Americans common misunderstandings about taxes unveiled including basic mistakes

Nearly one in five Gen Zers (17%) believe that you can write anything off as a business expense when filing your taxes, according to new research.A survey of 4,000 Americans who plan to file taxes this year, split evenly by generation and gender, revealed that though they may be one of life’s unavoidables, Americans know little about taxes.According to the results, Gen Z also believes that students don’t need to file taxes (20%) and that if you’re paid in cash, you aren’t required to pay taxes (13%).Baby boomers, on the other hand, were even more likely to believe that you don’t need to file taxes and you can’t get a refund if you make it under the IRS income requirements (27%).A quarter of millennials and Gen X even believe that immigrants don’t pay taxes.In reality, a business expense can only be categorized as something necessary and directly related to your business.People earning under the IRS threshold and students are not required to file but should file if they had federal taxes taken out or are eligible for certain refundable credits since they may have a refund coming.Immigrants are also required to pay taxes on any U.

S.income made throughout the year.One in 10 even believe that the younger generations have never filed their own taxes.Nearly a quarter (23%) of Gen Z and 28% of millennials have filed their own taxes directly to the IRS without anyone’s help.But still, that leaves many of each generation who admit they haven’t actually filed their own taxes.

Instead, millennials opt for an online tax service (54%) or a professional (37%), whereas 32% of Gen Z look to their parents for help.Even half of Gen X and 44% of baby boomers use an online or tax software system to file.Conducted by Talker Research on behalf of TurboTax, the survey moved beyond tax misconceptions and put respondents’ tax knowledge to the test.Less than half of Americans polled (47%) were able to properly match the term “earned income tax credit (EITC)” with ...