| [ USA ] in KIDS 글 쓴 이(By): hongcho (홍이) 날 짜 (Date): 2002년 3월 25일 월요일 오후 04시 17분 49초 제 목(Title): Re: Q about itemized deduction. > Would you please explain about ITEMIZED DEDUCTION? > It is hard for me to understand the term. There are certain types of financial activities that you can deduct from your income for the tax purpose. Most fo the times, your taxable income is less than what your salary is. The most common one is something called "standard deduction", which is purely based on your filing status (e.g., single, married, etc.). The other way is to list, or to itemize all the financial activities that can be deducted from the income (e.g., house mortgage payments, property taxes paid, charitable donations, etc.). You can choose either the standard deduction for your filing status or the itemized deduction, but not both. Basically, you list all the things you can deduct from your income and see if that amount is greater than the standard deduction, and take the larger one to reduce your taxable income. Some itemize aggressively to take more deduction, but you need to keep the record (e.g., receipts) for several years just in case you get inspected. If you are uncertain about filing taxes, I suggest you contact a tax attorney. I don't think it's that expensive to hire someone to do the tax filing. Good luck. Hong. -- 2001-12-03 ------------------------- http://www.sori.org/hongcho/ -- Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday. -------------------------------------- http://www.pbase.com/hongcho/ -- |