<prompt> Human: Hey pf, so Im an 18 year old college student who has been slowly putting money into stocks. Whenever I got any money from selling textbooks or any birthday presents, I put them straight into stocks because Ive been fascinated with how it works since my childhood. My logic is that instead of buying a sandwich for 7, I would rather own a piece of a company. So my question is now that my stocks have reached around 900, do I have to report taxes on them? If I do, how do I go about it? I made only about 150 or so so far.  <response>: While everyone isnt wrong, what hasnt been said is that if you only have a small amount of this income and not too much other income, then you wont have to file or pay taxes because of it.See The other other thing is that the long-term captial gains rate and qualified diviend rate for low income, even if you must file, is 0.And as someone did say but Im not sure if its clear, youll only owe taxes on dividends and money you made when you sold. If you buy stock and it appreciates, theres no tax on that appreciation. Just if you sell it. 