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  Individuals began paying taxes as early as 1861 to pay for war expenses, according to the Library of Congress. Age, filing status and gross income determine who must file a tax return. Gross income includes any and all income you receive in the form of property, goods, services and money. April 15 is typically the due date for filing your taxes each year, but you may ask the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for a six-month extension.
  
  

Who Must File

• Do not assume you are exempt from filing an individual income tax. Even if your income was below the filing requirement, you are required to file a tax return. The IRS requires you to file an income tax return if you sold your home, received the Advanced Earned Income Credit (or you are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit), or will owe tax on an IRA, medical savings account or any other special tax. Of course any income, including tips that you do not report to your employer, must be reported to the IRS because you owe Social Security and Medicare taxes on the tips. Self-employed workers are only required to file an individual tax return if they made $400 or more, according to the IRS.
  
  

Filing Status

• When filing your income tax, you need to determine your filing status. Head of Household, Single, Married Filing Separately, Married Filing Jointly and Qualifying Widow (Widower) with Dependant Child are the five filing statuses you must choose from. The IRS considers anyone that is unmarried on the last day of the tax year single, unless you qualify for another filing status. You and your spouse have the option to file your taxes jointly, even if you divorced the last day of the filing year, or you may choose to take responsibility for your income only and file separately. You are only permitted to file Head of Household if you are unmarried on the last day of the filing year, paid more than half of the cost of keeping up your home for the year and have a qualifying person or dependant in your home for the year.
  
  

Qualifying Child

• If you provided the support for a qualifying child, you may be eligible for the child tax credit. A qualifying child must be younger than 17 at end of the tax year, unless he is totally or permanently disabled. The child must have resided with you for more than half of the tax year, but there are some exceptions to this rule. The child must be claimed as a dependant on your tax return, and he may not have provided more than half of his own support or claimed himself on his own tax return for that tax year. The child you claim on your taxes must be your son, daughter, step-child, foster child, brother, sister, step-brother or step-sister, a descendant of those individuals (including grandchildren, niece or nephew) or your legally adopted child.