I was a student last year, and only worked a few irregular jobs. I remember hearing some time ago on the radio that you didn’t have to file if you made under a certain limit (I believe it was $18k; regardless it was far higher than I made). Can anyone confirm this?
IRS - Do you need to file a federal income tax return?
Short answer: probably not, but if you had federal taxes withheld from any of your paychecks it’s in your best interest to file and get a refund.
Thanks, that takes care of that!
And FTR, I misheard… it was $8k, not 18.
You really should file anyway. It won’t take long. You can just fill out the EZ form and show that you didn’t earn very much and you don’t owe them and they don’t owe you.
Many years ago when I was a student and was in your same situation, I didn’t file. Two years later the IRS tried to fine me for non-compliance or something. It finally got cleared up but it was a big pain in the ass that would have been saved if I had spent five minutes filing.
File. Regardless of how much you made.
As a student one year I only made $4,000 and as a result I decided not to file. Fast forward 5 years: the IRS sends me a letter saying I owe them around $1,500 for that year and that I needed to either pay up or file and prove them wrong. (I had sold off some mutual funds and the IRS was using the 1099s to come up with the amount I owed along with some substantial penalties and interest). The final result was that they owed me a couple of hundred dollars (I did only make 4000 dollars that year and I had taxes withheld), but it sure was a pain in the ass trying to scrape together all the paperwork I needed to file.