Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)

Definition of "Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)"

Dale Tomalewski  real estate agent

Written by

Dale Tomalewski elite badge icon

Coldwell Banker Real Estate Services Inc.

We all know what income is or what gross income means, but what is adjusted gross income? When a company calculates its income to determine their taxable income, they take the gross income to measure their adjusted gross income (AGI). The AGI is where the calculations begin for a taxpayer’s tax bill and the baseline for most deductions and credits. When a taxpayer files their taxes online, the software will calculate their AGI for them. 

The adjusted gross income measure of calculation is used to calculate a filer’s tax liability. In active participation, an AGI can make an active participant investor in real estate eligible or not for deductions and influences the claims for deductions and credits.

What does Adjusted Gross Income Mean?

To simplify it, an adjusted gross income is the gross income modified in the tax code. While gross income is the money earned during a year (salary, capital gains, dividends, interest income, alimony, rental income, royalties, and retirement distributions), the AGI considers allowed deductions from the gross income to determine the figure the income tax liability is calculated.

For tax activities, the most useful measure of calculation is the AGI, as deductions are taken out of the gross income. Those deductions are known as adjustments to an individual’s income.

How to calculate Adjusted Gross Income?

The start of the adjusted gross income calculation starts with adding all sources of income from that year. Here we’ll have salaries, profit from a property sale, pensions, unemployment compensations, Social Security payments, or other income types that weren’t reported in the tax returns. From this, the taxpayer subtracts allowed deductions and payments. That leaves a taxpayer with their adjusted gross income.

image of a real estate dictionary page

Have a question or comment?

We're here to help.

*** Your email address will remain confidential.
 

 

Popular Real Estate Terms

Legal order for a person to present at a deposition or trial documents in his possession, such as related to a real estate transaction. ...

When a real estate owner wants to know what their property tax liability is, they calculate the assessment ratio for their property. An assessment ration is a relationship between a real ...

Removing a debt by making full payment. A mortgage discharge is a document formally specifying that a mortgage debt have been paid. It is typically recorded in a local property deeds ...

An increase in the income tax basis of a property that is a result of a tax-free exchange. As a result of an inheritance, for example, the basis of the inherited property was stepped up to ...

City apartment building that is overcrowded, poorly constructed or maintained, and generally part of a slum. In law, a tenement also refers to possessions of an individual that are ...

The meaning of a development impact fee or impact fee defines a one-time cost the local government imposes on a brand new or planned development project (regularly on a property developer.) ...

Limited period of time granted by state law to an individual who has had his or her property foreclosed on and sold to regain possession of the property by repaying the debt that was ...

New cost less accumulated depreciation to date. ...

The meaning of the term tort outlines a wrongful act resulting in injury or damages. For example, trespassing on someone’s private property can end up destroying a part of it. ...

Popular Real Estate Questions