What can a person be exempt from when doing taxes?

: TAXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
Ok so here is the story, this is my first time filing taxes because this is my first job period. I’m a college student and i live with my parents. My gross pay is 960. i went to a website to calculate my net pay and what i found made me want to cry. my net pay turned out to be 763.51. so my question is (since i don’t know if i’m exempt from anything or not) What can a person in my situation be exempt from when doing taxes, i.e. medicare, federal withholdings, social security, etc. And can someone please explain to me what federal withholdings is? Thanx a lot!

Answers and Views:

Answer by Yirmiyahu
Only ministers and government employees can be exempt from social security.

Nobody is exempt from medicare

Federal withholding tax is the portion of federal income taxes taken out of your paycheck to pay for your federal tax liability on an installment basis. You may owe more and you may get some back at the end of the year.

Answer by a tax lady
If your total wages for 2011 are less than $ 5800, you probably will owe $ 0 income tax.

Your W-4 could then be coded as exempt. If your total income for 2011 is going to be more than $ 5800, but you just started work, then put it at single/1 rather than single/0.

Answer by tro
your first job? they withheld $ 54.24 for FICA, maybe $ 9.60 or more for a state employee tax and the remainder would be income tax, fed and state
at this date in the year, your non taxable income from earnings would be $ 5800 therefore you could have filed your W-4 as exempt
but any income tax withheld will probably be refunded when you file your 1040EZ next year

Answer by Judy
If you are working for the college you attend, they wouldn’t take out social security and medicare. Otherwise they will.

You are most likely a dependent. You won’t pay federal income tax if you make under $ 5800 for the year, otherwise you will. Federal withholding is money they take out of your paychecks to go toward the federal income tax you’ll owe for the year.

State and local taxes depend on where you live and where you work.