From what I understand (I don't have an actual job so I'm not 100% on this) taxes are confusing as hell and easiest way to take care of them, assuming you can afford it, is to go to one of those places that will do your taxes for you. It costs you a little extra money because you have to pay them but I hear it eliminates a good portion of the headache because they will do most of it for you. Otherwise umm... google taxes 101 or something I guess?

May i suggest TaxAct? Its what i use. Its less than $15 to use them. You should be getting a paper from your employer called a W2 that will have all the info you need. Once you have that paper from your place of work (they will eaither mail it to you or hand it to you personally) just go on Taxact and make an account. Then enter all the info from the W2 your work gave you and submit it. Then all you have to do is pay the small fee to use their site for your taxes. Youll have the option to get a Check in the mail or direct deposit of your tax return. It will take up to 2 weeks to get it usually.

Its nice to just pay a small fee to have them do it for you. The site is super helpful and walks you though every step of putting in your info. Of course you also have the option of doing them yourself on pen and paper, its personal preference really. x)

if you started this year then you file next year, you will receive a w2 form fromwork. you may not even need turbo tax cuz it will be simple.

When you get your W-2 you choose how many allowances you have. Just read the form and fill it out accordingly. I usually don't claim myself and that means more taxes get taken out of my pay check... but I'm also due more back when I file taxes later. Doing it this way helps minimize the chances you get under taxed on your check and have to pay out at tax time.

When it comes to doing your taxes there are many free options like Turbo Tax. Depending on your job and expenditures for your job you may get better results from paying for one of the deluxe programs... but that isn't usually needed.

You should be ok to not file taxes for the previous year unless you made 10k from Jan 1 2014 to Dec 2014 in the US.


Hope this helps.

Questions you need to ask:
1, Does your city/town/village where you reside have its own income tax?
2. Does the city/town/village where you work have its own income tax?

If so, you have to find, fill out and file with them.

3. How much did you make last year, including investments, interest and income? If it's less than a certain amount (check # then you can file 1040 EZ, a very simple, comparatively, tax form. And once you have done that, the state income tax form, if there is one, you usually just copy numbers from the federal form.

Tax tables, what you actually owe, can be downloaded from the irs website and your state's website, and can also be found in any of the good tax programs like TurboTax.

I personally just hire someone else to do the paperwork. The nicest part about that is if anything gets mis-filed, the liability falls on them instead of you, so you won't encounter any IRS unpleasantries months after the fact. Assuming you're hiring a professional accountant, they can also usually maximize your tax returns and will be aware of any recent changes to what data needs to be collected. Things they want from me, other than basic identifying information, usually include monthly rent costs, my work's W-2, and interest payment details on any loans I have (a new thing this year is I also needed to specify if my job supplied my health care). Whether you're doing the taxes yourself or hiring someone else, that's all information you'd want.

There is both state and federal taxes. Both can be filed electronically (which is both safer and expedites processing time), and assuming you're getting a return, both can either have the returns mailed to you as a check, or deposited directly to a bank account. State returns tend to get processed first in my case. I had them mailed this year, but similarly to the filing, it's safer and faster to have things get deposited directly to your account electronically.