Form 1040 2026 draft: every line that changed from 2025

The short answer. The IRS posted its early-release draft of the 2026 Form 1040 on September 17, 2026. Most of it is the 2025 return with new dates, but eight changes are real. A new question asks whether you, and your spouse on a joint return, are a U.S. citizen, U.S. national or an alien lawfully authorized to work in the United States. Line 12f is new: the charitable deduction of up to $1,000 ($2,000 joint) for people who take the standard deduction. Lines 13a and 13b swap places, with the Schedule 1-A deductions now first. Total tax splits into lines 24a, 24b and 24c to carry a new farmland-sale installment from Form 1062. Refundable credits split into 32a, 32b and 32c to subtract the amount from the new Schedule 3-A. The senior checkbox moves to a birth date before January 2, 1962, and the standard deduction amounts printed in the margin are the 2026 ones. What does not move is as useful to know: adjusted gross income is still line 11a, taxable income is still line 15.

Everything on this page comes from the draft PDF compared line by line with the final 2025 form. The instructions for 2026 had not been posted, so where a line says “see instructions,” this page says what the form itself shows and no more. The schedules that feed the new lines have their own pages: Schedule 1-A 2026, Schedule A 2026 and Schedule 3-A 2026.

The changes at a glance

Line	2025 Form 1040	2026 draft
Top of page 1	Digital assets question	Same question under a new “Other Information” heading, plus: “are you, and your spouse if filing jointly, a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or an alien lawfully authorized to work in the U.S.?“
12d	Born before January 2, 1961	Born before January 2, 1962
Standard deduction (margin)	$15,750 / $31,500 / $23,625	$16,100 / $32,200 / $24,150
12f	(none)	Charitable contribution deduction for non-itemizers
13a	Qualified business income deduction	Additional deductions from Schedule 1-A, line 44
13b	Schedule 1-A, line 38	Qualified business income deduction
14	12e + 13a + 13b	12e + 12f + 13a + 13b
23	”Other taxes” from Schedule 2	”Additional taxes” from Schedule 2 (same line 21, but Schedule 2 Part II is reorganized into income taxes and employment taxes)
24	Total tax	24a total tax; 24b from Form 1062, line 15; 24c = 24a + 24b
28	ACTC, with a box to decline it	ACTC, no decline box
29	American opportunity credit	”Refundable” American opportunity credit
32	Total other payments and refundable credits	32a the same total; 32b amount from Schedule 3-A; 32c = 32a − 32b
34, 37	Compared with line 24	Compared with line 24c
36	Applied to 2026 estimated tax	Applied to 2027 estimated tax

Unchanged: the income lines 1a through 9, including the Medicaid waiver line 1d and the capital gain line 7a with its 7b checkbox; the adjustments on line 10; AGI on 11a and 11b; taxable income on line 15; the tax, credit and Schedule 2 and 3 lines 16 through 22; withholding on 25a to 25d; the earned income credit on 27a. For the AGI lines in detail, see what line AGI is on Form 1040.

Line 12f: a charity deduction for people who do not itemize

This is the change that will reach the most households. From 2018 through 2025, a filer who took the standard deduction got no deduction for giving to charity, apart from a small temporary allowance in 2020 and 2021. Public Law 119-21 added subsection (p) to 26 U.S.C. 170, and the 2026 draft gives it its own line.

The statute’s conditions are narrow and worth reading closely. The deduction is available only “if the individual does not elect to itemize deductions.” It is capped at $1,000, or $2,000 on a joint return. Only “contributions made in cash during such taxable year” count, and only to an organization described in section 170(b)(1)(A), which in practice means public charities, churches, schools and similar bodies, “and not” to a supporting organization under section 509(a)(3) or “for the establishment of a new, or maintenance of an existing, donor advised fund.” Gifts of appreciated stock do not qualify; a check to your local food bank does.

One detail separates this line from the itemizer’s version. The statute computes the non-itemizer deduction “without regard to” section 170(b)(1)(I), which is the new 0.5 percent-of-income floor that itemizers face on Schedule A from 2026. A non-itemizer’s first dollar of qualifying cash gifts counts, while an itemizer’s gifts count only above half a percent of their contribution base.

A worked example. A single filer earns $60,000 in wages and gives $1,500 in cash to a church during 2026. Line 11a/11b: $60,000. Line 12e: the $16,100 standard deduction. Line 12f: $1,000, because the cap binds even though $1,500 was given. Line 14: $17,100. Line 15, taxable income: $60,000 − $17,100 = $42,900. The 2026 tax on $42,900 for a single filer is $1,240 on the first $12,400 plus 12 percent of the remaining $30,500, or $4,900. Without line 12f, taxable income would be $43,900 and the tax $5,020. The deduction is worth $120, which is the $1,000 times the 12 percent bracket. It is modest, but in 2025 the same gift was worth nothing to this filer. The rules behind line 12f, including what does not qualify (donor-advised funds, non-cash gifts) and the new 0.5% floor on the itemized side, are in the 2026 charitable deduction.

Lines 13a and 13b trade places

In 2025, line 13a held the qualified business income deduction from Form 8995 and line 13b the new Schedule 1-A total. The 2026 draft reverses them: 13a is “Additional deductions from Schedule 1-A, line 44” and 13b is the QBI deduction. Line 14 adds both either way, so no one’s tax changes. What changes is every instruction, worksheet and piece of advice that says “line 13a.” Two examples on this site. The new question on the 2026 Schedule A, which asks whether line 11b “minus the amounts on lines 13a and 13b” exceeds $384,350, subtracts both, so it survives the swap. And Form 6251, the AMT form, starts its line 1a from Form 1040 line 14, which in 2026 also includes the new line 12f; see Form 6251 2026 draft.

The Schedule 1-A total itself moved from line 38 to line 44 because the 2026 Schedule 1-A was rebuilt around per-employer tables for tips and overtime; the senior deduction’s own birth-date cutoff moved to January 2, 1962, the same date that now appears on line 12d of the Form 1040.

Lines 24a to 24c: a farmland installment

Line 24 was the total tax. It becomes line 24a, and two lines follow it. Line 24b is “Enter amount from Form 1062, line 15,” and line 24c adds 24a and 24b. The refund on line 34 and the amount owed on line 37 are now measured against 24c.

Form 1062, whose draft is dated December 2026, is titled “Deferral of Payment of Tax on Gain From the Sale or Exchange of Qualified Farmland Property to Qualified Farmers.” It implements 26 U.S.C. 1062, added by section 70437 of Public Law 119-21, which lets a seller of farmland to a qualified farmer elect to pay the tax on that gain in four annual installments. Line 14 of the form is the “total section 1062 applicable net tax liability,” the tax attributable to the gain, and line 15 is the “first installment due,” 25 percent of line 14. The draft 2026 Schedule 3 shows how the pieces fit: its new line 13e, “Total section 1062 applicable net tax liability. Enter amount from Form 1062, line 14,” is a refundable-credit line, so the full deferred tax is first included in total tax on line 24a, then credited back through Schedule 3 and line 31, and line 24b adds back only the first quarter. The seller pays 25 percent with the return and the rest in later installments. For nearly every filer, line 24b is blank and 24c equals 24a.

Schedule 2 behind line 23

Line 23 still takes its figure from Schedule 2, line 21, but the draft 2026 Schedule 2 rebuilds the part that feeds it. The old “Part II Other Taxes” becomes “Part II Additional Taxes,” split into Section A, “Additional Income Taxes” (self-employment tax on line 4, the 10 percent early-distribution tax from Form 5329 on line 5, the net investment income tax on line 6, the 0.9 percent Additional Medicare Tax on self-employment income on line 11, and the long list of other items on 13a to 13z), and Section B, “Additional Employment and Other Taxes” (unreported-tip and uncollected-wage taxes on 16a to 16c, household employment taxes on 17a, the Additional Medicare Tax on wages and RRTA pay on 17b, and the excess-contribution and missed-RMD taxes from Form 5329 on line 18). Nearly every familiar line number on Schedule 2 moves. The forms that feed it were redrawn to match: see the 2026 notes in Form 8959 and Form 5329.

Lines 32a to 32c and the Schedule 3-A subtraction

The refundable credits on lines 27a to 31, the earned income credit, the additional child tax credit, the refundable American opportunity credit, the refundable adoption credit and the Schedule 3 refundable items, still add up on one line, now 32a. Line 32b then subtracts the “Amount from Schedule 3-A,” and line 32c is what counts towards total payments. A note in the margin says that if you entered an amount on line 27a, 28, 29 or 30, you attach Schedule 3-A.

Schedule 3-A is the draft form built on a proposed rule treating the refunded portion of those four credits as a “federal public benefit” under the 1996 welfare law, which some noncitizens are barred from receiving. Its lines, the proposed rule and its status are covered in Schedule 3-A 2026, line by line. On the Form 1040, the practical point is that for a filer whose answer on Schedule 3-A comes out at zero, which the schedule says is the case for citizens, nationals and qualified aliens who want the benefit, line 32b is zero and 32c equals 32a, the same result as in 2025.

Two smaller changes sit next to it. Line 28, the additional child tax credit, loses the checkbox that let a filer decline the credit. Line 29 now says “Refundable American opportunity credit,” matching the wording Schedule 3-A uses for it.

The new question at the top

Under a new heading, “Other Information (see instructions),” the draft groups the election to treat a nonresident spouse as a resident, the digital assets question, and a new question: “At the time you file your return, are you, and your spouse if filing jointly, a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or an alien lawfully authorized to work in the U.S.?” with Yes and No boxes for each spouse. The form points to the instructions for what the answer is used for, and those instructions are not yet posted, so this page does not guess.

The credits that shrank behind Schedule 3

Not every 2026 change shows on the 1040 itself. Behind Schedule 3, the 2026 draft of Form 5695 has been cut to four lines and renamed “Carryforward of Residential Energy Credit”: the home energy credits ended for 2025, and only an unused residential clean energy credit from an earlier year still flows to Schedule 3, line 5a. Our walkthrough of the 2026 Form 5695 carryforward covers who still files it.

What to watch before the form is final

The instructions will settle four open points: what the new status question feeds into, how the Form 1062 installment interacts with line 24a, the definition of qualifying cash gifts for line 12f and how they are substantiated, and whether the Schedule 3-A lines survive the rulemaking. The proposed rule behind Schedule 3-A was still open for comment when its draft appeared. The IRS also warns on the cover sheet of every draft that it will post a revised draft “to alert users that changes were made” if legislation intervenes. We will update this page when the instructions are out.

Sources

• Internal Revenue Service — Draft Form 1040 (2026), created August 19, 2026, posted September 17, 2026; Form 1040 (2025); draft tax forms listing
• Internal Revenue Service — Draft Form 1062 (Rev. December 2026), created July 16, 2026
• Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School — 26 U.S.C. 170, subsection (p); 26 U.S.C. 1062 and its note citing Public Law 119-21 section 70437