Marital Status, Age, Income

• You are generally not required to file an income tax return if your income is below a certain level. This level varies from tax year to tax year and is different depending on your age and marital status. For example, for the 2010 tax year, a single person under the age of 65 whose income was less than $9,350 was not required to file an income tax return. A married person filing separately from her spouse was not required to file if her income was below $3,650. Income generally includes all income received in the form of money, goods, property and services. Social Security benefits are usually excluded from the income calculation, except under certain conditions.
  
  

Dependents

• If someone else has claimed you as a dependent, you generally don't have to file taxes. There are many exceptions, however. For the 2010 taxation year, a single dependent over the age of 65 who earned more than $2,350 in Social Security benefits or other unearned income was required to file taxes. A child who was a dependent of her parents but who earned more than $5,700 in wages also had to file her own return. These are only two of the many possible scenarios where a dependent is required to file her own return.
  
  

Other Situations Where Filing is Mandatory

• Special situations might obligate an individual to file even if she would otherwise not be required to submit a return. These situations include owing special taxes, such as the alternative minimum tax. If you must pay Social Security and Medicare taxes because your employer did not properly withhold them, you are also required to file a return. Other situations include net self-employment earnings over a certain amount; in 2010, the amount was $400.
  
  

Why Some Might Choose to File

• If an individual does not have to file a tax return, she might choose to do so in order to receive a refund of taxes withheld by her employer. Filing is also the first step toward claiming several tax credits, some of which are refundable. An individual who qualifies for the Earned Income Tax Credit might receive a refund, for example, even if income taxes were not withheld on her behalf.