FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.queenscourier.com MAY 22, 2014 • THE QUEENS COURIER 35 SNAPS QUEENS This photo is of the Hell Gate Bridge as seen from Shore Road in Astoria Park Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! Submit them to us via our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ QueensCourier, by tweeting@queenscourier or by emailing them to What should be done about cyberbullying in schools? Schools should ask the students how they feel about cyberbullying and then bring people in to teach seminars and show them how to prevent cyberbullying. Joseph Ko It should not be tolerated no matter what. Parents should get involved, all parents. And if that doesn’t work then suspending the children from school. Stu Golin I think there should be more severe penalties, like longer suspensions. I think the state should get involved, too. Cesar Yutronich I think students should feel comfortable telling teachers, who can tell principals and deans, and then they can handle it. Khiron Anderson Talking about it would be the best thing ... like the way they handle regular bullying, making it a subject that’s brought up in classes. John Giunta Educating from a very early age — it can be in the classroom or on television shows. Rochelle Osdoby oped street talk They could crack down on cell phone use a little more. When I went to school you were not allowed to use your cell phones at all, and that’s a major source of cyberbullying. Megan Gallman I don’t think schools can help. Doing it online is a lot easier to get away with than in person. David Cooper Photo by Alex Benjamin / www.QueensPopPhoto.com VISIT QueensCourier.com FOR MORE STORIES BY CHRIS BUMBACA ctumola@queenscourier.com Tips for paying taxes for summer jobs BY PEGGY E. RILEY Many students take a job in the summer after school lets out. If it’s your fi rst job it gives you a chance to learn about the working world. That includes taxes we pay to support the place where we live, our state and our nation. Here are eight things that students who take a summer job should know about taxes: 1. Don’t be surprised when your employer withholds taxes from your paychecks. That’s how you pay your taxes when you’re an employee. If you’re selfemployed, you may have to pay estimated taxes directly to the IRS on certain dates during the year. This is how our pay-asyou go tax system works. 2. As a new employee, you’ll need to fi ll out a Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certifi cate. Your employer will use it to fi gure how much federal income tax to withhold from your pay. The IRS Withholding Calculator tool on IRS. gov can help you fi ll out the form. 3. Keep in mind that all tip income is taxable. If you get tips, you must keep a daily log so you can report them. You must report $20 or more in cash tips in any one month to your employer. And you must report all of your yearly tips on your tax return. 4. Money you earn doing work for others is taxable. Some work you do may count as self-employment. This can include jobs like baby-sitting and lawn mowing. Keep good records of expenses related to your work. You may be able to deduct (subtract) those costs from your income on your tax return. A deduction may help lower your taxes. 5. If you’re in ROTC, your active duty pay, such as pay you get for summer camp, is taxable. A subsistence allowance you get while in advanced training isn’t taxable. 6. You may not earn enough from your summer job to owe income tax. But your employer usually must withhold Social Security and Medicare taxes from your pay. If you’re selfemployed, you may have to pay them yourself. They count toward your coverage under the Social Security system. 7. If you’re a newspaper carrier o r distributor, special rules apply. If you meet certain conditions, you’re considered self-employed. If you don’t meet those conditions and are under age 18, you are usually exempt from Social Security and Medicare taxes. 8. You may not earn enough money from your summer job to be required to fi le a tax return. Even if that’s true, you may still want to fi le. For example, if your employer withheld income tax from your pay, you’ll have to fi le a return to get your taxes refunded. You can prepare and e-fi le your tax return for free using IRS Free File. It’s available exclusively on IRS.gov. Peggy Riley is the IRS Media Relations Specialist for New England, New York, Maryland and Delaware. CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS The Courier welcomes submissions from the public — of all ages and walks of life — for the Op-Ed column. We hope to publish as many as possible in this space. Please send opinion pieces of 300 to 600 words (remembering, of course, that brevity is the soul of wit) to editorial@queenscourier.com. Be sure to include contact information; we will need pictures of the writers we publish.
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