If your filing status is: AND at then end of 2021 you were*... THEN file a return if your gross
income** was at least...
Single under 65 $12,550
65 or older $14,250
Married filing Jointly*** under 65 (both spouses) $25,100
65 or older (one spouse) $26,450
65 or older (both spouses) $27,800
Married filing separately any age $5
Head of Household under 65 $18,800
over 65 $20,500
Qualifying widow(er) under 65 $25,100
over 65 $26,800
Gross income defined. Gross income is all income in the form of money, property, and services that is not exempt from tax.
In a manufacturing, merchandising, or mining business, gross income is the total net sales minus the cost of goods sold, plus any miscellaneous income from the business.
Gross receipts from rental property are gross income. Do not deduct taxes, repairs, or other expenses to determine the gross income from rental property.
Gross income includes a partner's share of the gross (not net) partnership income.
Gross income also includes all taxable unemployment compensation and certain scholarship and fellowship grants. Scholarships received by degree candidates and used for tuition, fees, supplies, books, and equipment required for particular courses generally are not included in gross income. For more information about scholarships, see chapter 1 of Publication 970.
Tax-exempt income, such as certain social security benefits, is not included in gross income.
Disabled dependent working at sheltered workshop. For purposes of the gross income test, the gross income of an individual who is permanently and totally disabled at any time during the year does not include income for services the individual performs at a sheltered workshop. The availability of medical care at the workshop must be the main reason for the individual's presence there. Also, the income must come solely from activities at the workshop that are incident to this medical care.
A “sheltered workshop” is a school that:
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Provides special instruction or training designed to alleviate the disability of the individual, and
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Is operated by certain tax-exempt organizations or by a state, a U.S. possession, a political subdivision of a state or possession, the United States, or the District of Columbia.
“Permanently and totally disabled” has the same meaning here as under Qualifying Child, earlier.