Americans’ common misunderstandings about taxes unveiled

Nearly one in five Gen Zers (17%) believe that you can write anything off as a business expense when filing your taxes, according to new research.

Conducted by Talker Research on behalf of TurboTax, a survey of 4,000 Americans who plan to file taxes this year, split evenly by generation and gender, revealed that though they may be one of life’s unavoidables, Americans know little about taxes.

According to the results, Gen Z also believes that students don’t need to file taxes (20%) and that if you’re paid in cash, you aren’t required to pay taxes (13%).

Baby boomers, on the other hand, were even more likely to believe that you don’t need to file taxes and you can’t get a refund if you make under the IRS income requirements (27%). A quarter of millennials and Gen X even believe that immigrants don’t pay taxes.