Lets see what I can do (I'm assuming you're American) (DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A VERY SIMPLIFIED EXPLANATION OF THE WORKINGS OF A 1040. THIS SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS ADVICE. IF YOU ARE UNSURE OF ANYTHING DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY OF THE TAX CODE, SEE AN ACCOUNTANT, EA, OR A TAX LAWYER. IRS PENALTIES ARE NO JOKE.):

Whenever you start a new job (and whenever you want to make changes) you fill out a form called a W4. This form is important as it tells your employer at what rate to withhold taxes from your paycheck. There are different rates based on your marital status as well as something known as Head-of-Household, but I'm going to make an assumption that it doesn't apply in this case. Your weekly tax withholding is also determined by the number of dependents you claim on the W4, as each dependent claimed deducts from your taxable income, but we'll get there.

After the end of the year, your place of employment will mail you a form called W2. This form highlights your income for the year, the amount of taxes withheld by your employer, as well as any other deductions such Healthcare premiums or disability insurance. If you had any other sources of income throughout the year, such as dividends and interest from stocks (or bank accounts), you would receive a 1099DIV for dividends and/or 1099INT for interest. This will be what you declare for your income. The form you will being filling out to file your taxes is called Form 1040 (although, you can also submit Form 1040EZ if your income level is low enough and you aren't looking to claim many credits).

Form 1040: The beginning part of the form is your personal information and should be easy enough to fill out. The first part about your financial information comes at line 7. Here you enter the amount from line 1 of your W2. If you have multiple W2s, the amount entered on line 1 should be the sum of all the line 1 amounts. If you received any 1099INT, the information gets entered on lines 8a and 8b. The 1099 will differentiate what amounts are taxable and non-taxable. If you received a 1099DIV, this information is entered on lines 9a and 9b. Line 1 is entered in 9a, line 1b is entered on 9b. If your interest or dividend income is greater that $1,500, you must also record this information on Schedule B. I'm going to make the assumption for this walk-through that you are neither self-employed, which removes the need for a Schedule C and line 12 of the 1040. If you received a 1099B, you would enter the gain/loss on line 13 and would need to fill out Schedule D. I am also going to assume that you did not have any rental income/royalties, eliminating the need for line 17/Schedule E. If you receive Social Security, the information from SSA-1099 is entered on line 20a and 20b. To figure out how much of the benefits received are taxable, you will need to fill out a worksheet that comes with Form 1040 instructions. This concludes the income portion of the return.

Above the line deductions: The next portion of the form are for deductions known as above the line deductions, aka, they aren't impacted by your tax rate, though they can be phased out by your income levels. If you're an educator, you can deduct up to $250 your related expenses since educators buy many of their own supplies. Net contributions (contributions less withdrawals) made to HSAs can be deducted. You may be able to deduct moving expenses if for a job, but there is a distance requirement (distance between old home and new job needs to be 50 miles > travel distance between old home and old job.) If you paid any alimony, the full amount is deductible from your AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) (If you're in a divorce with kids, Alimony is deductible, child support isn't). If you made any IRA contributions (traditional, not Roth) you may be able to deduct these contributions, but need to fill out a worksheet to figure out the allowed amount - comes with the instructions. One of the last portions here is in regards to student loan interest. If you are filing Single and your income was below $80,000, congratulations, you can deduct the full $2,500 from your AGI, even if you paid more! (If income is more or filing under different status, please see worksheet in the instruction manual) The sum of all these deductions is then calculated and subtracted from your income - this gives us your AGI.

Next up, Standard or Itemized deductions and personal deductions! To figure out whether a standard or itemized deduction is right for you, here is a rule of thumb: If you own a home (and paying a mortgage on it), you're going to be itemizing, if not, take the standard deduction. The standard deduction amount changes on a year to year basis (cost of living increases) and depends on your filing status. Itemize deductions come with a fun asterisk known as floors. Example: Your AGI is $50,000. One of the allowable itemized deductions on Schedule A are health care costs, with a 10% floor. That means to be able to itemize those costs, they would need to be greater that $5,000 ($50,000 * 10%), otherwise you can't use them. This is where the ROT is applicable, as mortgage interest does not come with a floor ( Congress' way to try and inspire home ownership). You can also itemize state income tax paid OR sales tax paid, whichever is greater, gifts to charity (keep it under $5,000), and certain job expenses and casualty losses, both with a 2% floor. After that you also get to take personal deduction, with an additional deduction per number of dependents you are claiming on the front of the form. After these deductions are subtracted from your AGI, you are left with your taxable income. From here, you need to consult with the tax brackets to determine the amount of tax that you owed throughout the year. If your income was high enough, you also need to solve for your AMT - Alternative Minimum Tax (Which is more complicated than you should be concerned with). Finally, there are additional credits you can claim in this section which produces a tax figure, whether that is zero or tax due.

The IRS then wants you to compute any additional taxes you may owe - Self employment taxes, taxes on early withdrawals from IRAs, etc. Once this is all computed, you add this to the early tax figure you solved for to determine your total taxes owed for the year. The next section of the form highlights tax payments already made throughout the year. This is where you enter the information from the W2 about the employer withholdings. There are also refundable credits (you can receive the money from the credits even if you owe no tax) you can claim, such as the Earned Income Credit and additional education credits such as the American Opportunity credit for college costs, as long as your AGI is not too high. You will need to fill out additional forms to determine how much of each you can claim. You then subtract the payments made from the total tax due to come up with you tax owed/refund amount.

That wasn't so complicated, was it?

In all seriousness, I don't know why I just took an hour typing that out, but if you want to do your own taxes and you earn less than $60,000, head online to IRS.gov. There are links there which allow you to file online, for free, and instruct you which information you should be inputting while asking to see if you are overlooking any information. Many states have this option on there tax department website as well.