Form 1040 is used by citizens and residents of the United States to report income tax. If they qualify to do so, some taxpayers may use the simpler Form 1040A or Form 1040EZ instead of Form 1040.
Form 1040 (like Form 1040A or 1040EZ) is the main form for many taxpayers. It is a form that takes numbers and amounts from other forms and reduces those numbers and amounts to the amount of tax owed (or, if you are lucky, the amount of your refund).
Most of the amounts on Form 1040 carry from other forms and worksheets. Enter only the following items directly on Form 1040: alimony received, self-employed health insurance deduction, Keogh/SEP/SIMPLE deduction, election to itemize deductions, and the few credits not covered elsewhere.
Information about your dependents carries from the Worksheet for Dependents. If you have six dependents or fewer, information about all your dependents appears on the face of Form 1040. If you have more than six dependents, information about your dependents appears on the Dependents Attachments Worksheet, which should be sent in with your tax return if you are filing standard paper forms.
We carry information about a dependent to Form 1040 only if you have (1) entered the dependent's name, social security number, and relationship to you on the Worksheet for Dependents, and (2) if you used our Interview and asked for help deciding if the person could be claimed as a dependent, we told you the person was eligible.
We check the box for the child tax credit for a dependent if, according to the information on the Worksheet for Dependents, the dependent was under age 17 and a United States citizen or resident.
The amount of wages in line 7c comes from the amounts on line 1 of each of the W-2 forms you filled out.
If you are married and filing jointly, we carry to Form 1040, line 7c the information from line 1 of each of the W-2 forms you filled out for your spouse.
If you placed an X in the statutory employee box on line 13 of Form W-2, we don't carry your wages from Form W-2, line 1 to Form 1040, line 7c. See the IRS instructions for more information about reporting income as a statutory employee.
If you placed an X in the void box on line a of Form W-2, we don't carry your wages from Form W-2, line 1 to Form 1040, line 7c. Note that you should not be entering a "void" W-2. If you received a "void" W-2, you should contact your employer.
We calculate the amount of "other wage items" (for self) on line 7a of Form 1040 in the following way:
Taxable benefits amount on line 26 of Form 2441, multiplied by the percentage indicated on Form 2441, line 0;
+ Taxable benefits amount on line 27 of Form 8839, multiplied by the percentage indicated on Form 8839, line 00;
+ the excess reimbursement amount on Form 2106 (from Form 2106, line 8aA, but only if the amount on line 8aA is less than zero) (The negative number from Form 2106, line 8aA will be converted to a positive number before being used on Form 1040, line 7a.)
+ the amount of unreported tips (from Form 4137, line 4);
+ the nonemployee compensation amounts (from box 7 of each of the 1099-MISC forms) designated to go to the "wages, salaries, tips, etc." line of Form 1040;
+ the excess of what your employer paid for your move over the actual cost of your move (from Form 3903 or 3903-F);
+ scholarship and fellowship grants not on Form W-2 (from Non-W2 Wages Worksheet, line 5);
+ Taxable disability pensions received prior to the minimum retirement age set by an employer, if reported to you on Form 1099-R and not reported to you on Form W-2.
+ taxable fringe benefits not on Form W-2 (from Non-W2 Wages Worksheet, line 13).
If you are married and elect to file jointly, similar calculations result in the placement of a number in the spouse column of Form 1040, line 7a .
There are four spaces next to the line 7. One is for "DCB," which is filled in by the program if you have taxable dependent care benefits on Form 2441. One is for "AB", which is filled in by the program if you have taxable adoption benefits on Form 8839.
If you received a scholarship or fellowship whose proceeds are included in line 7, we use the other two spaces to display the text "SCH" and the amount of the scholarship.
IRA amounts on line 15a carry from Form 1099-R.
For both IRA and pensions, if Total amount equals Taxable amount, then Total amount is set to zero, per IRS instructions.
Line 15b carries from Form 8606 + any amounts from Form 1099-R where the IRA/SEP box is X'd, but neither the Rollover nor Form 8606 box is X'd.
See Explain This Form for Form 1099-R for an explanation of how we calculated this line.
See Explain This Form for Form 1099-R for an explanation of how we calculated this line.
The letter "D" appears on line 20a next to the amount of social security benefits only if you are married filing separately and did not live with your spouse at any time during 2010.
We automatically calculate the standard deduction on line 40a.
If there are no "X's" in the boxes on lines 39a or 39b, then we use the standard deduction amounts given by the IRS. These standard deduction amounts are based on your filing status on lines 1 through 5. If your filing status is single (i.e., there is an "X" in the box on line 1), your standard deduction is $5,700. If your filing status is married filing jointly or qualifying widow(er) (i.e., there is an "X" in the box on line 2 or line 5), your standard deduction is $11,400. If you are married filing separately (i.e., there is an "X" in the box on line 3), your standard deduction is $5,700. If you are head of household, (i.e., there is an "X" in the box on line 4), your standard deduction is $8,400.
If you or your spouse are over 65 or blind, your standard deduction will be larger than the standard deductions listed in the above paragraph. To calculate your standard deduction, we start with the amounts listed in the above paragraph and add amounts to them. The amounts we add are based on the number that appears in the box on line 39a. If your filing status is single or head of household, we multiply the number in the box on line 39a by $1,400 and add that amount to $8,400 (in the case of head of household) or $5,700 (in the case of a single filer). If your filing status is married filing jointly, qualifying widow(er), or married filing separately, we multiply the number in the box on line 39a by $1,100 and add that amount to $11,400 (in the case of married filing jointly or qualifying widow(er)) or $5,700 (in the case of married filing separately).
If someone can claim you as a dependent, then we calculate your standard deduction as follows. First, we look at your earned income, which is calculated as follows:
Net farm profit or loss (from Schedule SE, line A1a);
+ net business profit or loss (from Schedule SE, line A2);
+ wages from W-2 (from Form 1040, line 7c);
+ other wage items (from Form 1040, line 7a);
- half of self-employment tax (from Schedule SE, line B12);
+ net profit or loss from Schedule C, line 31 (but only if you X'd the box on Schedule C, line 1 indicating that you are a statutory employee).
Then, we pick the larger of your earned income plus $250 and $950. We compare that amount to the standard deduction ($5,700 if single; $11,400 if married filing jointly or qualifying widow(er); $5,700 if married filing separately; $8,400 if head of household), and we choose the smaller of those two amounts. To that smaller amount, we add the following amount: $1,400 ($1,100 if married filing jointly, qualifying widow(er), or married filing separately) times the number on Form 1040, line 39a . The result in line 40a is your standard deduction.
If there is an "X" in the box on line 39b (i.e., you are married filing separately and your spouse itemizes), then we set the standard deduction in line 40a to zero.
If there is an "X" in either (1) the box indicating that you are a dual-status alien (on Form 1040, line 39b) or (2) the box indicating that you are married filing separately and your spouse itemizes (on Form 1040, line 39b), then we place an "X" in the box on line 40c to indicate that you are required to itemize; we also place an "X" in the box on Form 1040, line 39b.
If you placed an X in the void box on line a of Form W-2, we don't carry your advance earned income credit payments from Form W-2, box 9, to Form 1040, line 59. Note that you should not be entering a "void" W-2. If you received a "void" W-2, you should contact your employer.
We calculate backup withholding on line 61a as the sum of the amounts in box 5c of the Background Worksheet, the amount of backup withholding indicated on line 4 of the1099-MISC forms, and backup withholding from Forms 1099-DIV, 1099-G, and 1099-INT.
If you placed an X in the void box on line a of Form W-2, we don't carry the amount of your federal income tax withheld from Form W-2, box 2, to Form 1040, line 61. Note that you should not be entering a "void" W-2. If you received a "void" W-2, you should contact your employer.