Tax question

[chrisms]

I sold $8,000 worth of stocks, with a profit of around $3000. However my total income, including stocks, was somewhere around $15,000 (including income given to me while a dependent for a few months).

Is Uncle Sam going to come asking me for money soon? Would it be better to be a dependent or not?

I'm not looking for exact numbers here, just a basic idea of what I might be looking at come April. I know they want a lot of your stock profits but I was wondering, if because my total income was so low, I could avoid this.

 

[FoBoT]

how long did you hold the stock? the rate for short term and long term capital gains is different (i think)

 

[chrisms]

3 stocks at about 2 years, 5 years, and 8 years.

 

[alien42]

read this

 

[chrisms]

Originally posted by: alien42
read this

I understand that capital gains are taxed, I guess my question is does my total income have anything to do with my tax rate? I'm relieved to read that I may fit into the 15%, as opposed to the 28% catagory, though. That had me freaked out before.

I guess what might end up happening is I get taxed 15% on the stock profits, but that is then somewhat offset by my income tax refund. I have no idea.

 

[bobdelt]

File your tax return. You'll be taxed on this but probably less than 15% (the normal LT-capital gains rate) because youre income is so low.

 

[EagleKeeper]

The use of Tax S/W (free online) will easily walk you through the steps and allow you to play what if.

 

[JS80]

you may qualify for the low 5% LTCG rate because you have low income.