Some New York public employees (such as teachers) have a retirement plan called a 414(h) that automatically pulls money from your earnings. Because you appear to earn less, you will know about this and whether you have one. But you can always check on your W-2, in box 12!

Read up on box 12.

Gah!

If you purchased or hold any bonds in state or local governments that are not from New York, you have to claim any income here. This is a limited case and most likely, you know if it applies.

Simply repeat what you wrote in line 37. Why this line even exists, nobody knows!

In other news, you’re now halfway through the form! Turning the curve…

You can do the math here, or…you already did this:

1040

• Line 38 (or 37): Adjusted gross income

1040A

• Line 22 (or 21): Adjusted gross income

1040EZ

• Line 4: Adjusted gross income

This comes only from the 1040 (if you had other sources and filed a 1040A or 1040EZ, you probably used the wrong form). Our guess is as good as yours. There’s a whole range of sources, but the list provided is pretty comprehensive for most.

1040

• Line 21: Other sources

Once again, the IRS leaves you hanging on figuring this mess out. If you receive Social Security, you should get a Form SSA-1099. On this, you can find how much you received in the last year. If this your only source of income, just list the amount you received in 20a and “0” in 20b. Otherwise, how do you figure out what is taxable?

If you add up everything from line 7 through line 19, you’ll get your income to date. Write this number down.

Now take the amount of Social Security benefits you received, found on Form SSA-1099. Write this number in 20a.

To get the taxable amount, divide the number in 20b in half and add it to the number in 20a. If the result is larger than $25,000 (or $32,000 if married and filing jointly), some of it is taxed.

Now the fun: complete the hellish worksheet on page 7 to figure out how much is taxable. Put this in 20b – godspeed.

1040

• Line 20b: Taxable amount

1040A

• Line 14b: Taxable amount

1040EZ

• Wrong return…

1040

• Line 19: Unemployment compensation

1040A

• Line 13: Unemployment compensation

1040EZ

• Line 3: Unemployment compensation

If at any point in the tax year you filed for unemployment benefits and received said benefits, here’s where they go. The exact details of long-term unemployment money, lasting over two tax years, is more dicey. At this point, you should invest in a tax professional to correctly determine your status and forms.

Note that, if you and your spouse are filing jointly, you must also include any unemployment that your spouse collected.

Haha, F for “farm!” Who says the IRS doesn’t have a sense of humor?

In the rare case that you actually own a farm and are a sole-proprietor, Schedule F is for you. If your farm is part of a larger corporation or share, this is not for you.

This…this is a loss…

Only a 1040 has a place for this.

1040

• Line 18: Farm income or (loss)