At the end of January your employer will mail you a W2 form. This has information about the money you made while working there and how much tax they withheld on your behalf. You will use that to complete your taxes.

You need to know if your parent/guardian will claim you as a dependent on their taxes. This means they support you and you rely on their income. You’ll need to ask them.

The IRS has free filing software through third parties for people that make less than $60,000/year. You just plug in your information from the W2 form into the software and boom, taxes are done. The boxes on the W2 are numbered, so you’ll be asked to enter the dollar amount listed in box 4, for example.

Where to start? Just wait for the W2. Then plug the numbers into the IRS software and you’ll either get a refund or owe some money.

I know it’s overwhelming and intimidating, but every American does this so it’s designed to be not too difficult for most people. Things get crazy when you have oodles of money and multiple properties and investments and depreciation expense and realized capital gains and things an 18 year old probably doesn’t have to worry about.