Tax what is personal exemption

Accordingly, you will be allowed to claim only your own personal exemption on your separate Virginia return. If you use Filing Status 4 on your Virginia return, each spouse must claim his or her own personal exemptions under the column showing their income.

Breadcrumb Home Exemptions. Dependents : An exemption may be claimed for each dependent claimed on your federal income tax return. If you are using Filing Status 3 or the Spouse Tax Adjustment , see the special notes for claiming dependent exemptions. When a married couple uses the Spouse Tax Adjustment , each spouse must claim his or her own age exemption. Blindness : Each filer who is considered blind for federal income tax purposes may claim an additional exemption.

This means you cannot claim it on your taxes starting with tax year So the following information on the personal exemption only applies if you are filing a return for a tax year that was or earlier. Read on to learn more about what a personal exemption is and whether or not you can claim one on your tax return. A personal exemption was a specific amount of money that you could deduct for yourself and for each of your dependents. Regardless of your filing status is, you qualify for the same exemption.

The personal exemption was available to all taxpayers, with a couple of notable exceptions. What matters is whether or not someone could claim you. You also might not have been able to claim the entire personal exemption depending on your adjusted gross income AGI. The personal exemption would begin phase out at a certain income threshold. Unlike deductions, the personal exemption was available to all taxpayers, regardless of their expenses. Between and , there is no personal exemption due to new tax legislation.

The higher standard deduction eliminates the need for many taxpayers to itemize deductions. Still, it varies depending on a taxpayer's filing status and does not allow for additional exemptions for dependents.

The personal exemption was figured by counting up all eligible family members and multiplying by a per-exemption dollar amount as claimed by the filing status. A single filer could claim one personal exemption for themselves. Head of household filers got themselves and could claim each dependent. Those filing jointly received credit for themselves, their spouse, and each qualified dependent.

Finally, married filing separately taxpayers could claim themselves, dependents and spouse, as long as the spouse had zero gross income and was not claimed as a dependent by any other taxpayer. To claim an exemption for a dependent, they must be a qualifying child or a qualifying relative. For example, a college student who received more than half of their financial support from their parents could not claim the exemption for him or herself because his or her parents could claim him or her as a dependent.

Whether or not the parents actually did so was irrelevant; because they could, the student would have been ineligible for the personal exemption. The personal exemption was a below-the-line deduction subtracted from adjusted gross income AGI to reduce taxable income and, ultimately, taxes in proportion to your tax bracket. This reduction in taxable income meant its value varied with your marginal tax rate. This value disparity increases as the income tax becomes more progressive. Internal Revenue Service.

Accessed Feb. Congressional Research Service. Income Tax. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Investopedia. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data.