Calculation of Income Tax in US

The income tax in United States of America is determined by applying taxation rates which increase with an increase in the income. The payee here is the government, which uses these tax amounts for further welfare of the citizens. The determination of the payable Income Tax is a tiring but easy process. There are many web portals these days that allow easy calculation and payment options of income tax, but it is vital to calculate one’s own taxable amount to have maximum deductions in it. Let us now see the steps for Income Tax Calculation.

First add up all the earnings and incomes attained are added up. These earnings can be acquired from any of- business returns, self employment, rental and other incomes. All these incomes must simply be added without making any deductions from the. The resultant total amount is the total income earned. From this total income the adjusted gross income is calculated. The gross income is calculated by adding removing the deductions from the total income. The deductions can be any of- health savings deductions, educator expenses, employment taxes, moving expenses, IRA deductions, et al.

Now further adjustments are made to the gross income obtained. Subtraction of $5,700 is then made from adjusted gross income. The mentioned amount is the standard deduction for a married of a single person filing for income tax separately. Further if there are any large deductions like mortgages and high medical costs, and they add up to more than the mentioned amount, them the deductions must be itemize rather than them being a standard one. Now personal exemptions are subtracted and this is available only for persons filing singly and who are not claimed as dependants. Also taking the help of an experienced and qualified tax professional might aid to locate more deductions in the amount, and hence reduces the taxable income.

There are various tax brackets for calculating the income tax. As the income acquired increases, the tax rate of that tax bracket also increases. For a particular bracket, the tax rate is only applied to the income acquired in that bracket. There are different tax rates in tax brackets for Singles, Married couples filing for tax jointly, Married couples filing for tax separately, Heads of the family.

Let’s look at an example of a single filing for income tax. For a singles earner 10% tax rate is applied if his/her annual income not greater than $17,000. If the income lies between $17,000 - $69,000, then the tax rate applicable is 15% for the amount of income that is over $17,000. So, the total tax here is the sum of 10% of $17,000 and 15% of the amount that is over $17,000. Moving to higher levels of income, for an income that lays between $69,000 - $139,350 the tax rate applicable is 25%. And for and income that lies between $139,350 - $212,300 the tax the rate is 28%. For income exceeding $212,300 and is less than $379,150 the tax rate applicable is 33%. Finally if the income amount is more than $379,150, then the tax rate here is 35%. Summing up the tax calculated in each bracket applicable gives the total amount of income tax owed.