Basically, it's a reckoning of how much money one made during the previous year weighed against how much was paid in taxes. Ideally, the tax burden should be pretty close to what was actually paid, but frequently varies one way or the other (so when you see folks talking about getting a tax refund, or owing the government money, there was a discrepancy of $XXX).
Taking into account various factors that adjust these figures up or down (typically, income beyond one's regular paycheck vs. various things that qualify as deductions against income), this may change the taxes one is obligated to have paid.
In my case, filing my taxes included making the Internal Revenue Service aware of a lot of out of pocket medical expenses, a charitable contribution (my local NPR station), and the write-off of C14 debt as an investment loss, this lowered my taxable income enough that the government feels that I paid them too much money last year, so they'll be sending some of it back to me in a few weeks.
I don't think we have quite as many tax-deductible things over here - some donations to officially-registered charities, maybe. I suspect I have a lot to learn about such procedures if I'm to be emigrating in your general direction.
Donating to NPR certainly sounds like a good thing to be doing, too :-)
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ninetydegrees
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Basically, it's a reckoning of how much money one made during the previous year weighed against how much was paid in taxes. Ideally, the tax burden should be pretty close to what was actually paid, but frequently varies one way or the other (so when you see folks talking about getting a tax refund, or owing the government money, there was a discrepancy of $XXX).
Taking into account various factors that adjust these figures up or down (typically, income beyond one's regular paycheck vs. various things that qualify as deductions against income), this may change the taxes one is obligated to have paid.
In my case, filing my taxes included making the Internal Revenue Service aware of a lot of out of pocket medical expenses, a charitable contribution (my local NPR station), and the write-off of C14 debt as an investment loss, this lowered my taxable income enough that the government feels that I paid them too much money last year, so they'll be sending some of it back to me in a few weeks.
(no subject)
Donating to NPR certainly sounds like a good thing to be doing, too :-)