Tax Glossary

Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System, a method for calculating a taxpayer's depreciation deduction that uses the property's placed-in-service date, recovery period, and depreciable basis.

A taxpayer's "main" home is where they live most of the time. It does not have to be a traditional house; for example, it may be a houseboat, mobile home, cooperative apartment, or condominium, but it must have cooking, sleeping, and bathroom facilities.

A refundable tax credit of up to $400 for working individuals ($800 for Married Filing Jointly) calculated at a rate of 6.2 percent of earned income and phased out for taxpayers with a modified Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) in excess of $75,000 ($150,000 for Married Filing Jointly). Claimed on Schedule M (Form 1040A or 1040).

Filing status for taxpayers who are married to each other or live together in a common law marriage and combine their income and deductions on the same tax return. The status also applies to taxpayers who are separated but not divorced and to taxpayers whose spouse died during the tax year and has not remarried, as long as one tax return is used for both individuals.

Filing status for taxpayers who are married to each other or live together in a common law marriage and report their own incomes and deductions on separate returns.

A type of includable military income given to service members who have been separated from the service for medical reasons

One of the tests for identifying a qualifying relative as a dependent: Was the person related to the taxpayer in any of the following ways: Son, daughter, foster child, or a descendant of any of them; brother, sister, or a son or daughter of either of them; father, mother, or an ancestor or sibling of either of them; stepbrother, stepsister, stepfather, stepmother, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, or sister-in-law? Any other person (other than the taxpayer's spouse) who lived with the taxpayer all year as a member of the taxpayer's household?

The adjusted gross income with certain modifications.

Qualified mortgage insurance is provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Federal Housing Administration, the Rural Housing Service, and private mortgage insurance (PMI) companies. Taxpayers can treat qualified mortgage insurance premiums paid or accrued during the tax year as home mortgage interest. PMI is deductible on line 13 of Schedule A.

Taxpayers who hold qualified mortgage credit certificates (MCCs) under a qualified state or local government program may claim a nonrefundable credit for mortgage interest paid.

If one person has not provided over half the support, go to step 8 to determine if multiple support exists. Multiple support means that two or more people together, who could claim the person as a dependent except for the support test, provide more than half the dependent's support. However, only one taxpayer can claim the exemption for a dependent with multiple support. In this situation, the individuals who provide more than 10% of the person's total support (step 9), and who meet the other tests for a qualifying relative, can agree that one of them will take the person's exemption.

A mutual fund is a regulated investment company generally created by pooling funds of investors, which allows investors to take advantage of a diversity of investments and professional management. Owners of mutual funds may receive both Form 1099-DIV and Form 1099-B. Form.