How Does A Tax Credit Work?

Most people try to avoid tax subjects as much as possible. Tax credits are something you should love because they save you a ton. Okay, so how does a tax credit work?

The world is full of government conspiracy theories. Who caused 9/11? Who killed President Kennedy? The general idea is there is a hidden power running everything like a puppeteer. Whatever your view on these theories, most government efforts to change our conduct are very open. The efforts often take the form of financial incentives and tax credits are one of the biggest.

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People talk about tax deductions all of the time. Please. Tax deductions pale in comparison to the mighty tax credit. Why is this? Well, consider what each does. A tax deduction reduces the amount of income you will claim when figuring out the tax you will owe. Let’s say you made $50,000 last year. Now let’s say you have a single tax deduction of $500. This lowers your adjusted gross income to $49,500. You would then go to the tax tables and figure out that you owe $12,500. The $500 tax deduction saved you a minimalistic $50 or so on the final amount you had to pay. These numbers are inaccurate, but used to show you how things work.

A tax credit is not deducted from your income before figuring out how much tax you owe. Instead, it is deducted dollar for dollar from the tax you owe. Now, take the same example but change the deduction to a $500 tax credit. Instead of subtracting the $500 figure from the $50,000 you earned during the year, you would direct it from the $12,500 you had to pay Uncle Sam. Instead of the $50 saving the tax deduction gave you, you would get the full $500. Again, this is just for example purposes.

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People search high and low for tax deductions when they should really be looking for tax credits. Consider the case of hybrid cars. The federal government wants us to break our oil addition. To get us to embrace hybrid cars, it issued a large tax deduction of $3,000 for anyone that bought the cars. Nobody did. The enticement of the $3,000 deduction simply wasn’t a big enough carrot if you will. The government then changed the tax code to offer a tax credit to anyone who purchased the cars for up to $3,000 or so. Guess what? People started buying hybrids like mad because a $3,000 tax credit is a huge tax break.

So, how does a tax credit work? It is deducted dollar for dollar from the tax you owe the government and saves you a ton of money.

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