How2Day: Questions for Tax Information

The IRS can help you answer all of your tax information questions. Jeffrey Hamilton/Digital Vision/Getty Images
There are several types of taxes that you need to pay as a citizen of the United States. Some of these tax obligations are to the federal government, while some are to your state government. How much you need to pay, when you need to pay, what type of taxes you are required to pay and which deductions you can claim are all questions that you might have and that the IRS helps you to answer.

The federal taxes every employee in the United States needs to pay are Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes and income taxes. The federal government requires employers to match what their employees must pay in Social Security and Medicare taxes. Employers also need to pay an unemployment tax to the federal government, in addition to what they need to pay for the state government in unemployment taxes.

If you are an employee, you need to pay 6.2% of your monthly or bi-weekly wage in Social Security tax (unless you make more than $106,800 per year) and 1.45% in Medicare taxes. If you are an employer, you must match your employees' tax contributions for both Social Security and Medicare. You contribute 6.2% of each employee's wage up to $106,800 in Social Security taxes and 1.45% of each employee's wage in Medicare. If you are self-employed, you must pay 12.4% of your income (up to the $106,800 limit) in Social Security taxes and 2.9% of your wages (with no limit) in Medicare taxes.

Your employer is required to withhold your federal and state taxes from your monthly or bi-weekly wage. Every time you receive a paycheck, he withholds the entire tax from you, and the income you receive is after-tax income, also known as net income.

How much you pay in federal income tax will depend upon your filing status and your income bracket. You can make a single filing, a joint-married filing, a separate-married filing or a head-of-household filing. Once you know your filing status, you need to find out to which income bracket you belong. Depending on the bracket into which you fall, you will need to pay 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33% or 35% of your income in taxes. For example, if you are filing as a single person and your income is between $8,375 and $34,000, you need to pay 15% of your income in income taxes. Go to the IRS website to find exactly to which bracket you belong.

There are two types of deductions you can claim. Standard deductions are a set amount of money you can deduct from your income taxes. You cannot claim standard deductions if you itemize your deductions, if you are married and you are filing separately and your spouse is itemizing her deductions, if you are a nonresident, or if you have filed for a return in the last 12 months.

You can also itemize your deductions on Schedule A. Itemized deductions are certain allowable expenses that you have during the year that you can deduct from your taxes, such as medical expenses, business-related expenses, travel expenses related to business and some insurance premiums. If you qualify for both types of deductions, pick the type that you are going to claim based on which one gives you the higher benefit.

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