Form 1040EZ is the simplest of the three tax forms you can use to file your federal income taxes. If your taxable income is less than $100,000, you don’t claim any dependents and you file as single or are married filing jointly, then you may be eligible to file Form 1040EZ.
The only types of income you can list on Form 1040EZ is wages, salaries, tips, taxable interest of $1,500 or less, unemployment compensation and Alaska permanent fund dividends. If you have income from sources other than these, such as alimony or dividends, then you will have to file your taxes on either Form 1040 or Form 1040A.
Form 1040 A is used when you have dependents and/or if you have more complicated items in your tax return.
You would use Form 1040A if:
• Your income is only from wages, salaries, tips, interest, ordinary dividends, capital gain distributions, taxable scholarships and fellowship grants, pensions, annuities, IRAs, unemployment compensation, Alaska Permanent Fund dividends, and taxable social security or railroad retirement benefits
• The only adjustments to income you can claim are the IRA deduction, the student loan interest deduction, the educator expenses deduction, and the tuition and fees deduction
• You don't itemize deductions
• Your taxable income is less than $100,000
• The only tax credits you can claim are the credit for child and dependent care expenses, the credit for the elderly or the disabled, education credits, the retirement savings contributions credit, the child tax credit, the additional child tax credit, the earned income credit, and/or the premium tax credit
• You didn't have an alternative minimum tax adjustment on stock you acquired from the exercise of an incentive stock option
• You can also use Form 1040A if you received dependent care benefits or if you owe tax from the recapture of an education credit or the alternative minimum tax.
