- Social Security benefits received
- This is the total of all Social Security and equivalent Railroad Retirement benefits you and your spouse (if you are married filing jointly) received in the current year. These benefits are reported to you on forms SSA-1099 for Social Security and RRB-1099 for Railroad Retirement benefits.
- Federal Income Tax Rates:
- **TAXTABLE_TAXYEAR_DEFINITION**
- Filing status
- Choose your filing status. The ‘Filing Status’ table summarizes the five possible filing status choices. Your filing status determines the income levels for your Federal tax bracket. It is also important for calculating your standard deduction. Your marital status as of the last day of the year determines your filing status.
| Married Filing Jointly | If you are married, you are able to file a joint return with your spouse. If your spouse died during the tax year and you did not remarry, you are still able to file a joint return for that year. You may also choose to file separately under the status "Married Filing Separately". |
| Qualified Surviving Spouse | Generally, you qualify for this status if your spouse died during the previous tax year (not the current tax year) and you and your spouse filed a joint tax return in the year immediately prior to their death. You are also required to have at least one dependent child or stepchild for whom you are the primary provider. |
| Single | Use this filing status if you don't qualify for any other filing status. Generally, If you are divorced, legally separated or unmarried as of the last day of the year (and you are not using another filing status) you should use this status. |
| Head of Household | This is the status for unmarried individuals (or individuals considered unmarried) that pay for more than half of the cost to keep up a home for qualifying individuals who live with the taxpayer for more than one-half of the year. (The taxpayer's dependent parent does not have to live with the taxpayer but can still qualify provided you pay over half of the cost of keeping up the parent's home.). This home needs to be the main home for the income tax filer and at least one qualifying relative. You can also choose this status if you are married, but didn't live with your spouse at anytime during the last six months of the year. You also need to provide more than half of the cost to keep up your home and have at least one dependent child living with you. |
| Married Filing Separately | If you are married, you have the choice to file separate returns. The filing status for this option is "Married Filing Separately". |
- Wages, salaries, tips, etc.
- Enter your total of all wages, salaries, tips, etc. For this entry only enter the amount for the primary taxpayer, do not include your spouse. This is normally the amount shown on your W-2 form(s) in box 1 provided by your employer. You should also include any wages received as a household employee not reported on a W-2 (a W-2 may not have been provided if the amount was less than $2,100). It should also include any tips not reported to your employer - including allocated tips that appear on your W-2 form(s) box 8.
- Other income
- Enter your estimated total other income for the year. All income is treated the same when calculating the percentage of your Social Security benefit that is subject to income tax. For the estimated tax on your benefit, the tool assumes that your income is all normal income and not long-term capital gains or qualified dividends which may reduce your overall tax liability.
- Tax-exempt interest
- This amount is included in the total income used to calculate taxable Social Security Benefits, even though the tax-exempt interest itself is not subject to income taxes. Enter your (and your spouse's if married filing jointly) total tax-exempt interest reported to you (and your spouse if you are married filing jointly) on form 1099-INT or form 1099-OID. Also include any amounts on 1099-DIV reported as exempt interest dividends. Don't include any interest earned in an IRA, Health Savings Account, MSA or Coverdell education savings account.
- Taxable income adjustments for Social Security
- This is for a group of income items and benefits normally excluded from your taxable income but included when calculating the amount of Social Security that is taxable. This amount is the total of the following:
- Employer-provided adoption benefits excluded from your income (form 8839)
- Foreign earned income or housing that was excluded from your income (form 2555)
- Any exclusion of income for Bona Fide Residents of American Samoa (form 4563) or Puerto Rico.
Please see IRS Publication 915 for more information.
- Taxable Social Security benefits
- A portion of your Social Security benefit and equivalent Railroad Retirement benefit is included in your Total Income (and subject to income taxes and any other tax rules that are based on your total income) when your income exceeds certain thresholds. Note that the calculation does not include the impact of a lump-sum election for payments received for prior year's benefits. An overview of the calculation (the detailed worksheet is part of IRS Publication 915) is described below.
- Calculate modified total income (MTI): Total Income (without Social Security Benefits) + 50% of your total Social Security benefits + Taxable Social Security income adjustments (Employer-provided Adoption benefits excluded from your income, Foreign earned income or housing excluded from your income, income for bona fide residents of American Samoa (form 4563) or Puerto Rico) + Tax exempt interest.
- Calculate modified total adjustments (MTA): Total adjustments minus any amounts for student loan interest deduction, tuition and fees deduction.
- Calculate modified adjusted gross income (MAGI): MTI- MTA
- If MAGI is less than the 'Base Amount' for your filing status, none of your Social Security benefit is included in your income.
- If MAGI is greater than the 'Base Amount' for your filing status, The Taxable Social Security benefit added to your Total Income is the sum of the following two calculations:
- For each $1 of MAGI over the 'Base Amount' for your filing status $0.50 is Taxable. This total is limited by 1) 50% of your Social Security benefits or 2) 1/2 of the '50% Phaseout' whichever is less.
- For each $1 of MAGI over the 'Base Amount'+'50% Phaseout' for your filing status $0.85 is Taxable.
- Taxable Social Security income is limited to 85% of your Social Security benefits.
| Married Filing Jointly | $32,000 | $12,000 |
| Qualified Surviving Spouse | $25,000 | $9,000 |
| Single | $25,000 | $9,000 |
| Head of Household | $25,000 | $9,000 |
| Married Filing Separately* | $0 | $0 |
- Standard deduction
- Your standard deduction is used to reduce your taxable income if you do not use Schedule A to itemize your deductions, or if your Schedule A itemized deduction is less than your standard deduction. Your standard deduction is based on your filing status. For 2023, the standard deductions are: **STANDARDDEDUCTION_TAXYEAR_DEFINITION**
- Medical and dental expenses
- Enter your qualified medical and dental expenses for the year. This can include your health insurance premiums if you paid for them yourself (not through an employer sponsored plan) and you have not deducted them elsewhere. Your actual deduction is only for the amount that exceeds 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). Enter your total expenses and the tool will calculate the actual deduction based on your AGI.
- Taxes paid (generally state and local)
- Enter the total of your 1) state and local property taxes and 2) state and local income taxes. If your state does not have an income tax (or you have paid more sales tax than income tax during the year) you can choose to include state and local sales tax paid instead of state and local income taxes. You are limited to a maximum $10,000 deduction for taxes paid.
- Interest paid
- Taxpayers can deduct the interest paid on qualified residences for up to $750,000 in mortgage debt (the limit is $375,000 if married and filing separately). For mortgages that were originated before December 15, 2017, the limit is $1 million in total mortgage debt. This includes refinancing these mortgages as long as the amount owed is not increased as part of the refinancing.
Any interest paid on first, second or home equity mortgages over the limit is not tax-deductible. Only home equity loans that are used to buy, build or substantially improve the home that secures the loan are included. All other home equity loans do not have an interest deduction. Mortgage interest is reported on Form 1098.
You can also include the amount you paid for "points" (which reduces your mortgage interest rate).
- Gifts to charity (cash)
- Enter your total gifts of cash to qualified charitable organizations (check, credit card, actual cash, payroll contributions or 'texted' contributions include on your phone bill). If you itemize on Schedule A, 2023 allows you to deduct up to 60% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). Note that cash donations do not qualify for a tax deduction unless you itemize your deductions on Schedule A and you choose to use your Schedule A Itemized Deductions rather than your standard deduction.
- Gifts to charity (non-cash)
- Enter your total gifts of non-cash to qualified charitable organizations. The amount should be the fair market value of those gifts, not the amount originally paid. Note that non-cash donations do not qualify for a tax deduction unless you itemize your deductions on Schedule A and you choose to use your Schedule A Itemized Deductions rather than your standard deduction. In addition, most non-cash gifts are limited to 50% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI). This calculator will limit your gifts to 50% of your AGI when calculating your taxes. It is beyond the scope of this calculator to calculate the special situations that may have different deductible limitations. You may include amounts in this line that were not allowed on previous year's Schedule A due to the AGI limitation but the total will remain limited to 50% of your AGI.
- Itemized deduction
- Your total itemized deductions from Schedule A.
