Do You Need a 1040A Tax Form?

Benjamin Franklin, one of the most authoritative of our Founding Fathers, has said that there is nothing certain in this world but “death and taxes.” Taxes were a big part of government operations as early as the Pharaohs of Egypt in 3000 BCE. In Feudal Europe, taxes came in many forms, including the scutage, tallage, tithe, and danegeld. The scutage was money that could be given to excuse a feudal lord from offering military troops to his lord, the standard price of being a vassal in the Middle Ages. Tallage was a monetary tax received from dependents. Tithes, usually of 10% gross income and enforced at varying levels of severity, were requested by the Church, built on the example of Abraham giving ten percent of his wealth to Melchizedek in the book of Genesis. The danegeld was money Medieval rulers demanded for landowners to have their territories protected from invading Danes and Vikings.

In this free video series, expert CPA Tom Noah gives you needed tax help for the upcoming season. You will learn everything about the 1040A tax form: what it is, who can fill it out, what to put in line 1, line 2, and so on. Tom leads you through the Income section, the Labels, the Payments and Tax section, Earned Income Credit, and more. You will also get helpful demonstrations on using the worksheets and tables to fill out a form in its entirety. Free tax help here.

"In this section we are going to talk about filling out the form 1040A, the US Individual Income Tax Return. Now I will tell you who can file this form. You can use the form 1040A if all six of the following apply. You only had income from the following sources, wages, salary, tips, interest in ordinary dividends, capital gain distributions, taxable scholarship and fellowship grants, Pension and unities and IRA's, unemployment compensation, social security and railroad retirement benefits, Alaska Permanent Fund Dividends. The second requirement the only adjustments to income you can claim are educator expenses, IRA deduction, student loan interest deduction, tuition and fee deduction. The third requirement is that you do not itemize deductions, that your taxable income is less than 100,000 and the only tax credit you can claim is child tax credit, additional child tax credit, education credits, earned income credit, credit for child and dependent care expenses, credit for the elderly or disable, retirement savings, contribution credit and finally you do not have an alternative minimum on stock you required from the exercise of an incentive stock option. When you are dealing with tax and tax forms, it is important to remember that the numbers can change from year to year so any numbers that we present, you need to make sure that you are using the correct year and tax form that relates to that particular topic."