Form 1040 is the most complex of the 3 major individual tax forms. However, it offers many tax breaks not available if you file a simpler form, like Form 1040EZ or Form 1040A. You can report all types of income, expenses, and credits on a 1040.

If you receive these types of income, you must file a 1040:

• Self-employment income
• Tips you didn't report to your employer
• Income you receive as a:
  • Partner in a partnership
  • Shareholder in an S corporation
  • Beneficiary of an estate or trust
• Insurance policy dividends totaling more than the premiums you paid
• Interest you received or paid on securities transferred between interest payment dates
• Distributions from a foreign trust

You also must file a 1040 if any of these apply:

• You qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion. To learn more, see the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion tax tip.
• You qualify to exclude income from sources in Puerto Rico or American Samoa because you were a bona fide resident of either.
• You have an Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) adjustment on stock acquired from exercising an incentive stock option.
• You owe excise tax on insider stock compensation from an expatriated corporation.
• You're reporting an original issue discount (OID) amount that doesn't match the amount on Form 1099-OID. To learn more, see IRS Publication 1212: List of Original Issue Discount Instruments.
• You owe household employment taxes. To learn more, see Schedule H instructions.
• You're eligible for the health coverage tax credit. To learn more, see the Form 8885 instructions.
• You're claiming the adoption credit or you received employer-provided adoption benefits. To learn more, see the Adoption Expenses tax tip.
• You're a debtor in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case filed after Oct. 16, 2005.
• Your employer didn’t withhold Social Security and Medicare taxes from your pay.
• You had a qualified health savings account (HSA) funding distribution from your IRA.
• You have a loss attributable to a federally declared disaster area.
• You’re repaying the first-time homebuyer credit.

To learn more, see IRS Publication 525: Taxable and Nontaxable Income.