Used to provide medical benefits for certain individuals when they reach age 65. Workers, retired workers, and the spouses of workers and retired workers are eligible to receive Medicare benefits upon reaching age 65.

Certain deductions that are itemized but do not fall into other specific categories on Form 1040 Schedule A. Most miscellaneous deductions are job-related expenses or investment expenses and can be deducted only if they are more than 2 percent of your adjusted gross income.

Interest paid on a loan secured by your home that is fully deductible, up to certain limits, when you itemize.

Expenses incurred when you moved in connection with your job and are deductible if they are the reasonable costs of moving yourself, your family and your possessions. You can no longer deduct the cost of meals while moving.

The amount left after taxes have been paid.

Active income, such as wages, tips and profits from your business which you materially participate in, and portfolio income, such as interest and dividends. Generally, you cannot offset non-passive income with passive losses. See also Active Income.

This type of credit is used to reduce the amount of tax to no less than zero. Any excess credit is not applied to next year or refunded to the taxpayer. It cannot be used to reduce certain “other taxes” such as unemployment taxes. (see also credits and refundable credits)

A person who is not a permanent resident or a citizen of the United States, and who is generally taxed on income from U.S. sources.

A state's refusal to recognize or obey a federal law.

Dividends that are distributions of a company's profits. They are fully taxable.

Income that does not qualify as a capital gain. Wages, interest, dividends and net income from a business are examples of ordinary income.

An activity in which you do not materially participate. Real estate rentals and limited partnerships are examples of passive activities.

Loss from a passive activity. Passive loss rules limit the amount of passive loss you can deduct to the total of your other income from passive activities.

Include Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Can be claimed for the taxpayer and spouse. Each personal exemption reduces the income subject to tax by the exemption amount.

Allow taxpayers to "sign" their tax returns electronically. The PIN, a five-digit self-selected number, ensures that electronically submitted tax returns are authentic. Most taxpayers can qualify to use a PIN.

A tax that takes a larger percentage of income from high-income groups than from low-income groups.

Taxes on property, especially real estate, but also can be on boats, automobiles (often paid along with license fees), recreational vehicles, and business inventories.

A tax that takes the same percentage of income from all income groups.

A tax levied on imported goods with the purpose of reducing domestic consumption of foreign-produced goods.

Benefits that cannot be withheld from those who don't pay for them, and benefits that may be "consumed" by one person without reducing the amount of the product available for others. Examples include national defense, streetlights, and roads and highways. Public services include welfare programs, law enforcement, and monitoring and regulating trade and the economy.

For the adoption credit, reasonable and necessary expenses for adopting your child, including such expenses as adoption fees, attorney fees and other expenses. However, expenses paid for a surrogate parenting arrangement or expenses paid to adopt your spouse's child are not allowed.

A qualifying child for the earned income credit meets the relationship, age, and residency tests. A taxpayer who claims the earned income credit cannot be the qualifying child of another person. A person can be claimed as a qualifying child on one tax return only.

For the tax credit for child and dependent care expenses, a qualifying person is a child, dependent, or spouse who meets specific requirements. The taxpayer must furnish more than half the cost of maintaining a home that is also the home of the qualifying person. A qualifying child must be under age 13; the taxpayer must claim a dependency exemption for the child. (There is an exception for children of divorced or separated parents.) A qualifying dependent, or a person who could be claimed as a dependent if his or her gross income was less than the exemption amount, must be physically or mentally incapable of self-care. A qualifying spouse must be physically or mentally incapable of self-care.

If your spouse died in the current tax year, you can use married filing jointly as your filing status for that year if you otherwise qualify as married. The year of death is the last year for which you can file jointly with your spouse. You may be eligible to use qualifying widow(er) with dependent child as your filing status for two years following your spouse’s death. However, you only qualify for this status if you have dependent children. You also must not remarry while claiming this status. This status is available for up to two years following the year of your spouse's death. For example, if your spouse died in 2011, and you have not remarried, you may be able to use this filing status for 2012 and 2013. This filing status entitles you to use joint return tax rates and the highest standard deduction amount (if you do not itemize deductions). This status does not entitle you to file a joint return.