Taxes!

[Rico]

I come to you guys with a question:

This is my first time filing taxes here in the US and as I was filling out my 1040NR-Z form (basically like 1040EZ but with a bunch of international immigrant extra stuff) and I was a bit stumped in one part of it.

My questions is, what do I do if I get a negative Taxable Income amount? It tells me to subtract one number from the other, but when for example, I subtract 4500 from 2500 (not real numbers, but you get the idea) I'd get a negative 2000 dollars. That's pretty much my situation.

However, when I look down to the tax tables at the bottom, there's nothing explaining what to do about having a negative taxable income :-(

So my question is, if I have a negative taxable income, do I just mark my taxes owed as Zero? Do I leave my taxable income as a negative number on the form, or round it up to zero, or am I just way off here?

 

[Glirk Dient]

Means you get money back instead of having to pay in. You want a negative number.

 

[giant384]

glirk is correct, that means you will be getting 2000 back from the government. thats a huge tax return.....sure thats right?

 

[DreamThrall]

$2k isn't huge... Rico, if this is your first time filing taxes, I would HIGHLY recommend using a program like TurboTax online, or even going to a place like H&R block. Personally, I prefer TurboTax online because its cheap and you can do it from home. It's very well put together an easy to use.

The only time I ever did my own taxes was when I was like 19, had one W2 and was single. I think I ended up using TurboTax every other time.

 

[Rico]

heh those numbers were made up.

In reality though, all I paid in taxes was $109(as an international student, I only pay federal income tax. No medicare/other stuff). My income was like 2500 and I got 3400 for 1 deduction, so 2500 - 3400 = -900ish taxable income.

So that means I owe no taxes and I get 110 bucks back. I think.

Heh.

 

[thenerdguy]

Looks like I will be paying a shitton in again.