Let’s start with a step by step tutorial on how to complete Schedule 1.
There are two parts to this two-page tax form:
Let’s start at the top of the IRS tax form. Before starting Part I, enter the taxpayer name or names as they appear on your federal income tax return, as well as your Social Security number.
In the first part of Schedule 1, we will enter additional items of income that we cannot directly enter into IRS Form 1040. The amount from Line 10 goes to Line 8 on Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR.
Let’s start with Line 1.
Enter any taxable refunds, tax credits, or tax offsets from any state or local taxes.
None of your refund is taxable if, in the year you paid the tax, you either
If you received a tax refund, tax credit, or offset of state or local taxes in the tax year, you may be required to report that amount in Line 1.
If you received a refund, credit, or offset in a different tax year from the one in which you paid the tax, you may need to complete the following worksheet to determine what to report in Line 1. This might happen if you received the tax benefit in a prior tax year, then had to pay the tax in the following year.
In Line 2a, enter amounts received as alimony or separate maintenance pursuant to a divorce or separation agreement that you entered on or before December 31, 2018, unless that agreement was changed after December 31, 2018, to expressly provide that alimony received isn’t included in your income.
Due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, alimony received is not included in your income if you entered into a divorce or separation agreement after December 31, 2018.
In Line 2b, enter the month and year of your original divorce or separation agreement that relates to the alimony payment, if any, reported on Line 2a.
If you have alimony payments from more than one divorce or separation agreement, enter the month and year of the divorce or separation agreement for which you received the most income. Attach a statement listing the month and year of the other agreements.
If you operated a business or practiced your profession as a sole proprietor, report your income and expenses on Schedule C.
Enter the total business income or business loss in Line 3.
If you sold or exchanged assets used in a trade or business, enter the amount of losses or gains on the disposition of assets in Line 4.
Complete IRS Schedule E if you received income from any of the following sources:
Attach your completed Schedule E to your tax return.
If you had farm income or losses during the tax year, you will need to complete IRS Schedule F. Enter the farm income or loss in Line 6.
If you received unemployment compensation during the calendar year, you should receive a copy of IRS Form 1099-G. Box 1 should contain the total unemployment compensation you received during the tax year. Report this number on Line 7.
If the Box 1 number is incorrect, only report the actual amount of unemployment compensation you received during the year.
If you contributed to a governmental unemployment compensation program or to a governmental paid family leave program, and you are not itemizing deductions on Schedule A, then reduce the Line 7 number by those contributions.
For taxpayers who itemize deductions, follow the instructions provided on IRS Form 1099-G.
If you repaid an overpayment of unemployment compensation that you received in the same tax year, subtract the repaid amount from the total unemployment payments you received. Enter the net result here.
The Line 8 instructions contains a variety of other income items.
Do not report any income from self-employment or fees that you received as a notary public. Instead, you must complete Schedule C, even if you don’t have any business expenses.
Also don’t report any nonemployee compensation shown on Form 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC, or 1099-K. You will need to refer to the Instructions for Recipient included on the respective tax form to determine how to report that income.
Let’s take a closer look at some of these income items.
Enter on Line 8a any net operating loss (NOL) deduction from an earlier year as a negative number in the pre-printed parentheses. This amount will be subtracted from the rest of the income items from Line 8b to Line 8z.
Enter any gambling winnings. Gambling winnings include the following items:
Attach a copy of IRS Form 1099-G if income tax payments were withheld from your gambling winnings.
In Line 8c, enter any cancelled debt for which you received a copy of IRS Form 1099-C. Not all cancelled debt is considered taxable income.
Enter the amount of your foreign earned income and housing exclusion from IRS Form 2555, Line 45, in parentheses as a negative number. This amount will be subtracted from the other items of income in Lines 8a through 8z.
Also, complete the foreign earned income tax worksheet, located below.
Complete IRS Form 8853 if you had taxable distributions from an Archer MSA. After you complete Form 8853, enter the following lines of income from the completed form:
Report taxable distributions from a health savings account on IRS Form 8889. After doing so, enter the total of the following lines from your completed Form 8889:
If you received dividends from the Alaska Permanent Fund, enter the total amount of dividends received here.
If you received compensation for jury duty, enter that amount in Line 8h. If you gave back some or all of your jury duty compensation because your employer paid you during your jury duty time, you might be able to deduct this amount on Line 24a, discussed below.
Enter any prize or award money you received during the year.
However, if you received prizes or awards as an Olympic or Paralympic athlete, or if you received USOC prize money, report that amount in Line 8m, instead.
If you participated in an activity, but not for profit, enter any income you received as a result of that activity.
For example, if you are a race horse owner, but do not have a for profit business, you might enter any income from horse races during the year.
IRS Publication 535, Business Expenses, contains additional information about the difference between an activity for profit and an activity not for profit.
In Line 8k, report any income from the exercise of stock options that you did not otherwise report on IRS Form 1040.
If you earned income from the rental of personal property, but were not in the business of renting such property, enter the rental income in Line 8l.
If you incurred expenses in conjunction with this income, you may be able to deduct those expenses in Line 24b, later.
Enter any Olympic or Paralympic medals, as well as prize money you earned from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) on Line 8m.
These amounts should be reported to you in Box 3 of Form 1099-MISC.
If your adjusted gross income is not more than $1,000,000 ($500,000 if married filing separately), this is considered nontaxable income. You should include the Box 3 amount in Line 8m, then subtract it on Line 24c, as an adjustment to income, later.
On Line 8n, enter any amount from the following lines on IRS Form 5471, Schedule I:
Internal Revenue Code Section 951 generally requires that a U.S. shareholder of a controlled foreign corporation include in income its pro rata share of the corporation’s subpart F income and its amount determined under IRC Section 956.
On Line 8o, enter the sum of any amounts reported on Part II, Line 5 of IRS Form 8992.
IRC Section 951A generally requires that a U.S. shareholder of a controlled foreign corporation include in income its global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI).
Attach your completed Form 8992 to your income tax return.
In Line 8p, enter the amount of your excess business loss from IRS Form 461, Line 16.
You may have to report and pay additional taxes on IRS Form 5329 if you received a taxable distribution from an ABLE account.
Distributions from this type of account may be taxable if they:
In Line 8r, enter the amount of scholarship and fellowship grants that were not reported on Form W-2. If you were a degree candidate, only include the amounts for expenses not including tuition and course-related expenses.
For example, you would report grants that you received to offset room, board, and travel expenses on Line 8r.
In Line 8s, enter the nontaxable amount of Medicaid waiver payments included on Line 1a or Line 1d of your Form 1040.
Certain Medicaid waiver payments you received for caring for someone living in your home with you may be nontaxable.
If nontaxable payments were reported to you in box 1 of Form(s) W-2, report the amount on
Line 1a of your Form 1040.
Report the amount on Line 1d of your Form 1040 if you
Then, on Line 8s, enter the total amount of the nontaxable payments that you reported on Line 1a or Line 1d. This goes into Line 8s as a negative number, in parentheses.
Enter the amount that you received as a pension or annuity from a nonqualified deferred compensation plan or a nongovernmental 457 plan.
You should see this in Box 11 of Form W-2. If you received such an amount, but Box 11 is blank, contact your employer or payer to determine the amount you received.
In Line 8u, enter the amount that you received for services performed while serving as an inmate in a penal institution.
Use this line to report any taxable income not reported elsewhere on your return or other schedules.
Examples of other income can include:
When calculating taxable income items to include in Line 8z, do not include the following nontaxable items:
Combine Lines 8a through 8z. Enter the result in Line 9.
Combine Lines 1 through 7, and Line 9. Enter the total in Line 10, and on Line 8 of your federal tax return.
In Part II, we’ll calculate adjustments to income. These adjustments to income lower adjustable gross income, also known as AGI.
Enter qualified educator expenses in Line 11.
If you were an eligible educator during the tax year, you can deduct up to $300 of qualified expenses you paid during the taxable year.
If you and your spouse are filing jointly and both of you were eligible educators, the maximum deduction is $600. However, neither spouse can deduct more than $300 of their qualified expenses on Line 11.
You are an eligible educator if you meet the following criteria:
Qualified educator expenses include ordinary and necessary expenses paid:
However, qualified expenses don’t include expenses for home schooling or for nonathletic supplies for courses in health or physical education.
You must reduce your qualified educator expenses by the following:
If you are any of the following, you may deduct certain business expenses from gross income:
If you are any of the above, you may deduct certain unreimbursed business expenses on IRS Form 2106.
You may be able to take deduct any health savings account contributions from gross income to reduce your tax liability. Attach a copy of your completed Form 8889 to document your HSA deduction.
You can deduct moving expenses if:
If you’re claiming the moving expense deduction on IRS Form 3903, attach your completed form to your tax return.
If you had self-employment income, and owe self-employment tax, complete IRS Schedule SE
to figure the amount of your deduction.
The deductible part of your self-employment tax is on Line 13 of Schedule SE.
If you were self-employed or a partner, you may be able to take this tax deduction.
For more details, see IRS Publication 560 Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE and Qualified Plans)
You may be able to deduct the amount you paid for health insurance for yourself, your spouse, and your dependents, if one of the following conditions applies:
If you qualify to take the deduction, use the Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction Worksheet to figure the amount you can deduct.
Enter the penalty amount reflected on your IRS Form 1099-INT or IRS Form 1099-OID.
If you made payments to or for your spouse or former spouse under a divorce or separation agreement entered into on or before December 31, 2018, you may be able to take this deduction.
If you are able to deduct alimony paid, enter the amount of alimony paid in Line 19a.
In Line 19b, enter your spouse’s or former spouse’s Social Security number.
For Line 19c, enter the month and year of the date of the divorce or separation agreement.
If you made contributions to a traditional IRA for the tax year, you may be able to take an IRA deduction. However, you must have earned income to contribute to an IRA.
For IRA purposes, earned income includes the following:
The IRS instructions provide an IRA deduction worksheet to help taxpayers calculate their deduction, below.
Before using the worksheet, you should be aware of the following:
You can take the student loan interest deduction only if all of the following apply:
A qualified student loan is any loan you took out to pay the qualified higher education expenses for any of the following individuals who were eligible students:
If you meet all of the above criteria, then use this student loan interest deduction worksheet to calculate your tax deduction.
This line contains other adjustments to income. Let’s start with jury duty pay on Line 24a.
In Line 24a, enter your jury duty pay if you gave the pay to your employer because your employer paid your salary while you served on jury duty.
Enter the deductible expenses related to income reported on Line 8l from the rental of personal property
Enter the nontaxable amount of the value of Olympic and Paralympic medals and USOC prize money that you reported on Line 8m.
Enter reforestation amortization and expenses. IRS Publication 535, Business Expenses, contains more information.
Enter any repayment of supplemental unemployment benefits under the Trade Act of 1974. IRS Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income, contains additional details about this above the line tax deduction.
Enter any contributions to Section 501(c)(18)(D) plans. Refer to IRS Publication 525 for more information.
In Line 24h, you may enter any attorney fees and court costs for actions involving certain unlawful discrimination claims. You may only enter attorney fees and court costs to the extent of gross income from such actions.
In other words, you cannot claim more in expenses than you realized in total income.
If the Internal Revenue Service paid you an award for information you provided that helped detect tax law violations, you may enter enter attorney fees and court costs you paid in connection to this information, up to the amount of the award includible in your gross income.
Enter the housing deduction that you might have claimed as an exception to foreign earned income on IRS Form 2555.
Enter excess deductions of IRC Section 67(e) expenses from Schedule K-1 (Form 1041), Box 11, Code A.
Enter the total of other adjustments to income not previously stated.
Add Lines 24a through 24z. Enter the result here.
Combine Lines 11 through 23, and Line 25. These are adjustments to income.
Enter the total in Line 26, and on Line 10 of your federal tax return.
Schedule 1 is the tax form that the IRS provides for individual taxpayers to report additional income items or adjustments to income that they cannot report on their income tax return.
Do I need to complete IRS Schedule 1?Only taxpayers who have items of income or adjustment to gross income need to report these items on IRS Schedule 1.
Like with other tax forms, you can find IRS Schedule 1 on the IRS website. For your convenience, we’ve included the most recent version of this tax form below.