Publication 17
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170357taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170359Generally, the amount of income you can receive before you must file a return has been increased. See
Table 1-1,
Table 1-2, and
Table 1-3 for the specific amounts.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170364If you file a paper return, you may be mailing it to a different address this year because the IRS has changed the filing location for several areas. See
Where Do I File, later in this chapter.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170367Rather than filing a return on paper, you may be able to file electronically using IRS
e-file. Create your own personal identification number (PIN) and file a completely paperless tax return. For more information, see
Does My Return Have To Be on Paper, later.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170369If you change your address, you should notify the IRS. See
Change of Address, later, under
What Happens After I File.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170371Enter your social security number.
(p3)You must enter your social security number (SSN) in the spaces provided on your tax return. If you file a joint return, enter the SSNs in the same order as the
names.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170372Direct deposit of refund.
(p3)Instead of getting a paper check, you may be able to have your refund deposited directly into your account at a bank or other financial institution. See
Direct Deposit under
Refunds, later. If you choose direct deposit of your refund, you may be able to split the refund among two or three
accounts.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170374Pay online or by phone.
(p3)If you owe additional tax, you may be able to pay online or by phone. See
How To Pay, later.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170376Installment agreement.
(p3)If you cannot pay the full amount due with your return, you may ask to make monthly installment payments. See
Installment Agreement, later, under
Amount You Owe. You may be able to apply online for a payment agreement if you owe federal tax, interest, and
penalties.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170378Automatic 6-month extension.
(p3)You can get an automatic 6-month extension to file your tax return if, no later than the date your return is due, you file Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. See
Automatic Extension, later.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170380Service in combat zone.
(p3)You are allowed extra time to take care of your tax matters if you are a member of the Armed Forces who served in a combat zone, or if you served in the combat zone in support of the Armed Forces. See
Individuals Serving in Combat Zone, later, under
When Do I Have To File.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170382Adoption taxpayer identification number.
(p3)If a child has been placed in your home for purposes of legal adoption and you will not be able to get a social security number for the child in time to file your return, you may be able to get an adoption taxpayer identification number (ATIN). For more information, see
Social Security Number (SSN), later.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170384Taxpayer identification number for aliens.
(p3)If you or your dependent is a nonresident or resident alien who does not have and is not eligible to get a social security number, file Form W-7, Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, with the IRS. For more information, see
Social Security Number (SSN), later.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170386Frivolous tax submissions.
(p3)The IRS has published a list of positions that are identified as frivolous. The penalty for filing a frivolous tax return is $5,000. Also, the $5,000 penalty will apply to other specified frivolous submissions. For more information, see
Civil Penalties, later.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000271742This chapter discusses the following topics.
- Whether you have to file a return.
- Which form to use.
- How to file electronically.
- When, how, and where to file your return.
- What happens if you pay too little or too much tax.
- What records you should keep and how long you should keep
them.
- How you can change a return you have already filed.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170388You must file a federal income tax return if you are a citizen or resident of the United States or a resident of Puerto Rico and you meet the filing requirements for any of the following categories that apply to you.
- Individuals in general. (There are special rules for surviving spouses, executors, administrators, legal representatives, U.S. citizens and residents living outside the United States, residents of Puerto Rico, and individuals with income from U.S.
possessions.)
- Dependents.
- Certain children under age 19 or full-time students.
- Self-employed persons.
- Aliens.
The filing requirements for each category are explained in this
chapter.
The filing requirements apply even if you do not owe tax.
| Even if you do not have to file a return, it may be to your advantage to do so. See
Who Should File, later. |
| File only one federal income tax return for the year regardless of how many jobs you had, how many Forms W-2 you received, or how many states you lived in during the year. Do not file more than one original return for the same year, even if you have not gotten your refund or have not heard from the IRS since you
filed. |
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170392If you are a U.S. citizen or resident, whether you must file a return depends on three factors:
- Your gross income,
- Your filing status, and
- Your age.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170397This includes all income you receive in the form of money, goods, property, and services that is not exempt from tax. It also includes income from sources outside the United States or from the sale of your main home (even if you can exclude all or part of it). Include part of your social security benefits
if:
- You were married, filing a separate return, and you lived with your spouse at any time during 2012;
or
- Half of your social security benefits plus your other gross income and any tax-exempt interest is more than $25,000 ($32,000 if married filing
jointly).
If either (1) or (2) applies, see the instructions for Form 1040 or 1040A, or
Publication
915, Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits, to figure the social security benefits you must include in gross
income.
Common types of income are discussed in
Part Two of this publication.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170399If you are married and your permanent home is in a community property state, half of any income described by state law as community income may be considered yours. This affects your federal taxes, including whether you must file if you do not file a joint return with your spouse. See Publication
555, Community Property, for more information.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000250797A registered domestic partner in Nevada, Washington, or California (or a person in California who is married to a person of the same sex) generally must report half the combined community income of the individual and his or her domestic partner (or California same-sex spouse). See Publication
555.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170400If you are self-employed, your gross income includes the amount on line 7 of Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business; line 1 of Schedule C-EZ (Form 1040), Net Profit From Business; and line 9 of Schedule F (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Farming. See
Self-Employed Persons, later, for more information about your filing requirements.
| If you do not report all of your self-employment income, your social security benefits may be lower when you
retire. |
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170403Your filing status depends on whether you are single or married and on your family situation. Your filing status is determined on the last day of your tax year, which is December 31 for most taxpayers. See
chapter 2 for an explanation of each filing status.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170405If you are 65 or older at the end of the year, you generally can have a higher amount of gross income than other taxpayers before you must file. See
Table 1-1. You are considered 65 on the day before your 65th birthday. For example, if your 65th birthday is on January 1, 2013, you are considered 65 for
2012.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170407Table 1-1. 2012 Filing Requirements for Most Taxpayers
IF your filing status is... | AND at the end of 2012 you were...*
| THEN file a return if your gross income
was at least...**
|
single | under 65 | $ 9,750 | |
| 65 or older | $11,200 | |
married filing jointly*** | under 65 (both spouses) | $19,500 | |
| 65 or older (one spouse) | $20,650 | |
| 65 or older (both spouses) | $21,800 | |
married filing separately | any age | $ 3,800 | |
head of household | under 65 | $12,500 | |
| 65 or older | $13,950 | |
qualifying widow(er) with dependent child | under 65 | $15,700 | |
65 or older | $16,850 | |
* | If you were born on January 1, 1948, you are considered to be age 65 at the end of
2012. |
** | Gross income means all income you received in the form of money, goods, property, and services that is not exempt from tax, including any income from sources outside the United States or from the sale of your main home (even if you can exclude part or all of it). Do not include any social security benefits unless (a) you are married filing a separate return and you lived with your spouse at any time during 2012 or (b) one-half of your social security benefits plus your other gross income and any tax-exempt interest is more than $25,000 ($32,000 if married filing jointly). If (a) or (b) applies, see the instructions for Form 1040 or 1040A or Publication
915
to figure the taxable part of social security benefits you must include in gross
income. Gross income includes gains, but not losses, reported on Form 8949 or
Schedule D. Gross income from a business means, for example, the amount on
Schedule C, line 7, or Schedule F, line 9. But, in figuring gross income, do not
reduce your income by any losses, including any loss on Schedule C, line 7, or
Schedule F, line 9.
|
*** | If you did not live with your spouse at the end of 2012 (or on the date your spouse died) and your gross income was at least $3,800, you must file a return regardless of your age.
|
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170411You must file a final return for a decedent (a person who died) if both of the following are true.
- You are the surviving spouse, executor, administrator, or legal
representative.
- The decedent met the filing requirements at the date of death.
For more information on rules for filing a decedent's final return, see Publication
559, Survivors, Executors, and Administrators.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170412To determine whether you must file a return, include in your gross income any income you received abroad, including any income you can exclude under the foreign earned income exclusion. For information on special tax rules that may apply to you, see Publication
54, Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad. It is available online and at most U.S. embassies and consulates. See
How To Get Tax Help in the back of this publication.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170414If you are a U.S. citizen and also a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico, you generally must file a U.S. income tax return for any year in which you meet the income requirements. This is in addition to any legal requirement you may have to file an income tax return with Puerto Rico.
If you are a bona fide resident of Puerto Rico for the entire year, your U.S. gross income does not include income from sources within Puerto Rico. It does, however, include any income you received for your services as an employee of the United States or a U.S. agency. If you receive income from Puerto Rican sources that is not subject to U.S. tax, you must reduce your standard deduction. As a result, the amount of income you must have before you are required to file a U.S. income tax return is lower than the applicable amount in
Table 1-1 or
Table 1-2. For more information, see Publication
570, Tax Guide for Individuals With Income From U.S. Possessions.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170417If you had income from Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, special rules may apply when determining whether you must file a U.S. federal income tax return. In addition, you may have to file a return with the individual island government. See Publication
570 for more information.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170418If you are a dependent (one who meets the dependency tests in
chapter 3), see
Table 1-2
to find whether you must file a return. You also must file if your situation is
described in
Table 1-3.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170421Generally, a child is responsible for filing his or her own tax return and for paying any tax on the return. If a dependent child must file an income tax return but cannot file due to age or any other reason, then a parent, guardian, or other legally responsible person must file it for the child. If the child cannot sign the return, the parent or guardian must sign the child's name followed by the words "By (your signature), parent for minor child."
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170422Amounts a child earns by performing services are included in his or her gross income and not the gross income of the parent. This is true even if under local law the child's parent has the right to the earnings and may actually have received them. But if the child does not pay the tax due on this income, the parent is liable for the tax.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170423If a child's only income is interest and dividends (including capital gain distributions and Alaska Permanent Fund dividends), the child was under age 19 at the end of 2012 or was a full-time student under age 24 at the end of 2012, and certain other conditions are met, a parent can elect to include the child's income on the parent's return. If this election is made, the child does not have to file a return. See
Parent's Election To Report Child's Interest and Dividends in chapter 30.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170425You are self-employed if you:
- Carry on a trade or business as a sole proprietor,
- Are an independent contractor,
- Are a member of a partnership, or
- Are in business for yourself in any other way.
Self-employment can include work in addition to your regular full-time business activities, such as certain part-time work you do at home or in addition to your regular job.
You must file a return if your gross income is at least as much as the filing requirement amount for your filing status and age (shown in
Table 1-1). Also, you must file Form 1040 and Schedule SE (Form 1040), Self-Employment Tax, if:
- Your net earnings from self-employment (excluding church employee income) were $400 or more,
or
- You had church employee income of $108.28 or more. (See
Table 1-3.)
Use Schedule SE (Form 1040) to figure your self-employment tax. Self-employment tax is comparable to the social security and Medicare tax withheld from an employee's wages. For more information about this tax, see Publication
334, Tax Guide for Small Business.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170428If you are a U.S. citizen who works in the United States for an international organization, a foreign government, or a wholly owned instrumentality of a foreign government, and your employer is not required to withhold social security and Medicare taxes from your wages, you must include your earnings from services performed in the United States when figuring your net earnings from self-employment.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170429You must include income from services you performed as a minister when figuring your net earnings from self-employment, unless you have an exemption from self-employment tax. This also applies to Christian Science practitioners and members of a religious order who have not taken a vow of poverty. For more information, see Publication
517, Social Security and Other Information for Members of the Clergy and Religious Workers.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170430Table 1-2. 2012 Filing Requirements for Dependents
See
chapter 3 to find out if someone can claim you as a dependent.
If your parents (or someone else) can claim you as a dependent, and any of the situations below apply to you, you must file a return. (See
Table 1-3 for other situations when you must file.)
|
In this table, earned income includes salaries, wages, tips, and professional fees. It also includes taxable scholarship and fellowship grants. (See
Scholarships and fellowships
in chapter 12.) Unearned income includes investment-type income such as taxable
interest, ordinary dividends, and capital gain distributions. It also includes
unemployment compensation, taxable social security benefits, pensions,
annuities, cancellation of debt, and distributions of unearned income from a
trust. Gross income is the total of your earned and unearned income.
|
|
Single dependents—Were you
either age 65 or older or blind?
|
□ | No. | You must file a return if
any of the following apply.
|
| | • | Your unearned income was more than $950. |
| | • | Your earned income was more than $5,950. |
| | • | Your gross income was more than the
larger of:
|
| | | • | $950, or |
| | | • | Your earned income (up to $5,650) plus $300. |
□ | Yes. | You must file a return if
any of the following apply.
|
| | • | Your unearned income was more than $2,400 ($3,850 if 65 or older
and blind).
|
| | • | Your earned income was more than $7,400 ($8,850 if 65 or older
and blind).
|
| | • | Your gross income was more than the
larger of:
|
| | | • | $2,400 ($3,850 if 65 or older
and blind), or
|
| | | • | Your earned income (up to $5,650) plus $1,750 ($3,200 if 65 or older
and blind).
|
Married dependents—Were you
either age 65 or older or blind?
|
□ | No. | You must file a return if
any of the following apply.
|
| | • | Your unearned income was more than $950. |
| | • | Your earned income was more than $5,950. |
| | • | Your gross income was at least $5 and your spouse files a separate return and itemizes
deductions. |
| | • | Your gross income was more than the
larger of:
|
| | | • | $950, or |
| | | • | Your earned income (up to $5,650) plus $300. |
□ | Yes. | You must file a return if
any of the following apply.
|
| | • | Your unearned income was more than $2,100 ($3,250 if 65 or older
and blind).
|
| | • | Your earned income was more than $7,100 ($8,250 if 65 or older
and blind).
|
| | • | Your gross income was at least $5 and your spouse files a separate return and itemizes
deductions. |
| | • | Your gross income was more than the
larger of:
|
| | | • | $2,100 ($3,250 if 65 or older
and blind), or
|
| | | • | Your earned income (up to $5,650) plus $1,450 ($2,600 if 65 or older
and blind).
|
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170435Your status as an alien—resident, nonresident, or dual-status—determines whether and how you must file an income tax
return.
The rules used to determine your alien status are discussed in Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for
Aliens.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170436If you are a resident alien for the entire year, you must file a tax return following the same rules that apply to U.S. citizens. Use the forms discussed in this publication.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170437If you are a nonresident alien, the rules and tax forms that apply to you are different from those that apply to U.S. citizens and resident aliens. See Publication
519
to find out if U.S. income tax laws apply to you and which forms you should
file.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170438If you are a resident alien for part of the tax year and a nonresident alien for the rest of the year, you are a dual-status taxpayer. Different rules apply for each part of the year. For information on dual-status taxpayers, see Publication
519.
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000284899Table
1-3. Other Situations When You Must File a 2012 Return
You must file a return if any of the four conditions below apply for
2012. |
1. | | You owe any special taxes, including any of the following. |
| a. | Alternative minimum tax. |
| b. | Additional tax on a qualified plan, including an individual retirement arrangement (IRA), or other tax-favored account. But if you are filing a return only because you owe this tax, you can file
Form 5329 by itself.
|
| c. | Household employment taxes. But if you are filing a return only because you owe this tax, you can file
Schedule H by itself.
|
| d. | Social security and Medicare tax on tips you did not report to your employer or on wages you received from an employer who did not withhold these taxes.
|
| e. | Recapture of first-time homebuyer credit.
|
| f. | Write-in taxes, including uncollected social security and Medicare or RRTA tax on tips you reported to your employer or on group-term life insurance and additional taxes on health savings accounts.
|
| g. | Recapture taxes.
|
2. | | You (or your spouse, if filing jointly) received HSA, Archer MSA, or Medicare Advantage MSA
distributions. |
3. | | You had net earnings from self-employment of at least $400. |
4. | | You had wages of $108.28 or more from a church or qualified church-controlled organization that is exempt from employer social security and Medicare taxes.
|
taxmap/pub17/p17-002.htm#en_us_publink1000170439Even if you do not have to file, you should file a federal income tax return to get money back if any of the following conditions apply.
- You had federal income tax withheld or made estimated tax payments.
- You qualify for the earned income credit. See
chapter 35 for more information.
- You qualify for the additional child tax credit. See
chapter 33 for more information.
- You qualify for the health coverage tax credit. See
chapter 36 for more information.
- You qualify for the refundable credit for prior year minimum
tax.
- You qualify for the American opportunity credit. See
chapter 34 for more information.
- You qualify for the credit for federal tax on fuels. See
chapter 36 for more information.