In my tax return do I give my total net income or total gross income?

Most of your income is taxable on the gross income level. Some items are excluded from taxable gross income (such as pretax deductions from your paycheck for child care or medical expenses). Wage earners will enter the income in box 1 of their Form W-2 which is their taxable gross income.

Other types of income are taxable at the net income level. If you have your own business, you can deduct business expenses from your gross income before adding the net income to your tax return. If you own a partnership, business expenses are deducted from gross income.