occupation, age, and other such factors. Tax lawyers recommend that you be honest while filing your status since you can be penalized for tax fraud and you will certainly need legal help when you are in this position.

What is the Marginal Tax Bracket?

The marginal tax bracket, also known as marginal tax rate, is the amount of tax to be paid on every additional dollar of income an individual earns. It is the tax rate to be paid on the last dollar of the income earned. The marginal tax rate is higher than the rate stated by the IRS. It is an important concept since the marginal tax bracket is what determines the actual amount you pay in taxes. As an individual’s income rises, so does the marginal tax rate.

The marginal tax bracket is considered by some as a disincentive to the people for putting in more effort and investment, since this leads to a rise in the personal tax rate but does not provide any corresponding tax relief through deductions. The contrasting view is that those who earn more are more capable of taking on more responsibilities for the economically less fortunate, and hence should be taxed more. But this view is widely criticized as well as how complicated the tax code is.

Arguments continue on whether this system is fair to the hardworking people and whether another, better system could be brought in. It would do well for taxpayers to have clarity on the marginal tax brackets so as to enable themselves to make rational decisions about their accounting, savings, and investments – if any! 

Legal Help can be Found

If you find yourself in a situation where you possibly have breached tax laws, make sure to seek legal counsel for your tax issues as soon as possible and you can do that by clicking right here: http://tax-lawyers.usattorneys.com/. Even if you inadvertently made a mistake while filing your returns, the IRS has the authority to legally pursue charges against you.

The tax code may be convoluted but the website just mentioned is not. If you even think you could have a tax legal issue, you should contact a legal professional before you slip into deep waters. 

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