Questões de Concurso

How to determine your income tax bracket
by Elizabeth Rosen, Contributor
January 31, 2013

In order to properly file your federal income tax return and pay any tax that you owe, it is necessary to understand your income tax bracket, your filing status, and which income tax rate(s) apply to you. There are currently six marginal income tax brackets and five federal filing statuses. The amount of tax you owe will depend on your filing status and how much taxable income you earn.
Marginal Income Tax Brackets
Your marginal income tax bracket basically represents the highest tax rate that you MODAL pay on your income. There are currently six marginal income tax brackets for each federal filing status: 10, 15, 25, 28, 33, and 35 percent.
The marginal tax bracket system is a gradual tax schedule, which essentially means the more you earn, the more tax you pay. The amount of taxable income that you earn determines which tax bracket(s) you fall into. It is important to realize that only the money you earn within a certain tax bracket is taxed at that rate. In other words, if you earned more in 2012 than you did in 2011 and thus moved into a higher tax bracket, only the money that falls within that higher tax bracket is taxed at the higher rate.
So, for example, if you move from the 25 percent tax bracket to the 28 percent tax bracket, you may make the mistake of believing that all of your income is now taxed at that higher rate. However, only the money that you earn within the 28 percent bracket is taxed at that rate.
The structure of federal income tax brackets was first implemented by the IRS in the early 1900s in an attempt to create a progressive tax system that would demand less from lower-income individuals. This system, plus a series of tax credits and tax deductions, have allowed nearly half of Americans to avoid owing federal income tax altogether [Source: The Tax Foundation].
Federal Filing Statuses
Your filing status determines your filing requirements (whether or not you are required to file a tax return and which return to file), your standard deduction amount, your eligibility for certain tax credits and tax deductions, and your income tax. There are five federal filing statuses based on marital status and other conditions: single, married filing separately, married filing jointly, head of household, and qualifying widow(er) with dependent child.
When you fill out your federal income tax return, you must specify what your filing status is on the tax form. Review each filing status carefully and choose the one that best fits your situation. If you qualify for more than one filing status, you are allowed to choose the one
that offers you the ADJECTIVE tax.

(Adapted from http://www.irs.com/articles/how-determine-your-income-tax-bracket)

Read the text below entitled “10 Ways to Protect Your Privacy Online” in order to answer questions 17 to 20:

10 Ways to Protect Your Privacy Online
Source: www.newsweek.com (Adapted) Oct, 22nd 2010

    Up to a couple of years ago, I used to say that the average person could protect his or her privacy on the Web. Even as the founder of an online reputation-management company, I believed it was possible – so long as you were willing to commit some time doing it. Today, I tell people this: the landscape of personal data mining and exploitation is shifting faster than ever; trying to protect your online privacy is like trying to build your own antivirus software – really, really difficult. But whether or not you have the time (or money) to invest in the pros, there are a few simple steps we can all take to reduce the risk to our private data.

1. Do not put your full birth date on your social-networking profiles.
Identity thieves use birth dates as cornerstones of their craft. If you want your friends to know your birthday, try just the month and day, and leave out the year.

2. Use multiple usernames and passwords.
Keep your usernames and passwords for social networks, online banking, e-mail, and online shopping all separate. Having distinct passwords is not enough nowadays: if you have the same username across different Web sites, your entire life can be mapped and re-created with simple algorithms.

3. Shred.
If you are going to throw away credit-card offers, bank statements, or anything else that might come in hard copy to your house, rip them up into tiny bits first.

Read the text below entitled “Beyond Lula” in order to answer questions 14 to 16:

Beyond Lula
Source: Newsweek (Adapted) Oct 11th, 2010

    With the economy booming, poverty falling, and an avid new middle class hitting the supermarkets and malls, Brazil is in a sweet spot. Once a pushover for financial turmoil, Brazil survived the Great Recession largely unscathed and grew at the blistering pace of 10 percent in the first six months of 2010 (though it may cool to 6 or 7 percent by year´s end). With new offshore discoveries boosting its estimated oil reserves to at least 9 billion barrels –and possibly much more- the national oil giant, Petrobras, raised $67billion in late September, the biggest publicshare offering in global financial history. Officials are gussying up the country for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, and arguing over what to do with all the cash and glory that such international showcases bring.

Is Windows 7 Worth It?
Harry McCracken, PC World
Monday, October 19, 2009 10:00 AM PDT

    Reading about a new operating system can tell you only so much about it: After all, Windows Vista had far more features than XP, [CONJUNCTION] fell far short of it in the eyes of many users. To judge an OS accurately, you have to live with it. Over the past ten months, I've spent a substantial percentage of my computing life in Windows 7, starting with a preliminary version and culminating in recent weeks with the final Release to Manufacturing edition. I've run it on systems ranging from an underpowered Asus EeePC 1000HE netbook to a potent HP TouchSmart all-in-one. And I've used it to do real work, not lab routines. Usually, I've run the OS in multiboot configurations with Windows Vista and/or XP, so I've had a choice each time I turned the computer on: [MODAL] I opt for Windows 7 or an older version of the OS? The call has been easy to make, because Win 7 is so pleasant to use.
    So why wouldn't you want to run this operating system? Concern over its performance is one logical reason, especially since early versions of Windows Vista managed to turn PCs that ran XP with ease into lethargic underperformers. The PC World Test Center's speed benchmarks on five test PCs showed Windows 7 to be faster than Vista, but only by a little; I've found it to be reasonably quick on every computer I've used it on - even the Asus netbook, once I upgraded it to 2GB of RAM. (Our lab tried Win 7 on a Lenovo S10 netbook with 1GB of RAM and found it to be a shade slower than XP; for details see "Windows 7 Performance Tests.").
    Here's a rule of thumb that errs on the side of caution: If your PC's specs qualify it to run Vista, get Windows 7; if they don't, avoid it. Microsoft's official hardware configuration requirements for Windows 7 are nearly identical to those it recommends for Windows Vista: a 1-GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of free disk space, and a DirectX 9-compatible graphics device with a WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. That's for the 32-bit version of Windows 7; the 64-bit version of the OS requires a 64-bit CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 20GB of disk space.
    Fear of incompatible hardware and software is another understandable reason to be wary of Windows 7. One unfortunate law of operating-system upgrades - which applies equally to Macs and to Windows PCs - is that they will break some systems and applications, especially at first.
    Under the hood, Windows 7 isn't radically different from Vista. That's a plus, since it should greatly reduce the volume of difficulties relating to drivers and apps compared to Vista's bumpy rollout. I have performed a half-dozen Windows 7 upgrades, and most of them went off without a hitch. The gnarliest problem arose when I had to track down a graphics driver for Dell's XPS M1330 laptop on my own - Windows 7 installed a generic VGA driver that couldn't run the Aero user interface, and as a result failed to support new Windows 7 features such as thumbnail views in the Taskbar.
    The best way to reduce your odds of running into a showstopping problem with Windows 7 is to bide your time. When the new operating system arrives on October 22, sit back and let the earliest adopters discover the worst snafus. Within a few weeks, Microsoft and other software and hardware companies will have fixed most of them, and your chances of a happy migration to Win 7 will be much higher. If you want to be really conservative, hold off on moving to Win 7 until you're ready to buy a PC that's designed to run it well.
    Waiting a bit before making the leap makes sense; waiting forever does not. Microsoft took far too long to come up with a satisfactory replacement for Windows XP. But whether you choose to install Windows 7 on your current systems or get it on the next new PC you buy, you'll find that it's the unassuming, thoroughly practical upgrade you've been waiting for - flaws and all.

(Adapted from http://www.pcworld.com/article/172602/windows_7_revi...)