An annotated guide to US federal taxation

Income taxation is an important tool for governments to generate revenue, incentivize certain actions, and redistribute wealth among a population. However, because it serves multiple purposes, income taxation can be a very complex topic. In fact, every country has developed a different approach to the challenges surrounding income taxation. This book provides a comparison between the income tax systems of the United States and Germany on a federal level. The system used by the U.S. is explained in detail in the body of this work while annotations written in German discuss the ways in which the German system differs. The majority of the focus will be on income taxes for individuals, but other types of taxes will also be touched upon in order to create a broader understanding. The main topics are the regulatory framework, including filing statuses and tax rates, plus the composition of taxable income, which includes the sources of taxable income, exclusions and deductions from taxable income, and tax credits.