Individual Tax Brackets for 2011, 2012

First of all the tax brackets depend on your filing status. The first step is to determine what filing status best suits your needs.

If you aren’t sure, here they are:

• Married Filing Jointly
• Married Filing Separately
• Single
• Head of Household

There are basically two categories, one being a married person and the other being an unmarried person. Unmarried includes people who are legally separated or divorced at the end of the year. Now if you’re unmarried and can claim a dependent, then you may qualify for Head of Household status which will provide even more tax benefits.

Married Filing Jointly

Let’s say you’re married and filing jointly. The tax brackets start at ten percent and go all the way up to thirty five percent. This is based on taxable income which includes all income not just employment income. Big difference between the two so, I hope you understand that.

Let’s say you’re married filing jointly and your taxable income is $70,000. Your tax bracket would fall into the twenty five percent tax rate because taxable income between $68,000 and $137,300 is the twenty five percent tax bracket.

Filing as Single

Well if you happen to be single and are wondering what your individual tax bracket is, then I will give you an example. Let’s say you’re single and do not have any dependents. If your taxable income was between $34,000 and $82,400, then your individual tax bracket will fall into the 25% bracket.

If you’re really doing well and your taxable income was over $373,650, then you will be in the 35% tax bracket. Of course you can always find the tax bracket tables if you use an online tax preparation software program like TurboTax Online.

Head of Household

If you are unmarried, can claim a dependent for over half of the year, then you can claim Head of Household as your filing status. You will benefit from a higher standard deduction and lower tax rates than a single taxpayer. Not every single parent can qualify as Head of Household so read the fine print first.

Help Me Find My Individual Tax Bracket

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