Taxation Legal Terms and Definitions

Compulsory payroll tax An automatic tax collected from employers and employees to finance specific programs. Gross income Money, goods, services, and property a person receives that must be reported on a tax return. Includes unemployment compensation and certain scholarships. It does not include welfare benefits and nontaxable Social Security benefits. Federal income tax The federal government levies a tax on personal income. The federal income tax provides for national programs such as defense, foreign affairs, law enforcement, and interest on the national debt. Excise tax A tax on the sale or use of specific products or transactions. Estate and Gift Tax One of the oldest and most common forms of taxation is the taxation of property held by an individual at the time of their death. Such a tax can take the form, among others, of estate tax (a tax levied on the estate before any transfers). An estate tax is a charge upon the decedent's entire estate, regardless of how it is disbursed. Subchapter S The S-Corporation must complete and file IRS Form 1120s to report its annual income to the IRS each year. Form W-4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate Completed by the employee and used by the employer to determine the amount of income tax to withhold. Meal Expense Deduction Generally, you can deduct only 50% of your business-re-lated meal expenses while traveling away from your tax home for business purposes. Also, you can generally de­duct only 50% of certain reimbursements you make to your employees for meal expenses they incur while traveling away from home on business. Work Opportunity Credit and Welfare-to-Work Credit The work opportunity credit and the welfare-to-work credit are scheduled to expire for wages paid to individuals who began working for you after 2003. Income taxes Taxes on income, both earned (salaries, wages, tips, commissions) and unearned (interest, dividends). Income taxes can be levied on both individuals (personal income taxes) and businesses (business and corporate income taxes).

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	Did You Know?
	Form 5471 is Information Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Certain Foreign Corporations Report information with respect to certain foreign corporations. A domestic partnership may have to file Form 5471 if it: Controls a foreign corporation; or Acquires, disposes of, or owns 5% or more in value of the outstanding stock of a foreign corporation; or Owns stock in a corporation that is a controlled foreign corporation for an uninterrupted period of 30 days or more during any tax year of the foreign corporation, and it owned that stock on the last day of that year.