1040 Form

The starting form for personal or individual income tax returns filed with the IRS. Any full-time resident individual U.S. income taxpayer can use the standard Form 1040 (often referred to as the "long form" to distinguish it from the other 1040 variants). Those with uncomplicated tax situations (for example, no itemized deductions, no capital gain or loss, etc.) may be able to use the simplified Form 1040A (the "short form") or the even simpler Form 1040EZ (the "easy form") instead of Form 1040. Some versions of Form 1040 are colored blue (though not the case when tax return software packages are used).

Form 1040 consists of two full pages not counting attachments. The first page collects information about the taxpayer(s), dependents, income items, and adjustments to income. The second page calculates the allowable deductions and credits, tax due given the income figure, and applies funds already withheld from wages or estimated payments made towards the tax liability. Form 1040 has 11 attachments, called "schedules" (Schedules A and B are printed on opposite sides of the same sheet), which may need to be filed depending on the taxpayer.

See also: Form 1040-ES, Form 1040A, Form 1040EZ, Form 1040NR, Form 1040X