Who Is Legally Not Required to File an Income Tax Return?

Gregory Hamel for Demand Media writes: Whenever you get income from job, savings or investments, you usually have to fork over a cut of the cash to the federal government to pay income taxes. Once a year, certain taxpayers have to file federal tax returns to make sure that the correct amount of income tax was paid. You may not be legally required to file an income tax return if your annual income does not exceed certain minimum amounts.

Annual Income Requirement

The obligation to file a federal income tax return depends on your annual income and tax filing status. When you file your tax return, you are granted a standard deduction based on your filing status and a personal exemption that is equal to $3,900 for the 2013 tax year. If your income for the year is less than your personal exemption and standard deduction, you don't have to file a return. For 2013, the standard deduction is $6,100 for single taxpayers and $12,200 for married people filing joint returns, which means you don't need to file a tax return if your income is under $10,000 as a single person or $20,000 as a joint filer.

Rules for Dependents

The income rules for filing a tax return are different for dependents than normal taxpayers. A dependent is a person who is financially reliant upon someone else, such as a child who lives with a parent and does not pay for at least half of his own support. Children under age 19 and full-time students under age 24 often qualify as dependents. If someone claims you as a dependent on a tax return, you cannot claim the personal exemption of $3,900. This means you have to file tax return if your income exceeds the standard deduction of $6,100. You also have to file if your unearned income was more than $950. Unearned income is cash you get from things other than a job, such as interest from savings accounts and dividends from stock investments.

Self-Employment Income

Self-employment income describes money you earn working as an independent contractor or profits you make as a business owner. You have to file an income tax return if you had $400 or more in self-employment income. You must also file if you had church employee income of $108.28 or more.

Voluntary Filing

Although you technically are not required to file a tax return if your income does not exceed the minimums set by the Internal Revenue Service, it may benefit you to file a return anyway. If you earn income from a job, your employer automatically takes a cut of your pay and sends it to the IRS for income tax purposes. Filing a tax return can allow you to get a portion of that money back as a tax refund.

References

• Internal Revenue Service: Filing Information
• Internal Revenue Service: Do I have to File a Tax Return?
• Efile.com: Do I Need to File a Tax Return?
• Forbes: IRS Announces 2013 Tax Rates, Standard Deduction Amounts and More
• Internal Revenue Service: Personal Exemptions and Dependents