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

Real estate sales contract where possession and use is provided to the buyer, but the deed is kept by the seller until the full purchase price is met whereupon the title is placed in the ...

Value of property is reduced form usage oven time. The problem is worsened when repairs and maintenance have not been made. ...

Money payments to be delayed for a future date or extended over a period of time. ...

See concrete block. ...

Generally speaking, the meaning of warehousing refers to the act of storing assets and keeping a physical inventory expecting a sale or distribution of goods at a later date. Warehousing is ...

If you’re a renter and you own a pet, you might be familiar with the term pet rent. There has been a lot of discussion about the meaning of pet rent and controversy as it isn’t ...

The geographic moving of an individual from one region to another usually because of a change in employment. Relocation normally involves the complete moving of the individual's ...

The phrase used for the period in which the escrow agent communicates to both the buyer and the seller as to what documents or moneys have to be deposited with the escrow agent to satisfy ...

Property that is similar in characteristic and when exchanged is a nontaxable transaction. Any property that is not like-king, such as cash (boot), is taxed. As a result, a gain is not ...

Popular Real Estate Questions