Happy New Year, and Welcome Back! I hope you had a great break and are ready to start the new semester!
Each January, the new tax forms are released for tax season, which means it’s time for my Filing Your Taxes Unit to get an update!
There are a lot of new updates this year. I’ve refreshed all of the Google Slides with a new look and a few of the worksheets as well.
A few new characters have been added this year. (Romeo and Juliet are married, filing jointly 🙂 )
The Form 1040 Reference Sheet has also been updated. You can access a copy in my Freebie Library. If you don’t have access to my Freebie Library, make sure you add your email below, and I’ll send you an email with access.
Updates to the 2022 Tax Forms
The good news is that I feel this year’s tax form is much simpler than the tax form in 2021. There were several COVID-related items last year that are gone this year. My taxes unit is meant to be simple and for high schoolers, so these are just the changes that are relevant to simple returns (no dependents, simple deductions, etc.). If you’re a nerd like me and want to know about all the changes, you can read about them here.
Here’s what you need to know:
- The $300/$600 charitable deduction that was available in 2021 is gone this year. This simplifies things on this year’s form.
- Standard deductions have gone up.
- Schedule A is mostly the same, except the deduction for Mortgage Insurance Premiums is gone.
- The numbering of some of the lines has changed slightly, so if you’ve used my unit in the past, make sure you print new answer keys and use the updated Google Slides.
Updated Freebie – Form 1040 Reference Sheet
The Form 1040 Reference Sheet has also been updated. This half-sheet reference sheet is super helpful for all students, but especially those who need a little extra support.
You can access a copy in my Freebie Library. If you don’t have access to my Freebie Library, enter your email address at the bottom of this page, and I’ll email you the link!
Want to learn more about teaching teens to file their taxes?
If you aren’t familiar with my unit for teaching teens to file their taxes, you can learn more about it here. I haven’t taught in a high school for a few years now, but if your experience is anything like mine, I’m willing to bet you’ve heard students complain, ‘Why can’t we learn useful stuff like how to file our taxes?’ You can teach this! I teach math, but I’ve heard from teachers of all kinds of subjects that they were so happy they did this for their students.
Want more financial literacy resources?
Check out more financial literacy posts here. You can also check out my financial literacy store on TPT.
