Taxes, in plain English.

The overview

Most of the tax code never touches your return. What actually moves your bill is a short list: how much income has no withholding, which deadlines apply, what rate hits the next dollar you earn, and whether you've pre-paid enough to avoid a penalty. This hub covers that short list in plain English.

The piece that surprises people most is the pay-as-you-go system. Federal income tax is due as income is earned, not in one lump at filing time. Employees meet that through paycheck withholding; the self-employed, gig workers, and people with large investment or rental income meet it through quarterly estimated payments on Form 1040-ES. Miss the threshold and the IRS charges an underpayment penalty that works like interest.

For anyone self-employed, the other big line is self-employment tax — the 15.3% that funds Social Security and Medicare when no employer is withholding it. It's figured on 92.35% of net earnings, it stacks on top of income tax, and half of it is deductible. The cluster pages below work through the deadlines, the safe-harbor math, and the numbers behind each.

What we don't do: prepare your return or give advice for your situation. We explain the mechanics and link every figure to a primary source (the IRS, SSA, and Treasury) and to a calculator you can run yourself. For a filing decision, the IRS and a qualified tax professional are the authoritative sources.