High School Job Tax Returns (SUPER Important)
Written by: Beau B.
Things like federal income tax, social security tax, medicare tax, and even state income tax all add up and over time take a nice hefty chunk out of each paycheck. Understanding how to file for a tax return is very important for anyone, but especially high school students! Getting a couple hundred dollars back at the end of the year rocks and for how little work it really is, everyone should do it.
Every employer is required to give their employees a W-2 form (shown to the right) at the end of each year. This is a simple form with all of the essential information you’ll need. The first thing you’ll likely look for on this form is how much money you made in the last year. After a quick pat on the back for all your hard work you’ll begin to see statements in boxes like, “Federal income tax withheld” and “State income tax withheld”. Along with the same for both Social security tax and Medicare income tax. Under these statements will be numbers that represent the total amount of money withheld from your paycheck in the last year for their corresponding tax reason. You might notice that if you add all of those numbers up you’re out a couple hundred bucks from all of your hard work.
This is why tax returns are so important, as a highschooler making not much more than minimum wage, you’re often able to get much of this money back. You are only technically required to file your tax return if you’ve made $12,200 working in the past year, however, according to the 1040 (which is explained further below) form instructions, “Even if you do not otherwise have to file a return, you should file one to get a refund of any federal income tax withheld.” So essentially, even if you’ve made less than the IRS minimum($12,200) you can get most or all of your withholdings back with a return.
Now that you know all of the basic information that your W-2 form has provided you, you’re probably wondering how to get your money back. You’ll be thrilled to know that it’s actually fairly simple. The only thing you’ll need is a 1040 form (Linked here) where you should fill out all of the information needed. To me this is the hardest part of the whole process because the 1040 can get a little confusing, but if you just stick to it, you’ll be able to figure everything out. Another option is to use a free online system, I’ve used Turbotax (Linked here), it’s very easy to use, just sign up for a free account and the system will prompt you towards everything you’ll need to know and make the process very simple. Both options are valid but personally I recommend using Turbotax as it’s much more user friendly and intuitive for beginners! Tax return documents can be filed either electronically or via the mail, both work but filing electronically is less time consuming and much more simple.
Hopefully this can help you enjoy the fruits of your labor, happy taxing!
Works Cited
Brantley, Chris. “How to File Taxes as a Full-Time High School Student.” Pocketsense, 10 Jan. 2019, pocketsense.com/file-taxes-fulltime-high-school-student-20419.html.
Faris, Stephanie. “Do High School Students Have to File a Tax Return?” Pocketsense, 30 Oct. 2020, pocketsense.com/high-school-students-file-tax-return-8497.html.
“Free Tax Return Preparation for Qualifying Taxpayers.” Internal Revenue Service, www.irs.gov/individuals/free-tax-return-preparation-for-qualifying-taxpayers.
Stephen Fishman, J.D. “When Does Your Child Have to File a Tax Return?” Www.nolo.com, Nolo, 10 Apr. 2020, www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/when-does-your-child-have-file-tax-return.html.
TurboTax – Taxes, Income Tax. “What Is a W-2 Form?” TurboTax Tax Tips & Videos, turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/irs-tax-forms/what-is-a-w-2-form/L6VJbqWl5.
For someone who has never done financial things such as file taxes or file for tax returns, this post was super insightful for me, and equally as personal and engaging. I appreciate how Beau listed user-friendly options for doing tax returns such as TurboTax. When I get a job over the summer I will definitely remember this information and use it to help save the money that I earned!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good piece Beau! It is very intriguing to me as I can get money back every year that the government took away earlier in the year. I wish I would have started doing this when I first started to work. This is something that all young poor high schoolers should know about since it can get them more money back every year. I think you did a great job explaining this topic to everyone, good job!
ReplyDeleteI liked your article a lot! I thought it was very informal and very relevant. I like how you added a picture of a W-2 since many people might not even know that they've gotten one. Personally, my mom snatches my w-2 to add to the heaping pile of tax documents. My mom hires someone to do our taxes. I think it can be very easy to mess up taxes so even if you do look at your W-2 I think you shouldn't fill it out alone. Maybe have a parent or someone who has done one before. Tax laws change each year and if you're not up to date with them and mess up on your taxes it can be very bad. Overall, I think you did a great job introducing the W-2 and providing a general explanation. I forgot about my W-2 but will be looking at it again for a better understanding!
ReplyDeleteThis totally works too, I've had my parents do this for me in the past to, it does however cost money to have someone else do it for you, so if your confident then doing them yourself can be good way to save a little extra money! I like to just have my parents simply check over everything before I finalize and send them in, whatever works though!
DeleteI thought that this was very helpful and has really improves my understanding of how tax returns work. As well as that you could get so much money back. But if everyone files their tax returns, how is the government getting its money? If everyone did it, would it be bad for the country as a whole? In the end, you did a great job of explaining how tax returns work, so that it made sense to me.
ReplyDeleteHi Devin! Thanks for your response, as for your question, many high school students make way less than the IRS minimum in a year. You are only required to pay federal and state income taxes if you have made over this number(12,200$), in the real world many adults make over this number so that's how the government gets their money. However a vast majority of high schoolers don't anywhere near 12,000$ in a year so the government has decided that they don't need our extra couple hundred bucks if we're willing to take the time and get it back. Thanks for the question, hopefully this helped clear some things up.
DeleteThis was essential to read about, as filing taxes is indeed important. I like how you gave it added a lot of your own personal touches or connections to the text, as we're all high school students and usually will look at tax returns with this mindset. Do you know how many people/teens don't file their tax returns every year? I know you stated that tax returns are easy and super important for getting our money back, so are these people really missing out, and how much would the money add up if they don't ever file?
ReplyDeleteThank you Beau! Before reading this I thought doing your own taxes would be so much work & something I could not do, but after reading your blog I can now understand how taxes work. They way you explained everything made it super easy to follow along & understand.
ReplyDeleteI really needed to read this. This article was super helpful for students that need to fill out their taxes soon. It is important that listing user-friendly ways that students can get their taxes done. I was not expecting it to be this easy to do it, but I was really surprised. Maybe added statistics about how many teens do & don’t fill out taxes as well as adults? A few hundred bucks can go a long way.
ReplyDeleteI honestly thought taxes was the hardest thing that i would have to deal with going into my adulthood, but from this article I have now learned a lot of information that leads me to believe that taxes aren't that bad as i thought they would. This article was very helpful.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that taxes was hard, due to the fact that my parents file my taxes for me. But reading this article and learning more about tax return has really boosted my confidence in my ability to do this myself when the next tax return happens. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really great time to spread information about this, as we are all about to be filing our taxes, if we haven’t already. Taxes are a scary thing that seem much more strenuous then they actually are. I noticed in the article you stated that under $12,200 worth of income makes a person eligible to not do their taxes, do you know what the statistic is of people who don’t do them? Also, is there any other requirement for someone to have to not do their taxes, such as needing to be a dependent? This was a great article and will definitely help me out with doing my tax returns in the future!
ReplyDeleteBeau, thank you so much for your post! I don't do my taxes yet, but this is super helpful! My mom always talks about the different forms, and now I finally know WHAT a W-2 and a 1040 form is. Could you elaborate more on with holdings? I know you can change how much you withhold, but what's more beneficial?
ReplyDeleteI personally have need yet had a job, but even I think this will be really important for me to know in the near future! I've actually heard my father mentioning the W-2 while he filled out his tax returns, but my father always conferences with an advisor (of some sort, I'm not sure of what kind), so I had no idea that filing for tax returns could but done online. That should've been a given though, considering how tech. forward society is today.
ReplyDeleteI did have one concern about your blog post, that being that the two links in your conclusion paragraph don't seem to be working, which is a shame. Otherwise, though, I think you did a great job informing the audience of what they need to have in order to file for tax returns, and how much we could be eligible to get in return.
I like the approach that you took with your article. The transitions between your paragraphs cleanly moves through the W2, 1040, and the methods to file taxes. The explanations have numbers and reason associated to the forms, but are concise and flow smoothly. Overall, I felt that I never had to re-read through numbers or an explanation as I would for other articles or explanations related to taxes. After looking at TurboTax and similar websites, I found it interesting how helping others with taxes has such a large market and how the Internet has really changed the paradigm for approaching taxes.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you created a blog topic about something that a high school student can relate to and apply it to their real life. Tax's and tax returns are something that some adults struggle with to comprehend so if you have a good understanding as a high school student than you will be set up for success in the future. Tax returns are nice especially for high school students because we are usually working minimum wage jobs that don't produce as much income so any money that we can get back is nice. How much money do you think that high school students miss out on because of tax returns?
ReplyDeletethis was vary interesting.
ReplyDeleteThank you beau! I really appreciate how you put all of your knowledge about tax returns in a manner that was very easy to understand, especially being a high school student. I filed my taxes this year and its more rewarding then I could've imagined. Your blog post gave me some more insight on how taxes actually work and what you need to do, and how long they take to transfer the money.
ReplyDeleteTo start, I thought that this article was very insightful to filing a tax return and filing taxes. Before reading this blog post I didn’t really know much about tax returns and other tax things. I like how you gave some options for what ways you could file the tax return and the ways that you could file taxes. I found it interesting that turbo tax was free because I didn’t know that it would be free to be able to get taxes done easier which is a good thing to know. To conclude, this article is very helpful for my future and now to be able to know more about taxes and how you can get some money back at the end of the year.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really good article and really helped me understand what W-2 and 1040 forms are. I thought that doing taxes was going to be a challenge and were going to take forever. I also didn’t know you could potentially get money back as well. This really helped thank you Beau!
ReplyDeleteWilliam Castillo: I think that this was incredibly interesting and important, especially as a large amount of the audience is a highschooler who has a job, to which this information is very useful to them. You clarified the difference between forms very well and gave a simple, yet detailed explanation all user’s can apply to their lives. Many adults even have an accountant do their taxes for them, so do you think having an accountant do the taxes of a minor would be beneficial or would inhibit an opportunity to learn how to do your own?
ReplyDeleteI found your blog very interesting to read because most high school students can relate to or use this information. Honestly, I didn’t know until a year ago that you could file for a tax return. Many high school students don’t know that the taxes being taken out of their paychecks can be reimbursed. Especially since most students are being paid close to minimum wage every dollar counts. Getting back a few hundred dollars at the end of the year is definitely beneficial to all students. This is also good practice for when you are an adult and you have to do this in the future. Great blog! It was super informative and informational for high school students!(Ally Longden)
ReplyDeleteI really liked the topic that you chose to write about, as it directly applies to all of us in some way being highschoolers who either have jobs now or will in the near future. You not only provided a lot of information about tax returns, but also the best ways to get our money back, by using the 1040 form or Turbotax, and evaluating those two ways. I also loved how you included a picture of one of the forms, giving us a nice visual and allowing us to see what it actually looks like! This has really enlightened me a lot about high school tax returns, and has helped lead me in the right direction!
ReplyDeleteBeau, I really appericate you telling me this information. It was easy to understand and I feel better prepared to do this stuff on my own. I like how you gave multiple options on how to go about filing the 1040 form. Overall I love the post and appreciate how simple you made it seem.
ReplyDeleteI love how this is specifically focused on you most likely audience. On that topic, I love that you are helping us, as students. It's great to know how much you can get back. I never saw that much being withheld personally, but that is very good to know that I can. A few hundred dollars can really save someone right out of high school, like those who are going to college.
ReplyDeleteThis article was so awesome to read. My mom is a CPA, so I've never really put much thought into having to do my own taxes since I know she will always be there to help, but this post was great to help me get a better understanding. I really love that you targeted this towards us as high school students and made something that is super helpful for us. Although I know I won't have to do most of my taxes on my own simply because of my mother's profession, I think this information was crucial for me to at least understand. Great job!
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this blog I totally thought that taxes were much more difficult than I thought they were. I feel a little more prepared for filing my own taxes. Out of curiosity are there any other sites like Turbo-tax that might be better? Also just so you know neither of the links you attempted to provide show up. Not sure if this it more a Mrs. Straub thing but I figured you should be aware.
ReplyDeleteI like how to stressed the fact that even though some of us might not make the minimum amount of money that requires us to fill out a tax form that we still should because we will most likely still be getting money back. I also like how you gave us resources so we can easily fill out our tax form. Since I am 16 I couldn't use one of the online resources because the minimum age was 17. This meant that I had to print out all my forms and fill them out making the process a bit longer and harder but in the end making it so next year I could fill out my tax forms by myself. Do you think that learning how to actually fill out a tax form rather then having an online resource do it for you is beneficial?
ReplyDeletethis really helped me understated a w-2 form is. you showed me how to do then and now they look easy. I feel like i could do my own taxes now. Thanks for the good information.
ReplyDeleteI know that a common thing that kids complain about is that they aren't taught how to complete their taxes and aren't shown the different tools available to them to help assist them when filling out their taxes. This blog does a great job laying some of the ground work and showing ways that taxes can be done. I am wondering
ReplyDeleteif sites such as tubro-tax and inuit-tax are the best options for doing your taxes or if it's better to not use sites/apps such as that?
Last year I filed my taxes for the first time ever. I have to admit my mom did most of the work so I don't remember much but this year it will be different. Reading about this helps calm me down some now fully knowing that filing taxes aren't really as difficult as people like to say they are.
ReplyDeleteI will be filing for a tax refund because of this. I think school should be providing information and time for students to do these types of tasks. It is a learning experience and helps us for the future, more than some content that we are required to learn in school. There are a lot of topics that we are uneducated about and we should be educated about them. For me tax returns was one of them. To better the success of our students, we must be taught this information and the curriculum should be focused to further our success, not check boxes so we can graduate.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was really interesting, i thought that there was no point in doing my taxes return if i had made less than 12,200 but this changed my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually really helpful because I will be having to fill out my tax return for the first time some time this year and this gave me some insight on how it works and what I need to do to get the tax return. Hopefully this allows me to file it with minimum help from my parents.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has been working for over 5 years, it's quite noticeable the amount of taxes that have been taken out of my checks. This was the first year I had to file my taxes, so my mom did them. However, reading this helped me realize how easy it really is. I really appreciate how you aimed this article to high school students-- knowing or unknowing that most of us have no clue how to do anything regarding taxes or how to file for them. I know you can file them yourself at a young age because it's rather simple, but as we grow older and our income does as well, are there sites that are beneficial or make this process easier? Would you recommend hiring someone to do it for you when we get a normal full-time job as an adult or should we stick to doing it ourselves?
ReplyDeleteI like that you are targeting seniors because when they get out of high school, they are going to college and they need a way to pay for it and with doing taxes, they are getting more money out of it so they can pay of their college tuition, but some people might want to do their own taxes to get more money out of it with out paying someone to do it.
ReplyDeleteThis blog post was super helpful. This is a topic I was unclear about until this blog post. I knew what a W-2 form was just unaware on what to do with it.
ReplyDeleteThis helped me a lot! Tax season is coming up and they can give a lot of anxiety and stress. Thanks to your post I think I’ll be able to try and do them by myself this year! I feel like we should’ve learned this back in sophomore year (since a lot of us started working then) so that now as a senior this wouldn’t be such a daunting task to do.
ReplyDeleteI used to always think taxes were super difficult. But this year I was determined to file my first tax return by myself. It took less than an hour and was honestly not difficult at all with all the proper documents. I think all students should either fill out their own tax return or at least watch their parents fill it out, it's going to be super important.
ReplyDeleteWow great job Beau! This piece was very well written and you explanation was great. I wish I had an article like this when I first started working it would've helped a ton. I really like how easy it was to understand even people who might be unfamiliar with your topic could understand it. You really showed how easy it can be to file your W-2's. Great job!
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ReplyDeleteLike Tiara T said, tax returns aren't as difficult as it seems to be. As long as high school students take the time to look at what's needed and what is laid out, it can be a simple process. This was very well written and provided a simple guide for the process.
ReplyDelete