A tax bracket simply refers to the tax rate for a specific amount of income such as 20% taxes for the first $30,000 of income. Tax brackets are used by the Federal government and many states in their income tax systems. The United States...
wex definitions
tax costs
Tax costs generally refers either to increased tax liabilities resulting from a corporate transaction or more frequently as a motion of a losing party to challenge paying certain costs of the winning party in litigation. A “motion to strike”...
tax court
Tax court refers to the United States Tax Court (previously referred to as the U.S. Board of Tax Appeals and the Tax Court of the United States) which can hear challenges to tax decisions of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The tax court...
tax credit
Tax credit directly decreases the tax liability of a taxpayer, unlike tax deductions which only reduce taxable income. A tax credit is subtracted from the tax liability itself. For example, a taxpayer with a tax liability of $10,000 with a...
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA)
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) is the unofficial name for the large set of changes to the Revenue Code of 1986, signed into law by President Trump in 2017. TCJA made many large changes across multiple areas of the tax code,...
tax deduction
Tax deduction is an item or expense that can reduce the taxes a person owes in a given year. A deductible item is subtracted from the total taxable income which can substantially reduce taxes owed by an individual or corporation. Often...
tax examiner
Tax examiners review tax returns for accuracy and ensure payment. They ensure each part of the filing was accurately calculated, and if not, they will inform the taxpayer of what must be done next. Tax examiners usually handle smaller returns...
tax fraud
Tax fraud broadly encompasses all attempts by a taxpayer or entity to falsify information on a tax return or other document in order to reduce their tax liability. This can take the form of wrongly calculating the value of assets, using...
tax liability
Tax liability is any amount that a taxpayer owes to the government in taxes.
[Last updated in November of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team]
tax lien
A lien acquired by court order that gives the government a security interest in property because of a failure to pay assessed taxes. If the property is mortgaged, a tax lien will take precedence over the mortgage. This is why a mortgage lender may...