Introduction to Personal Income Taxes

How do taxes affect the way I make decisions about income, investments, business interests, residency, and wealth transfer?

Introduction to Personal Income Taxes (formerly Foundations of Tax Module 1) introduces the historical, practical, and planning dimensions of U.S. taxation, with particular attention to how taxes affect high-net-worth individuals, families, business owners, investors, and trust beneficiaries. It traces the evolution and purpose of taxes, explains key tax categories and filing mechanics, and highlights how income, capital gains, payroll, state taxation, deductions, estimated payments, and recent legislative changes can influence financial decisions. The module helps learners move from seeing taxes as a once-a-year filing task to recognizing them as an ongoing area for informed engagement with advisors.

What You’ll Be Able to Do on the Other Side

• Identify which taxes are most relevant to your income, investments, business interests, property, and wealth transfer planning.
• Interpret how different tax structures, including progressive, proportional, and regressive taxes, may affect taxpayers differently depending on income, asset mix, location, and spending patterns.
• Evaluate when a tax issue is primarily a filing matter, a planning matter, or a question to raise with an advisor.
• Organize the key documents, deadlines, and income sources needed to participate more effectively in the tax filing process.
• Ask more precise advisor questions about deductions, estimated payments, capital gains, state residency, business income, and recent tax law changes.

The Experience

This self-paced module combines historical context, plain-language explanations, charts, examples, and tax-form overviews to help learners make sense of the U.S. tax system. Learners engage with “Think About” prompts, a filing-status activity, deduction exercises, and examples that connect tax concepts to real financial situations.

The module also includes case-based reflection and deeper reading opportunities on topics such as capital gains, state taxation, QBI, itemized deductions, estimated payments, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The experience is designed to support practical sense-making, clearer advisor conversations, and more confident participation in tax-related planning discussions.

Prerequisites: None  

Estimated Completion Time: 1.5 hours
Featured Resources:    

 Articles/Books

• "Navigating Possible Tax Policy Changes" by The Northern Trust Institute
• "Principles of Good Taxation" by Future Learn
• "Famous Americans Who Renounced U.S. Citizenship" by Dan Moffett
• "Canons/Principles of Taxation" by Adam Smith
• US Tax Code, IRS website
• "Tax Topics No. 501 Should I Itemize?" IRS
• Tax Inflation Adjustments for 2024, IRS website
• Common Tax Forms, IRS website
• "Carl Icahn's Decision to Relocate his Firm From NY to Miami Could be a Tax Play" by Keith Laren
• "President Trump Thumbs Nose at New York Tax Collector With Move to Florida" by Ashlea Ebeling
• Estate and Trust Administration for Dummies, 2nd Edition, Chapter 20 "Report Tax Info on Schedule K-1" by Margaret Atkins Munro, EA & Kathryn A. Murphy, Esq.
• "2024 Federal Income Tax Brackets, Standards Deductions, Tax Rates" by Investopedia