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Got a job? Get familiar with the IRSTax tips for young adults -- and parents
(CNN) -- You're 16 and earned only $212 last year for painting gutters on your synagogue during the summer. Do you need to file a tax return? Yes. What about the $600 you made baby-sitting or mowing lawns? Does Uncle Sam need to know about it? Uh-huh.
Tax day, which falls on April 16 this year instead of the usual April 15, isn't just for adults. Generally, teens must file tax forms only if they are single, sighted, and earned more than $4,400 during the year. However, there are other laws that require minors to file even if they earn less than that amount. The rules cut both ways, too. The federal government can rake in a portion of some youths’ lawn-care profits, but it may also owe others for skimming their latte-shop earnings. The yard worker needs to file to comply with the law, and the latte dispenser should file to recoup the taxes deducted from his or her checks. A “W” what?Tax laws affect the lives of teens, but not many young people are aware of them.
Andrea Ifft, a 15-year-old sophomore at Rockford Christian School in Illinois, said she plans to get a summer job this year. Andrea and her 12-year-old brother, Peter, are financially savvy. Their parents established investment accounts for them several years ago. "They do their own research and they select their own investments," said Mark Ifft, their father. But Andrea did not know what withholdings are or what a W-4 is. A W-4 is an Internal Revenue Service form that employees fill out to determine the amount of taxes that employers will deduct from an employee’s earnings - their withholdings, in other words. There isn't much talk about taxes at home or at school, Andrea said. “At school we talk about (United States) government, and later maybe in economics class they might teach it," she said. There is even less in Peter's eighth-grade class. "The teachers just said that Congress has the right to tax people," said Peter. IRS outreach
Special agents in the IRS' criminal investigations unit in Atlanta, Georgia, visit schools and colleges throughout the year to teach students about the agency. The students generally know very little about the IRS and taxes, said IRS Special Agent Donna Harper. "They say what they've heard from their parents. 'The IRS takes all their money,' or 'The IRS is bad,' but I explain to them that the IRS is like a bank. "The same way their parents work and put money in the bank and then disperse it to pay for groceries or utilities, that's what the IRS does," Harper said. "The purpose of the IRS is to withhold a fair amount of taxes so that the government can then distribute the funds to build roads or improve schools or finance the military." Members of Harper's unit also explain their jobs as federal law enforcement officers for the IRS. "We explain that it is our job to investigate people who intentionally violate tax laws through tax evasion or money laundering," Harper said. Younger students often are intrigued by her handcuffs, bullet-proof vest or weapon, she said. But the 10-year-old outreach program is not a federal "scared-straight" to persuade students to be dutiful taxpayers, Harper said. Last year, the unit developed a partnership with an Atlanta high school and created a curriculum to prepare students for jobs with the agency. Students had internships at the IRS and also learned interviewing and job-readiness skills. "Our intention," Harper said, "is to acquaint them with federal law enforcement and to build relationships."
RELATED STORIES: Tools: Filing taxes online RELATED SITE: Internal Revenue Service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
IRS Special Agent Donna Harper visits schools to teach students how the agency functions
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