It took until the new year but we finally have a resolution to the tax headaches created by the fiscal cliff and the results are positive for most taxpayers. Unless you earn more than $400,000 as a single filer or $450,000 as a married filing jointly, your taxes will remain the same for the near future. The Bush era tax cuts were extended for income levels under that threshold and there was a five year extension of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Earned Income Tax Credit.

Below, you’ll see what the official 2013 IRS tax brackets will be as well as the “pre-fiscal cliff” predictions. I kept them just for history’s sake, I find that it’s useful to see what could’ve been as well as what actually is because it can help us understand what the future might bring.

If you’re looking for the 2012 tax brackets, that is the brackets that will be in effect when you file your taxes, you can find them at here.

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Until a few years ago, the stock market was a mystery to me. I understood how it worked but I was always concerned about taxes, not getting ripped off, and the sums of money it seemed to take to “make” anything in the market. This was way before the huge market gyrations of the last few years, especially the pops and drops during the “Great Recession,” and I didn’t commit myself to learning until a few years into personal finance blogging.

I thought it would be valuable to put together an article on the basics of stock market investing. This won’t explain everything about the market, that’s just too difficult, but hopefully it’s a good start that will be the basis for additional research. Let me know if you see anything missing and I can add it.

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When go to work for “the man,” you will be expected to fill out a Form W-4. This is a form provided by the IRS that helps employers figure out how much money should be taken out of each paycheck and sent on to Uncle Sam. The way you fill out your W-4 determines how much of your paycheck is withheld. And how much of your paycheck is withheld determines how much money you owe in April, or how big of a refund you get back.

For many, the sweet spot is figuring out the withholding so that you don’t owe a lot of money come tax time, but also so that you don’t have a huge refund, which is tantamount to giving the government an interest-free loan. The idea is to get yourself as close to 0 as possible. If you want to adjust your withholding to better reflect your tax liability, all you have to do is fill out and turn in a new W-4.

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Now that we’re in the heart of tax season and the tax brackets for the current calendar year have been finalized, I’m ready to take off the “sneak peek” off the label for the 2012 IRS tax brackets. Our original figures were not off, the 2012 tax brackets were exactly how we predicted and that’s in part because we knew what inflation would be (and it’s effects on our tax structure).

The current tax brackets, that is the tax brackets that are in effect for the 2012 tax year, can be found on this archived page for 2011 tax brackets. These apply for tax year 2011, which you are preparing for today. The rates below will apply when you go to file your taxes in 2013. I know it’s confusing but this is how the cool tax kids talk about it.

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As of March 22nd, the average tax refund stands at just a hair under three thousand dollars. At this time last year, the average was a little over that amount, sitting at $3,030 (the average for last year would later fall to $2,803 as later filers were accounted for).

As is always the case earlier in the season, this average will likely go down. It’s usually higher because people due refunds tend to file earlier than those who are not expecting one. If you were due a refund, it may make sense to adjust your tax withholding as you don’t want to give Uncle Sam 25% of your income.

I wanted to dig a little deeper on the question of average income tax refund because nearly three thousand dollars seems really high but it actually isn’t. It took a bit of searching but after some research into their SOI Tax Stats page, I was able to glean a few gems about the average tax refund.

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I get this question a lot and despite the availability of the IRS tax brackets, it’s not always clear how to figure out which tax bracket you are in. Fortunately with a little math and some approximation, it’s quite simple to figure out which tax bracket you are in. A common mistake is to just look at your salary and look at the table, that ignores your personal exemption (and any you get for dependents) plus your deductions. We can do a better job at approximating than that!

Why do you want to know? The biggest reason most people want to know is for tax planning purposes. If you’re going to be in a higher tax bracket this year, it pays to accelerate your deductions (make larger donations this year, pay your mortgage a little early to get the interest deduction, etc.) into 2011 rather than wait until 2012. If you know you’re going to be in a higher tax bracket next year, it pays to delay them (assuming the time difference is not a factor). In the end, will it matter if you are in the 28% or 25% tax bracket? Not necessarily but we want to get as accurate as possible without going too deep that we get caught up in the minor details.

So, let’s figure this out.

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Investing is one of those lessons that your children can learn. Teens can begin learning about investing, and the ways it can benefit them. However, anytime your child has an investment, he or she has the potential to make money. Of course, as with most income, the government wants its cut. So, your child will have to pay taxes on the income received from investments, dividends and interest.

The tax on children’s investment income is known as the Kiddie Tax. If you are thinking of sheltering some of your investment assets as a child’s, or if your child has done pretty well with his or her investments during the year, you need to be aware of the basics related to the Kiddie Tax:

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I have heard a ton about tax breaks for the wealthy over the last two years. I have also heard a few things about tax breaks for the poor but didn’t know any details. I seldom heard about tax breaks for middle class individuals though. I thought I could do us all a favor and write about tax breaks I saw mentioned at Kiplinger. You may be able to benefit by taking advantage of the following tax breaks for the middle and lower income classes (and some of these may apply even if you are in the upper echelons of the IRS tax brackets).

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