Since credits basically count as money you have already paid (making it so that you, by virtue of a low income, already pay to society), these get added to the actual amount of income tax you paid.

Take that W-2 and 1099 generated value from line 7 and add it to the value on 8a only. IGNORE 8b!

For most, the W-2 is the important form here. If you look in box 2 of your W-2(s), you’ll find your answer. Add these all up (if you have more than one W-2).

If you have a 1099, you can find the same info in box 4:

Tax evasion and tax fraud are serious crimes. Nobody needs to tell you this. But make sure to read this line you are agreeing to – you are essentially legally guaranteeing that you are not lying or cheating.

You can still make mistakes, but only unintentional ones…

Not surprisingly, this is also the *same thing it says on line 5!

Oh look, this is the same thing it says on line 5. Move on.

The last bit of math. Just take the value in box E and add it to the value you just found for box F.

Exemptions reduce the amount that you have to pay, like tax credits. Don’t sweat the details, but just the core question: is you or your spouse a dependent that could be claimed?

If no, just enter 0 and move on. Same goes if you and your spouse are eligible.

If just you or just your spouse could be claimed as a dependent, but not both of you, write the provided value.

Now that you’ve found the absolute least amount you can deduct, the number back in line C, you can figure out whether you’ve asked for more than the maximum deduction. This has one more step than it needs.

If line C is bigger than $5,950 (if you are single) or $11,900 (if married), you’ve probably done something wrong. Still, that means that the most you can claim are the predetermined values on line D.

If line C is smaller than line D, just write the value for line C in box D. Simple.

This is the most you can claim for a deduction on the 1049EZ form, since the income limit for using this form is capped at $100,000. If you suddenly realize now that your value for line 1 is greater than $100,000, go pick up a 1040 form and start over.

All you have to do here is write down the provided values. These will change slightly each year, but will always be standard.

Line A dealt with your adjusted gross income, all the numbers you threw back into line 1 at the beginning. Line B was the minimum deduction, the baseline for a person earning under a certain threshold.

You can ignore the words at play: the focus is on the numbers. Simply, if line A is a bigger number than line B, ink in line A. The opposite is true if line B is *bigger.

So that $3,950 from before, back in line A, is much larger than $950, from line B. Write in the line A value.