Your First Tax Return
A tax return tells the government what you earned and can bring money back.
The idea
When you earn money from a job, part of it usually goes to the government as tax, and your employer often takes some out of each paycheck before you ever see it. A tax return is a form you send in once a year that says how much you earned and how much tax was already paid. If more was taken out than you actually owed, you may get some back as a refund. Most people file online using the pay forms their employer mails them, and there is a deadline each year for sending it in. 🧾
Words to know
- Tax
- Money people pay to the government out of what they earn.
- Tax return
- A once-a-year form that says how much you earned and how much tax you paid.
- Refund
- Money sent back to you if more tax was taken out than you owed.
- W-2
- A form your employer sends you showing your pay and the tax already taken out.
- Deadline
- The last day you are allowed to send something in.
Try it — no account needed
True or false? Let's test what you know about tax returns.
A tax return is a form that reports how much you earned in a year.
In the full lesson
- 1True or false
- 2Work out the number
- 3Make the call
Vine has 107 lessons like this one, each written three ways so a 7-year-old and a 17-year-old both get a version that fits.
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