Much of the info you'll need for tax credits and deductions will come on 1098 forms - and there are seven of those. Getting the biggest possible tax refund requires making sure you've got all the necessary documentation to claim credits and deductions that reduce your tax liability. Tax deductions decrease your taxable income, while tax credits take money directly off your tax bill.

Next, collect your documents for tax credits and tax deductions Unemployment benefits and other state or local payments like tax refunds And if you received Social Security benefits, you should have received a SSA-1099 in January, though the taxability of that money is complicated.

Payments from state or local programs will be included in your 1099-G form, but most Americans won't need to report last year's state rebates. Starting in 2020, 1099-NEC is now the standard form for 'non-employee compensation,' while 1099-MISC is reserved for miscellaneous income like awards, prizes and rent. If you're a full-time freelancer or work for yourself, your income may show up in various 1099 forms. (You need to report earnings over $600 from those services anyway.) If you were paid via online payment services like Venmo and Cash App, you might get a 1099-K form, but it's still not mandatory for those companies to send one unless you earned more than $20,000. These forms could include interest from savings ( 1099-INT), money from freelance work ( 1099-NEC), unemployment benefits ( 1099-G) or retirement distributions ( 1099-R). For employees of companies, your Form W-2 includes your essential info about wages and salary you earned and the total amount of taxes that were withheld from your paycheck last year.Īdditional 1099 forms you receive will document other income that you earned in 2022.

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