For anyone in the US who has just realized that they are nearly 1 month away from their taxes being due (April 18th) and is panicking because they don't know what to do,
Calm down.
If you're new to taxes, and in an early part of your life (just earning wages from a company that does withholdings), they're actually pretty easy to do and odds are you're just gonna get some free money (your tax refund).
Collect documents. Specifically, go get your get your W2, a form sent to you by whatever company you work for. Most will send you this online. Some might send you a paper copy.
Go to the above link, there's free filing options for federal taxes, and for some state taxes. It took me ~15 minutes to do my taxes in total, and then the government gave me like 1k back.
If your situation is more complicated than just having a W2, then go to the IRS's help page. They have a ton of super helpful tools that can walk you through different situations and what you need to do, they also have a toll-free help line.
https://www.irs.gov/help/ita
I know everyone talks about how much taxes suck, but legit, if you're an average wage earner and don't own a house or anything, odds are your taxes can be done in 15 minutes and then you get some of the taxes you paid back. It's not that scary, and the IRS has been working really hard to make the process as simple as possible.
Should I file my taxes if I made less than the minimum?
YES.
Filing your taxes in this case is useful for two reasons:
You might get a refund. And if you made less than the minimum required, then I suspect you could use that money back.
It's useful for tracking your income with the government for benefits. Remember during the lockdown when people got stimulus checks? Those checks were based on previous IRS filings.
So I know it's annoying and a pain in the ass, but filing your taxes is useful no matter what your income was. Here's more:
How to File Your Taxes FOR FREE in 2022: Simple Instructions for the Stressed-out Taxpayer (still relevant for this year but we're working on updating the numbers.
Would You Rather Owe Taxes or Get a Tax Refund This April? The Answer Might Surprise You!
Screw Up Your Taxes? Here’s How To Get Out of Paying Tax Penalties
Love when the US gov says investing in their own country’s healthcare or transportation will make taxes too expensive. Better to invest their workers’ pay in some other country’s weapons stash.
US people: getting my W-2 form in the mail reminds me that our income taxes are due this year by Monday, April 15.
It’s said that submitting the form (hard copy or electronically) during a void of course Moon will help protect us from problems. (Audits for example.)
This is called “electional astrology” - we are electing to do something at a specific time and place. And the meaning of a void Moon in electional astrology is “nothing will come of the matter.” Which is exactly what we want!
Here is a list of all the void of course Moons longer than 8 hours:
Friday, February 9, 22:59 UT - Saturday, February 10, 13:42 UT
Friday, February 23, 04:18 UT - Saturday, February 24, 01:38 UT
Tusday, February 27, 18:22 UT - Thursday, February 29, 03:09 UT
Tuesday, March 12, 11:08 UT - Wednesday, March 13, 00:28 UT
Tuesday, March 26, 23:09 UT - Wednesday, March 27, 09:03 UT
Tuesday, April 9, 02:39 UT - 11:23 UT
Cautionary notes:
The “shadow of the eclipse” starts on Friday, March 15; and ends on Thursday, April 11.
Mercury enters its retrograde zone on Monday, March 18; and stations retrograde on Monday, April 1, remaining so until Thursday, April 25.