I have questions about taxes!!!?

Question

I got my first job and i have no idea about how taxes work
How much do they take off directly from my paycheck including the union fees
and how does federal income tax/return work? What is it??
HELP!

Answer 1

Union dues depends totally on what union and local you are in, so there's no way anybody here can answer that.

They'll withhold 7.65% of your paycheck for social security and medicare.

Federal income tax withholding depends on how much you make and what you put on your W-4, so no way to answer that either. If you have too much withheld, more than you end up owing for the year, you get the excess back as a refund. If you don't have enough withheld, you'll pay the difference when you file your tax return. The return is due April 15 of the year following the year you're filing for.

Depending on where you live, there might also be state and local taxes withheld. Since you don't say where you live, no way to answer that either.

Answer 2

Your employer will deduct all the taxes the government requires - you don't have to worry about that. In January your employer mails you a form called a W-2 that shows totals of all the taxes that the employer withheld from your checks and sent in to the government. A copy of the W-2 is also sent to the IRS and also a copy to your state. You are then required to file a tax return by April 15 where you basically copy the information from the W-2. The tax return lets you tell the government of any circumstances that would reduce the amount of taxes the gov already got. You could then get some money back from the gov. I suggest you buy a program called Turbo Tax which is computer software that takes you through the tax filing and does all the tax thinking for you. It prints out forms you can send to the IRS and your state taxing agency. I don't know anything about union dues but Turbo Tax does and will help you with that too.

Answer 3

FICA is NOT your federal income tax.... FICA is your SOCIAL SECURITY TAX... your federal income tax in a whole other separate animal. Whatever is taken OUT of your salary depends on several factors... first, how much you make... the more you make, the more they take.... also, how you filed your W-4 forms when you first went to the personel office of your employer on your first day of work----W-4 forms are filled out so that the Feds and State taxes (if any) are taken out based ont he exact number of exemptions you claim on the W-4 form---and your filing status..... if you increase the exemptions on this form, they will take LESS money out in taxes each paycheck but your REFUND might be considerably less come tax time OR you might even end up PAYING if you make too much. it's a complicated task to explain all the different ways to fill out a form and what they will mean to the individual taxpayer, but if you go to your personnel department, I'm SURE they can sit down with you and explain all the ways you can file and what it might mean to your paycheck..... also, what OTHER deductions you may have on your paycheck.... health insurance, union dues, maybe you have some sort of debt that is being GARNISHED on your wages... etc. or a loan payment of some sort that is taken directly out of your check before it is issued to you. When you receive your W-2's (withholding tax statements) which should come to you sometime between December 31 and February 1st, you will have until April 15th to file your income tax forms. You can get these forms right online at IRS.com for the FEDERAL forms and what ever state you are from . com or .gov. for example, for my state I would look up NYS TAX DEPARTMENT and then click on FORMS and PUBLICATIONS on their website... you can print the forms OR, file right online filling in the form on the computer and sending it electronically to the Feds and the STATE TAX Depts. the Forms are pretty self-explanatory especially if you use what they call EASY FORMS---for the feds the form is 1040EZ..... you just answer the questions they ask line by line, if you have nothing but wages and withholdings, you put those on the proper EXPLAINED lines on the form, fill in the tax line, subtract the tax from what you had withheld and hopefully the result will be a refund... it's really rather simple until you get into ITEMIZED DEDUCTIONS and all that ---but if you own no property, have NO huge medical expenses, do not have big contributions to charity, and pay no school or property taxes, you will just file the simple 1040 EZ form and use the standard deduction... IF you need help at tax time, you can always call your state tax department at the phone number in your local phone book in the State Government section, OR the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 for help...

Answer 4

FICA is your federal income tax and there are various tax brackets. Since you are on your first job, I'll assume you are in the lowest tax bracket - that's 10% (however, you don't pay taxes on about the first $6,000, so you may actually see about 6% come out depending on your pay). Then there's SIT - state income tax. That varies on your state, anywhere from 0 - 9.75% (I'd hate to live in that state). Finally you have social security and medicare this is about 7.5% (sorry can't recall the exact %)