US tax filing

There are several ways to tell us your address has changed:

If you filed a joint return, and are still residing with your spouse, both you and your spouse should sign the form or statement.

If you filed a joint return and you now have separate addresses, each of you should notify us of your new, separate address.

Authorized representatives filing a form or written statement to change an address for a taxpayer must attach a copy of their power of attorney or Form 2848, Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative. Unauthorized third parties can’t change a taxpayer’s address.

If you submit a change of address through the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), your address of record with us may be updated based on their National Change of Address (NCOA) database. However, some post offices do not forward government checks, so it is recommended that you notify us directly.

For changes of address relating to an employment tax return, we issue confirmation notices (Notices 148A and 148B) for the change to both the new and former address.

It can take four to six weeks for a change of address request to fully process.

To claim your child as your dependent, your child must meet either the qualifying child test or the qualifying relative test:

• To meet the qualifying child test, your child must be younger than you and either younger than 19 years old or be a “student” younger than 24 years old as of the end of the calendar year.
• There’s no age limit if your child is “permanently and totally disabled” or meets the qualifying relative test.

In addition to meeting the qualifying child or qualifying relative test, your child must also meet all of the other tests for claiming a dependent:

1. Dependent taxpayer test
2. Citizen or resident test, and
3. Joint return test

An unmarried dependent student must file a tax return if his or her earned or unearned income exceeds certain limits. To find these limits, refer to Dependents under Who Must File, in  Publication 501, Exemptions, Standard Deduction, and Filing Information.

Even if you don’t have to file a federal income tax return, you should file if you can get money back (for example, you had federal income tax withheld from your pay or you qualify for a refundable tax credit). See Who Should File in Publication 501, for more examples. If you are a student who needs assistance with US tax filing, you can consult a professional tax advisor to ensure compliance with the tax laws.

If you may claim an exemption for your daughter as a dependent on your income tax return, she may not claim a personal exemption on her income tax return. Your daughter should check the box on her return indicating that someone else may claim her as a dependent.

No, one of the conditions of your installment agreement is that the IRS will automatically apply any refund due to you against taxes you owe. Because your refund isn’t applied toward your regular monthly payment, continue making your installment agreement payments as scheduled.

If your refund exceeds your total balance due on all outstanding liabilities including accruals, and you don’t owe certain past-due amounts, such as federal tax, state tax, a student loan, or child support, you’ll receive a refund of the amount over and above what you owe. For more information on these non-IRS refund offsets, you can call the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS) at 800-304-3107 (toll-free).

Additional Information:

It depends on the type of mistake you made:

• Many mathematical errors are caught during the processing of the tax return and corrected by the IRS, so you may not need to correct these mistakes.
• If you didn’t claim the correct filing status or you need to change your income, deductions, or credits, you should file an amended or corrected return using Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.

When filing an amended or corrected return:

• Include copies of any forms and/or schedules that you’re changing or didn’t include with your original return. To avoid delays, file Form 1040X only after you’ve filed your original return. Generally, for a credit or refund, you must file Form 1040X within 3 years after the date you timely filed your original return or within 2 years after the date you paid the tax, whichever is later.
• Allow the IRS up to 16 weeks to process the amended return.

A split refund lets you divide your refund, in any proportion you want, and direct deposit the funds into up to three different accounts with U.S. financial institutions. Use Form 8888, Allocation of Refund (Including Savings Bond Purchases), to request to have your refund split or to use part or all of your refund to buy up to $5,000 in paper or electronic U.S. Series I Savings Bonds for yourself or someone else.

You must make estimated tax payments for the current tax year if both of the following apply:

• You expect to owe at least $1,000 in tax for the current tax year after subtracting your withholding and refundable credits.
• You expect your withholding and refundable credits to be less than the smaller of:
  • 90% of the tax to be shown on your current year’s tax return, or
  • 100% of the tax shown on your prior year’s tax return. (Your prior year tax return must cover all 12 months.)

There are special rules for:

• Farmers and fishermen
• Certain household employers
• Certain higher income taxpayers
• Nonresident aliens

If you need assistance in determining and managing your quarterly estimated tax payments for US tax filing, it’s advisable to seek guidance from a professional tax advisor familiar with your specific circumstances.

Social Security benefits consist of retirement, survivor, and disability benefits. However, they do not include SSI payments, which are not subject to taxation. Box 5 of Form SSA-1099 reports the net amount of social security benefits received from the Social Security Administration. This amount is then reported on either line 20a of Form 1040 or line 14a of Form 1040A. The taxable portion of the benefits, used to calculate your income tax liability, is dependent on your total income and benefits for the taxable year. On Form 1040, report the taxable portion of social security benefits on line 20b, or line 14b on Form 1040A.

To determine if your benefits are taxable, compare the total of:

• One-half of your benefits; plus
• All of your other income, including tax-exempt interest.

The base amount for your filing status is:

• $25,000 if you’re single, head of household, or qualifying widow(er),
• $25,000 if you’re married filing separately and lived apart from your spouse for the entire year,
• $32,000 if you’re married filing jointly,
• $0 if you’re married filing separately and lived with your spouse at any time during the tax year.

When figuring the taxable portion of your benefits, you and your spouse must combine your incomes and social security benefits if you file a joint return and are married. Even if your spouse didn’t receive any benefits, you must add your spouse’s income to yours when figuring on a joint return if any of your benefits are taxable.

You can figure the taxable amount of the benefits in Are My Social Security or Railroad Retirement Tier I Benefits Taxable?, on a worksheet in the Instructions for Form 1040, Instructions for Form 1040A, or in Publication 915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits.

For highlights of the tax changes for the current tax year, refer to the “What’s New” section of the following: