Meaning & use
federal adjusted gross income
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountableAmericanfinancelegal
In US tax law, your total income after certain allowed deductions, used to work out some tax limits and credits.
Grammar: Used as a fixed phrase with no plural; say 'your federal adjusted gross income', not 'your federal adjusted gross incomes'.
Patterns
- calculate your federal adjusted gross income
- federal adjusted gross income of someone
- report federal adjusted gross income on a form
Your federal adjusted gross income appears on a specific line of your tax return.
Some credits are only available if your federal adjusted gross income is below a set amount.
She checked her federal adjusted gross income before applying for the student loan program.
Common combinations
- calculate federal adjusted gross income
- You must calculate federal adjusted gross income before you fill in the next section.
- federal adjusted gross income limit
- The credit phases out above a federal adjusted gross income limit.
- report federal adjusted gross income
- Employers do not report federal adjusted gross income; taxpayers work it out themselves.
- modified federal adjusted gross income
- Some states start from a modified federal adjusted gross income figure.
- below the federal adjusted gross income threshold
- Families below the federal adjusted gross income threshold pay no tax on those benefits.
Synonyms and how they differ
- adjusted gross income
- The short everyday form; the full phrase with 'federal' is used mainly in official rules and forms.
- taxable income
- This comes later: taxable income is what is left after further deductions, so it is usually lower.
Word family
- gross income noun
- All the money you receive before anything is taken away.
- adjusted adjective
- Changed slightly to take something into account.
Commonly confused: federal adjusted gross income or gross income? federal adjusted gross income or taxable income?
federal adjusted gross income vs gross income
Gross income is everything you earn; federal adjusted gross income is that total after certain deductions are subtracted.
federal adjusted gross income vs taxable income
Taxable income is the final figure tax is charged on, after more deductions than adjusted gross income allows.
Practice
Which figure usually comes first when you prepare a US tax return?
Choose one answer.
Federal adjusted gross income is worked out early from total income minus certain deductions; taxable income is calculated later and is normally lower, so it cannot come first.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “federal adjusted gross income”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.