Need help on my current tax status...?

Question

Firstly, I need to know what some of this info appearing on my paystub that is related to taxes means. Below I'll link to a picture of my most recent stub (with some details blacked out for privacy, obviously).

On the stub are the following points that I don't fully understand.

"W-4 Fed Withholding "S"
----
Exemptions
Fed "3"
State "0"
Local "0"
------
Deductions Detail
FICA EE
Medicare
Fed W/H
LA W/H

What is the "S", what do the 3, 0, 0 mean, and while I think Fed is Federal Withholdings, and LA is my State withholdings, what is FICA EE?


Secondly, with this info and knowing this, I have held this job since September last year, and did not file last year due to making too little money. I'm worried that I still am. As you can see, I'll clear just over 15k at years end.

In addition to this, I currently have 1 dependent, my 62 year old father, who due to a heart condition is unable to work. I can provide more details on that if needed, but as is, the dependent status is what I think is important.

So, what do those various pieces of my stub mean, and, with what I've provided, can I expect any sort of Income Tax (I'm willing to go "long form"), and to what degree? I'm currently reading various books on taxes, but some have conflicting information, so I guess a third party input would be nice.


PAYSTUB Link: http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/6799/paystub.png

For the curious, black boxes are address, account number, employee ID, and the advice #, none of which should be relevant to my question.

Answer 1

The letter S means you are single. If you were married you would see the letter M instead



Fed-3 means you listed 3 allowances for your federal taxes. This gives the payroll processing department an approximate amount of how many dependents, deductions etc you're going to qualify for so they can withhold the proper amount of tax so that you don't owe the IRS next April but you aren't having outrageous amounts withheld and getting tiny paychecks either. The other 0's just mean you claimed 0 exemptions for state and local tax withholding.



FICA is the taxes that pay for social security and medicare. This money is not refundable and won't show up on your tax returns. Its just there for your reference so you can see how much tax you've paid for those programs.



FED W/H is the amount of money withheld from your paychecks toward federal income taxes. When you file your federal tax return you'll determine how much tax you actually owe and any overpayment is refunded.



LA W/H is the withholding for state income taxes. Like federal income taxes, you'll file a return to determine what your actual tax owed is for the year and you will either get your overpayment refunded or you will have to pay the difference if you owe more.



As for your Father, you can probably claim him as long as his taxable income is less than $3700 for the entire 2011 tax year. Social security benefits don't count but if he has bank interest, pensions, retirement account withdraws, etc those all count. You might be able to claim head of household status for supporting your father even if he doesn't live in your home. Your best bet there is to either hire a tax preparer or buy a tax software program and answer each question in the software with accurate info.

Answer 2

You filed your W-4 with your employer as Single + 3 withholding allowances. You didn't claim any state or local allowances.



FICA EE is the employee share of the Social Security tax. Normally the rate is 6.2% but for 2011 it was temporarily reduced to 4.2%.



You will need to file a return in 2011 but won't have any tax liability based upon what you say. If you paid more than half of the cost of maintaining the home that your father lived in (does not have to be your home) you can file as Head of Household and claim him as a dependent. This will wipe out any tax liability. You won't be able to file Form 1040-EZ but probably can file Form 1040-A.

Answer 3

S= Single vs M=Married.



Fed 3, 3 allowances. 0 for state and local.



You say you have a dependent, so 3 is reasonable.



IRS

$15,000 - 5800 (single) - 7400 (you and 1 dependent) = $1800 or $180 or so in tax. (I didn't consider your ytd withholding at all. That's more, so you'd get a refund.)



If you can show you paid more than half the cost of your home on your own, then:

15,000 - 8500 (head of household) -7400 = $0 income and $0 tax



PS, does dad get SSDI or SS retirement benefits? If so, you may not be able to claim him.

PPS, did you have any unemployment this year?

Answer 4

S means single

FED '3' means you claim three exemptions on the FIT, apparently none on the state



FICA is a combination of SS and Medicare doesn't usually have EE included with the label