You only have to examine your paycheck to realize certain income is tax-free. For example, health insurance premiums paid by your employer are generally not includible in your income.
Do you know the tax status of other types of income? Here’s a short quiz to test your knowledge.
1. You tell your son he’ll be the sole beneficiary of your estate, and that you’ve decided to give him an advance on his inheritance. You hand him a check for $10,000. He wants to know how much he’ll have to pay in taxes. What do you tell him?
Answer: Gifts, bequests, devises, and inheritances are generally not taxable to the beneficiary. Income produced from those sources is taxable to the beneficiary.
2. You withdraw $20,000 of the contributions you made to your Roth IRA over the past five years, but you’re not of retirement age. Do you have a taxable event?
Answer: Unlike traditional IRAs, distributions from Roths are first allocated to amounts you contributed to the account. To the extent the distribution is a return of your contributions, it’s not included in your income and you can withdraw it penalty- and tax-free.
