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Fortunately, Charlie hasn't said anything dumb or racist in a year (thelemmy.club)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 8 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Oic, weird, in Oz we just have a 0% tax rate for everything under 20k(ish)AUD, seems like a lot of extra steps to have tax rates listed for inconsequential amounts and then make people claim a deduction for those. Does the standard deduction apply to everyone or is it just if you earn less than the fixed amount? Because the latter would then penalise people for earning slightly more than the fixed amount which seems unfair ..

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  • [–] 1 point 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

    The standard deduction is for everyone. There is a different figure for married/joint filers as well I think.

    The only time it makes sense not to use it is if your job has lots of individual itemized deductions that add up to more than the standard deduction (most jobs don't).

    If you make less than the standard deduction (which isn't a whole lot. I think like $16k for 2025), and know it, you can just choose to not have any taxes withheld from your check. Then when you file your taxes, you will owe nothing. I believe you'd also get a refund for the difference between the standard deduction, and your taxable income.

    But yeah, everyone can claim it I think.

    Edit: I'm second guessing the last part about people making less than the standard deduction getting a return for the difference... Wouldn't that mean that someone could work for one day and then get a $16k check from the IRS? I'm sure I'm overlooking something...

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago*

    The Married filing joint figure is...just 2x the single one.

    But to your question, no. A deduction just reduces the value you are taxed on. That's different from a fully refundable credit, which you get back the value of whether your earnings are above it or not. There are also nonrefundable credits which are not much different from a deduction, only bring you to 0, not negative tax owed.

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