How Do I Know What I Owe in Taxes?

WIDeptRevenue

Wisconsin Department of Revenue Deputy Secretary ​Maria Guerra Lapacek spent a day at the University of Wisconsin campus asking college students what they know about taxes. This inspired us to create an informational page for taxpayers filing a return for the first time. https://www.revenue.wi.gov/pages/individuals/first-time-filer.aspx

Transcript:
We are here today at the UW Madison campus looking for college students to ask them. Do you have any questions about filing taxes or taxes or the work that we do? The government knows how much I owe but how come I don't know? That's like my biggest question like how do I find out? That is a great question. Uh so do you work? Do you have income? Yeah. Okay. So, if you work, your employer is required to give you a 1099 or W2 by the end of January of 2026. Oh, what's a W2? Wonderful question. A W2 is a document that shows what money you were paid and what money was withheld from your paycheck. What is withholding? So withholding is the amount of money that is collected off your earnings at every paycheck to pay your estimated taxes because that way at the end of the year you don't owe a bunch of money because you would have already paid withholding every paycheck. Any other questions? Um I'm just Okay. So like my parents have like dependent, you know, cuz they have kids. Like how does that work? Like obviously I don't have a dependent, but like I'm just curious as to what that does for like taxes. Yes. So, if your parents provide more than half of your upkeep of what it takes to maintain you for the year, they get to claim you as a dependent, which provides them a credit. So, that means they take money off their taxes for supporting you.