Taking Credit for Your Work

A Roundup of Federal Tax Credits Available to Individuals

Patricia Z. Galletta, CPA

We've come a long way from 1863, when the individual income tax return consisted of a mere two pages. To make the payment of taxes more equitable, over the years tax credits have been created to address a bewildering array of circumstances. According to the IRS, approximately 34% of the 2011 individual income tax returns contained a tax credit. Although the Internal Revenue Code allows many different tax credits (Exhibit 1), the purpose of this article is to discuss the most common and enduring tax credits that may be applicable to the widest range of individual taxpayers.