How do I figure out if I will owe taxes
Do I get a write off for paying student loans? Maybe.  See https://www.irs.gov/publications/p970/ch04.html Generally, personal interest you pay, other than certain mortgage interest, isn't deductible on your tax return. However, if your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is less than $80,000 ($160,000 if filing a joint return) there is a special deduction allowed for paying interest on a student loan (also known as an education loan) used for higher education. For most taxpayers, MAGI is the adjusted gross income as figured on their federal income tax return before subtracting any deduction for student loan interest. This deduction can reduce the amount of your income subject to tax by up to $2,500.  Read the whole document to be sure, but that's the basics.   You'll have to fill out a 1040 or 1040A to claim a student loan deduction.  It won't be on the 1040EZ.  You do not have to itemize though.   What kinds of write-offs and credits are available for someone who is single and lives in an apartment with two roommates? As a practical matter, in 2016 you'll get the standard deduction for someone who is single ($6300) and the personal exemption ($4050).  It's extremely unlikely that you'll be able to deduct more by itemizing.  Most people who itemize are taking a mortgage interest deduction.  Major medical bills are another possibility, but they have to be more than 10% of your adjusted gross income (it's one of the lines on your tax return).  Assuming you rent and are reasonably healthy, you are unlikely to have enough to itemize.   The most likely additional deduction would be the one for an IRA (Individual Retirement Account).  Although you might be better off doing a Roth anyway (no tax deduction).   If you are self-employed or making more than $100,000 a year, there are additional issues.  But most people aren't.  If you filled out a W-4 and will get a W-2 back, you aren't self-employed.  Hopefully you have a rough idea of your annual income.   The first $9275 over your deductions will pay 10%.  After that, up to $37,650 you pay 15%.  The 2016 link above has a link (PDF) to the full table if you need more than that.  Note that that is the first $48,000 in income with your $10,350 in deductions. If you want to predict the, the easiest solution is to get hold of a copy of last year's tax forms and fill them in with estimated numbers.  Odds are that none of the more complicated deductions will apply to you this first time around, so I'd suggest just using the federal 1040EZ, and your state's equivalent, for this purpose. If it turns out that you can claim anything more than the standard deduction, that would reduce your taxes, so this is leaning toward the safe side. Your employer pays the expected (but estimated) taxes for you. So the chances are you don't own more; but that might be different if you have other sources of income that he doesn't know about (interest on savings or a side-job or whatever). Also, you could have deductions that reduce the taxes you owe, which he again doesn't know, so you overpay. If you don't file, you don't get them back. Most tax software companies offer free usage of their tool for standard filings, and you can use it to find out your tax situation, and then buy the tool only when you want to file. If you use one of those, you can type in all your data, and depending on the result, decide to buy it and file right away. Note that if it turns out you owe taxes, you must file (and pay), but of course you can do it manually instead of buying the tool. If it turns out you get money back, it is your decision to file - you probably don't care for a small amount, but if you get 1000 $ back, you might want to file - again, buying the software of doing it manually. "The short answer is - ""Your employer should typically deduct enough every paycheck so you don't owe anything on April 15th, and no more."" The long answer is ""Your employer may make an error in how much to deduct, particularly if you have more than 1 job, or have any special deductions/income. Calculate your estimated total taxes for the year by estimating all your income and deductions on a paper copy of a tax return [I say paper copy so that you become familiar with what the income and deductions actually are, whereas plugging into an online spreadsheet makes you blind to what's actually going on]. Compare that with what your employer deducts every paycheck, * the number of paychecks in the year. This tells you how much extra you will pay / be refunded on April 15th, as accurately as you can estimate your income and deductions.""" Do you have a regular job, where you work for somebody else and they pay you a salary? If so, they should be deducting estimated taxes from your paychecks and sending them in to the government. How much they deduct depends on your salary and what you put down on your W-4. Assuming you filled that out accurately, they will withhold an amount that should closely match the taxes you would owe if you took the standard deduction, have no income besides this job, and no unusual deductions. If that's the case, come next April 15 you will probably get a small refund. If you own a small business or are an independent contractor, then you have to estimate the taxes you will owe and make quarterly payments. If you're worried that the amount they're withholding doesn't sound right, then as GradeEhBacon says, get a copy of last year's tax forms (or this year's if they're out by now) -- paper or electronic -- fill them out by estimating what your total income will be for the year, etc, and see what the tax comes out to be.
"I think that history shows that it's rarely necessary for violence to lead to social reform. There's always been a tug of war between the upper class and the middle/lower classes. The term ""working class"" was a way to unify middle and lower classes against the wealthy ""idle class."" Unfortunately the wealthy were able to convince many white collar middle class people that they were ""upper middle class"" and that the ""upper middle class"" shares values and goals with the elite. If you look at the numbers this couldn't be more wrong.  By any standard, I am a very fortunate person. I have a six figure income and some assets. However, the truly elite in the US enjoy household wealth and income that DWARF what I make. I pay a much higher percentage of my income to taxes than a person with inherited wealth does. Why is the system this way? It's effectively a barrier - no matter how hard we work or how well we do - we can't break through to the upper class. Instead of a meritocracy we have an aristocracy. This is the great lie at the center of American politics today.  The aristocrats have the many of the best and brightest convinced that we're part of the club when we're really not and never can be. They've turned us against the blue collar workers and the poor, when we should all be together. They've convinced many that people like the current administration trying to create more upward mobility are anti-american, when it's really the aristocracy that violates democratic values of equality and fraternity.  However - we can vote for leaders who might do better. We can peacefully assemble (think OWS). We can go on reddit and share our political and economic opinions. Because of these freedoms, we can safely say violence is a remote last resort.  Nothing is inevitable. Economic growth is really just people finding ways to interact and deliver value to one another. And - ""fortune favors the bold."" I'll stay optimistic and keep making money as well as trying to help my community. I'll bet dollars to donuts change can and will happen  just because enough people will get sick of the Romneys of the world hogging all the wealth and we'll find a political solution.  tl;dr Martin Luther King. Ghandi. Tunisia. We'll work it out like men- with our words." As to the rollover question.  Only rollover to a ROTH if you have other funds you can use to pay the taxes you will be hit with if you do that.  DO NOT pay the taxes out of the funds in the 401k. If you don't have a way to pay the taxes, then roll it to a traditional IRA.  You never want to pay the government any taxes 'early' and you don't want to reduce the balance. beyond that, A lot depends on how long you figure you will be with that company.  If it's only a few years, or if you and other employees can make enough of a fuss that they move the fund to someplace decent (any of the big no-load companies such as Vanguard would be a better custodian), then I'd go ahead and max it out. If you figure to be there for a long while, and it looks like someone is in bed with the custodian and there's no way it will be changed, then maybe look to max out a Roth IRA instead. "What this means is this: The authors of the website claim they have calculated the cost that it will take to ""fully fund the Medicare, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, Social Security, Military and civil servant pensions."" They claim that the government will have to spend $114T to do the things it is currently promising to do, and it hasn't set aside the money to do it. That's what is meant by an 'unfunded mandate'. Firstly I would take with a grain of salt the calculations of any website which claims the US is a kleptocracy in its title. You know they are coming to this with an agenda. Secondly this is money that the government has not actually spent. The government doesn't owe this money to anyone, and it is absolutely untrue that ""you are responsible along with everyone else to pay this back"". The worst they can claim is that the government will, one day, have to spend it - assuming that nothing else changes in that time. A government could pass a law that reduced Medicare, or raised taxes, and the 'unfunded mandate' would simply go away. Thirdly the calculation must assume a time period over which the money is spent. But the site carefully doesn't specify it. They can make the amount bigger or smaller as they choose, just by changing the time period over which it is calculated. To give an example, an unfunded mandate is a bit like enrolling in a four year college course without knowing how you are going to pay for it. You've said you are going to spend money on tuition - you may even have promised your mother you will finish the course - but you can in fact drop out if you choose and you don't owe anything for courses you haven't taken yet.  Some unfunded mandates can be legal obligations, but this isn't one. And in neither case are they money you actually owe. That's not to say that unfunded mandates are not a cause for concern - they represent a discrepancy between what a government says it will do, and what it can currently afford to do. As an illustration of how this works, you can look at either Russia ten years ago or Greece right now. All the expenditures in these ares are being cut. People are certainly angry, but there is nothing they can do to force the government to make those payments." If you have the cash on hand to pay the tax on the amount you are transferring I recommend moving to a Roth IRA An IRA is tax-deferred. You put in pretax contributions in to an IRA, and you are taxed on that money (your contributions and interest earned) when you withdraw it at retirement, age 59 1/2.  The idea being that you will be taking less out per year in your retirement years, putting you into a lower tax bracket. The major problem is most people draw out as much or more a year in their retirement years than when they were working. A Roth IRA grows tax free You put after tax contributions into a Roth IRA, you have paid taxes on the contributions, and you are never taxed on the growth. When you draw the money out at retirement you don't pay any income taxes on that money. Let me give you an example: For this example we will use the following information for both scenario: We will invest $400 per month for a total of $4800. The current maximum is $5000 if you are under 50 years old $400 dollars after taxes is $300 Invest $300 a month, at age 65 you have 3,529,432 You owe no taxes on this money, it doesn't matter how much you take out a year. $400 dollars a month is taken pretax out of your paycheck. Invest $400 per month, at age 65 you have $4,705,909 You owe taxes of 25% as you draw that out for at total tax of 1,176,477 4,705,909 - 1,176,477 = 3,529,432 cash in your pocket The problem is if you draw out more than $82,400 (current 2010 filing single) per year you will be pushed to a higher tax bracket and take more of your money away. If you decide to buy a vacation home and you take out $250,000 to pay for it, that's counted as income for that year any you will be in the 33% tax bracket. Even if you can keep yourself to a low income the government forces your hand and makes you draw out more money at age 70, based on their tables, forcing you into a higher tax bracket If you qualify for the safe harbor, you are not required to pay additional quarterly taxes.  Of course, you're still welcome to do so if you're sure you'll owe them; however, you will not be penalized. If your income is over $150k (joint) or $75k (single), your safe harbor is: Estimated tax safe harbor for higher income taxpayers. If your 2014 adjusted gross income was more than $150,000 ($75,000 if you are married filing a separate return), you must pay the smaller of 90% of your expected tax for 2015 or 110% of the tax shown on your 2014 return to avoid an estimated tax penalty. Generally, if you're under that level, the following reasons suggest you will not owe the tax (from the IRS publication 505): The total of your withholding and timely estimated tax payments was at least as much as your 2013 tax. (See Special rules for certain individuals for higher income taxpayers and farmers and fishermen.) The tax balance due on your 2014 return is no more than 10% of your total 2014 tax, and you paid all required estimated tax payments on time. Your total tax for 2014 (defined later) minus your withholding is less than $1,000. You did not have a tax liability for 2013. You did not have any withholding taxes and your current year tax (less any household employment taxes) is less than $1,000. If you paid one-fourth of your last year's taxes (or of 110% of your last-year's taxes) in estimated taxes for each quarter prior to this one, you should be fine as far as penalties go, and can simply add the excess you know you will owe to the next check. "Will this difference be given back in my next tax return If you compute your taxes correctly, yes you will get that money back when your tax return is processed. ""is it possible to return the check and modify how it's calculated if I talk to payroll?""  That is entirely up to your company but, probably not. It's a lot of effort for a comparatively small amount of money.  ""Any ideas?"" Yeah, you are doing your math wrong. A possible but more unlikely answer is your company's software screwed up." "You're supposed to be filling form 433-A. Vehicles are on line 18. You will fill there the current fair value of the car and the current balance on the loans. The last column is ""equity"", which in your case will indeed be a negative number. The ""value"" is what the car is worth. The ""equity"" is what the car is worth to you. IRS uses the ""equity"" value to calculate your solvency. Any time you fill a form to the IRS - read the instructions carefully, for each line and line. If in doubt - talk to a professional licensed in your state. I'm not a professional, and this is not a tax advice." You didn't put what country you're in, so I'll work off the basis you're in the United States. I think you're going to have a very hard time accomplishing what you're talking about after such an extraordinary amount of time.  One has to assume that there would still be records that could be retrieved in order for anyone to determine the amount you'd have to pay, and after 40 years, the paper records would be long gone.  It's possible there might be microfiche somewhere, but I wouldn't have a clue how easy or possible it would be for it to be retrieved.   I assume you're wanting to repay this as a way to boost Social Security or other government benefits in your retirement, but it's really hard to say whether repaying the rebated money would make much, if any, difference.   This is really something you'll have to contact the IRS about, but unless they are trying to collect funds from you that they say you owe then it's highly unlikely they have any record of what you're asking about, and they probably don't even have a mechanism for accepting and crediting such monies.  The real issue here is the amount of time that has passed, because there would be little compelling reason for the government to keep detailed records (they perhaps maintain summaries, but little else) for extended periods.  We all have the impression the government knows all and never forgets, but that simply isn't the case.