If you’re a college student or anyone else with minimal income, you’re probably wondering if you have to file a federal income tax return.
Generally the only reason at this point in your life to file a federal income tax return is if you want a refund on taxes that were withheld. If you don’t want to file a return, you might not need to.
Just go to this IRS page and answer the questions they ask you to see if you need to file a return.
Some of the questions were:
Can anyone claim you as a dependent? Was your unearned income over $850? (To get $850 at 5% interest you’d have to have $17,000 in principal.) Was your earned income over $5,150?
Why would you not want to file a return? even if it was just for $20, it is still your money that you earned.
That’s why I said to file a return if you want a refund.
I’ve had friends that say worked temporarily for a campaign and earned about $300-$1,000. No federal income taxes were withheld, so in most of their cases they wouldn’t need to file a return.