What tax bracket are you in? How much to withold? What is a FICA? Do I pay estimated taxes? How bad are the penalties? What are all the tax forms? What is a alternative minimum tax? Can I get audited? When to start tax planning?

A lot of people get their pay stubs and see they had their money deducted from them but don't know why. One of those items appears as "FICA". It stands for yjr Federal Insurance Contributions Act, 12.40 percent of your earned income up to a certain annual limit must be paid into Social Security, and another 2.90 percent must be paid towards Medicare.

There are no limits on Medicare taxes, so you will still be paying Medicare taxes even after your hit your limit for the Social Security tax. If you are employed by a employer, then you only pay half of the two taxes. The other half is paid by your employer.

If you are self employed, then you need to pay the entire share of the taxes. The good thing is that you are able to deduct half of the self-employment tax as a business expense.

Jan 31		If you haven't paid your 4th quarter estimated tax , you can opt to file last year's return by Jan 31.
Feb 17		If you claimed exemption from withholding last year, you need to file a new W-4 to continue the exemption.
Apr 15		Taxes are Due
Dec 31		Last day to setup most self-employed retirement accounts.