IRS Form 1040 is often called the "long form," because it is designed to account for every option in filing your federal income taxes. Unlike Form 1040EZ, which is a simplified version available to certain groups of taxpayers, the standard 1040 and its attachments can be complicated and time-consuming.
You must use Form 1040 if any of the following statements apply to you.
- You received income from self-employments (business or farm income).
- You received partnership income, S corporation income, or income from a trust or estate (e.g., Schedule K-1 income).
- You owe household employment taxes.
- You received $20 or more in tips in any one month and did not report the full amount to your employer.
- You received insurance policy dividends that exceeded the total of all net premiums you paid for the contract.
- You received a distribution from a foreign trust.
- You can exclude any foreign earned income; income from Puerto Rico (if you were a resident of Puerto Rico); and income from American Samoa (if you were a resident of American Samoa for all of 2011).
- You have an alternative minimum tax adjustment on stock you acquired from exercising an incentive stock option.
- You owe excise tax on insider stock compensation from an expatriated corporation.
- You can claim the health coverage credit (Form 8885).
- You are claiming the adoption credit or you received employer-provided adoption benefits.
- Your employer did not withhold Social Security and Medicare tax from your pay.
- You had a qualified health saving account funding distribution from your IRA.
- You are a debtor in a bankruptcy case.
- You have a net disaster loss attributable to a federally declared disaster.
- You must repay the first-time homebuyer credit.
