What Is the Tax Rate on Interest Income?
Most interest income is taxable in the United States and is classified as unearned income for the purposes of tax reporting. Most taxpayers simply enter the interest income on the appropriate line of their tax form -- but if you make more than $1,500, you are required to submit additional forms to document your interest income. The tax rate charged on interest income varies depending on the total adjusted gross income of the individual taxpayer.
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What Is the Tax Rate on Interest Income?
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Interest income is added to your adjusted gross income on your tax returns. The amount of interest income for the year increases your taxable income, so it is taxed at your marginal tax rate. The marginal tax rate is the highest tax bracket rate your income falls under. For example, if the tax brackets were 5 percent for the first $20,000 you earned, 15 percent for any income between $20,000 and $40,000, 25 percent for income between $40,000 and $80,000 and 30 percent for any income over $80,000, if your adjusted gross income was $50,000 before you added your interest income of $3,000, the interest would be taxed at a rate of 30 percent.
How to Report Interest Income
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Interest income includes both interest that is paid to you and interest that has accrued on your accounts. For example, if you have a certificate of deposit that accrues interest over a five-year period, but only pays out the interest at the end of the term, you are still responsible for paying taxes on that interest after the first year because the interest has accrued. Interest income is reported on your tax returns.
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Additional Forms
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If your income from interest is greater than $1,500, you cannot use Form 1040EZ to file your taxes, because you must file a Schedule 1. A Schedule 1 details where all of your interest income came from. If you withdrew money early from an account like a CD and lost interest payments because of it, you must file a Schedule B and use Form 1040.
Tax-Deferred Interest Income
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Usually, you do not have to inform the government of accrued interest on Series EE and Series I U.S. Savings Bonds until you cash them in. However, since interest is added onto your income for the year and therefore is taxed at your marginal rate, if you think you will be in a higher bracket when you cash in the bonds, it may be better to pay taxes on the accrued interest when you are still in the lower tax bracket.
Non-Taxable Interest Income
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The U.S. Savings Bonds mentioned in Section 4 may generate tax-free interest if they were issued after 1989 and the interest was used to pay qualified higher-education expenses in the year you cashed in the bond. Municipal bonds, which are government bonds not issued by the federal government, are usually tax-free as long as the municipal bond is used to finance essential functions of the state or local government that issues it.
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