GREENSBORO, N.C. — Are you ever too old to pay taxes? Recently a 2 Wants To Know viewer wrote in an email:
“I'm 67 years old. Haven't I aged out for paying taxes?”
As a tax professional, Kevin Robinson gets asked that a lot.
“How old do I have to be to stop paying taxes? And I tell them, it's a function of income and not age. Typically, if the person is on social security only, they don't have to file taxes,” said Kevin Robinson of Robinson Tax and Accounting Services.
Anyone over the age of 65 can skip filing taxes if their income is under $14,700 in 2022. If it's a married couple, both over the age of 65, filing jointly their taxable income needs to be below $27,300.
If social security is the only income, it is not considered taxable income.
Now to the other end of the spectrum, If you have a college student and they had a summer job, they should be filing taxes.
“So, they might not have to file, but that refund comes in handy for school spending money. If they worked a summer job and had $300 tax withheld, they can file it and get the refund money,” said Robinson.
Parents can still claim their college-aged child as a dependent, but the student gets to file and get their federal and state tax withheld back. The two returns are linked together.
Here is the info from the IRS:
Question
How much income can an unmarried dependent student make before he or she must file an income tax return?
Answer
An unmarried dependent student must file a tax return if his or her earned or unearned income exceeds certain limits. To find these limits, refer to "Dependents" under "Who Must File" in Publication 501, Dependents, Standard Deduction and Filing Information. You can also refer to Do I Need to File a Tax Return? to see if your income requires you to file.
Even if you don't have to file a federal income tax return, you should file if you can get money back (for example, you had federal income tax withheld from your pay or you qualify for a refundable tax credit). See "Who Should File" in Publication 501 for more examples.