Filing Requirements

• As of 2009, you are required to file an income tax return if your income exceeds the following amounts: $9,350 for single filers, $12,000 for heads of household, $18,700 for married filing jointly, $3,650 for married filing separately, and $15,050 for qualifying widows/widowers. Based on these guidelines, you may opt out of filing a return if your filing status is married filing jointly, head of household, or qualifying widow/widower and your make less than $10,000. If you are single or file separately, you may still be required to file a return.
  
  

Tax Refunds

• Even if you earned less than $10,000, you may want to file a return if you had federal income tax withheld from your pay. If you didn't meet the requirement to file, all of the federal tax withheld will be refunded to you. The amount (if any) of income tax withheld should be present on the W-2 you receive from your employer.
  
  

Exceptions

• Older taxpayers (those over the age of 65) are allowed to earn a bit more income than other taxpayers before they are required to file a return. For 2009, the income limit for taxpayer over 65 is as follows: $10,750 for single filers, $13,400 for heads of household, $20,900 for married filing jointly (or $19,800 if only one spouse is 65 or older), and $16,150 for qualifying widows/widowers.
  
  

Exclusions

• Several types of income are excluded from taxable income. Workers compensation, child support payments, compensatory damages rewarded for physical injury, Welfare benefits, gifts and adoption expense reimbursements do not count toward your taxable income. And although Social Security can be taxable, most often it is not -- unless one half your Social Security income plus other income exceeds $25,000 ($32,000 if married filing jointly).
  
  

Warning

• If you are required to file a return and fail to do so, the IRS reserves the right to file a substitute return on your behalf. Substitute returns will not give you any credits or deductions for which you may be eligible and thus will increase your overall tax liability.