modified adjusted gross income
As a 30+ year member of the AICPA, Nancy has experienced all facets of finance, including tax, auditing, payroll, plan benefits, and small business accounting. Her résumé includes years at KPMG International and McDonald’s Corporation. She now runs her own accounting business, serving several small clients in industries ranging from law and education to the arts.
Doug is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst who spent more than 20 years as a derivatives market maker and asset manager before “reincarnating” as a financial media professional a decade ago.
Before joining Britannica, Doug spent nearly six years managing content marketing projects for a dozen clients, including The Ticker Tape, TD Ameritrade’s market news and financial education site for retail investors. He has been a CAIA charter holder since 2006, and also held a Series 3 license during his years as a derivatives specialist.
Doug previously served as Regional Director for the Chicago region of PRMIA, the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association, and he also served as editor of Intelligent Risk, PRMIA’s quarterly member newsletter. He holds a BS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Illinois Institute of Technology, Stuart School of Business.
Adjusted gross income (AGI) is pretax income minus certain deductions or “adjustments” as specified by the IRS in order to determine your tax liabilities. However, certain tax deductions and tax credits require you to add back or “modify” some of those adjustments to determine your qualification threshold. Modified adjusted gross income, or MAGI, is AGI plus appropriate “add-back” deductions.
In most instances, AGI and MAGI are similar or even identical. Common MAGI add-backs include non-taxable Social Security benefits, student loan interest, tuition expenses and tuition and fees deductions, passive income or losses, and foreign-earned income.