Get to Know Your Tax Forms

A federal tax form is a term widely used yet confusing in terms of specification. Literally it means the IRS tax forms used by taxpayers and tax-exempt organizations to report financial information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States. They are used to report income and calculate taxes to be paid to the federal government of the United States. It is important to know which form a taxpayer should use in order to pay for his taxes. A mistake in the use of a form could be fatal to a person's business or any organization specifically when you are logging behind the deadline. It means you must fill up another form and mail or email it again to which you could be penalized for late submission of tax returns.

Federal tax forms come under different titles:

1. IRS document 990 with title "Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax" is the form that will be used by tax exempt and nonprofit organizations to provide the Internal Revenue Service with their financial information. It furnishes the public with the financial information regarding a certain organization which is exempt from tax. Disclosure of such information is the measure used by the government to prevent abuse from these organizations that are exempt from taxes.

2. Document 1040 with title "U.S. Individual Income Tax Return" was the first tax form used for personal or individual income tax return. It was used in the tax years 1913, 1914, and 1915. But in 1916 Form 1040 was changed to an annual form. This form has two other variants namely; Form 1040A referred to as the short form and Form 1040EZ as the easy form.

3. Document 1040A which is the shorter version for Form 1040 reflects the computation of taxpayers with taxable income below $100,000. Only a standard deduction will be computed for these taxpayers.

4. Document 1040EZ entitled " Income Tax Return for Single and Joint Filers with No Dependents"

5. Documents 1040NR and 1040NR-EZ are used by nonresident aliens in filing their income tax returns.

6. Forms 1040X entitled "Amended U.S. Individual Tax Return" is the form used to make corrections for Forms 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ which have been successfully filed but have incurred errors.

7. Form 1041 is the form to be filled up for estate and trust tax returns.

8. Form 1065 is the form to be filled up partnerships for tax returns.

9. Form 1098 is the form used to report various types of income aside from wages.

I could list all of the documents and this article can proceed to the next page. However it is not important to be all knowing of this forms. What's important is you know what specific form fits your income status so you can voluntarily exercise what is expected of a good citizen. In the traditional way of filing taxes these documents are quite confusing in context. However with the trend of online technologies these forms have been simplified in a manner which will be easier to fill out and comprehend.


Author by: Elijah James