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Note: this workshop is currently undergoing revision for the 2007 tax year. In the meantime, we appologize for the poor formatting.

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Understanding Taxes
      Tax Year 2006

 

Introduction

Welcome to the Utah State Tax Commission's online 2006 Understanding Taxes workshop. This online resource is designed to be used by educators in their curriculums and to offer students an understanding of Utah taxes and how the revenues collected from taxes are disbursed to state, county and local governments.

How this site works

The site provides some background information on three major taxes: property taxes, sales and use tax, and individual income taxes.

In addition, instructors or students may access a tutorial which explains Utah employment taxes. The in-depth tutorial details employers' responsibilities for withholding state income taxes from employees' wages, reporting and paying the taxes, and completion of employee Wage and Tax Statements, federal Form W-2.

There are several income tax modules (exercises) which give students practical experience in preparing a Utah Individual Income Tax return for 2006. Utah income tax law requires Utah returns to start with a taxpayer's federal adjusted gross income, which requires the completion of the federal return before starting the state return. Therefore, the exercises utilize the tax information modules students complete online at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Understanding Taxes program. Utilizing the data from the IRS modules gives the students a more realistic training experience.

The exercises require the students to do all calculations for each module. Each exercise has all of the information necessary for the student to complete the Utah return (W-2 forms, 1099 forms, and etc). Each Utah exercise provides all required information from the simulated federal return that is needed to complete the Utah individual income tax return. However, students will benefit more by completing the federal return before starting the Utah returns.

Completed returns are available to check answers.

Feedback

Comments and suggestions on how we can make this training more effective are appreciated. Please send your comments to:

Taxpayer Education Coordinator, Taxpayer Services Division
Utah State Tax Commission
210 North 1950 West
Salt Lake City, Utah 84134
(801) 297-6212 or 1-800-662-4335 ext 6212
E-mail: hmcilrath@utah.gov

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