Because Congress thought that the new postcard Form 1040 was still too difficult for seniors to fill out, the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act ordered the IRS to create a new tax form just for Senior Citizens (taxpayers aged 65 and up).
Today the IRS released a draft version of the proposed Form 1040-SR for public comment. Take a moment to review it and send your comments to the IRS today!
Yes, this is real. This is not a joke.
It looks like something halfway between the 1040A and 1040EZ - neither of which exist any more. We need a “simplified” form, but I don’t think it needs to be labeled “for seniors.”
IIRC, when the 1040A was first introduced, it was half the size of the 1040, but it eventually bloated to a full page. Similarly, the first 1040EZ was half the size of the 1040, but then they changed it so you only wrote on one side of the page and the boxes were bigger because you needed to use numbers that were scanner-readable.
I’m a senior. I’m a little confused about the choices for “standard deduction,” but otherwise I love it. I’m sure my tax preparer will use it for us. And this could be the last year we have to hire a tax preparer.
But if you want to itemize, you still have to use Schedule A, which is just the same as for the regular 1040, yes?
I just use tax software because I like the question and answer approach and I have more confidence that I’m not missing anything.
It looks like it’s a streamlined form. They improved the wording of some of the questions and I do like the chart of standard deductions on the front.
But income from when you’re retired can be quite complex. This would be better for younger taxpayers who just have wages and interest.
I would expect they’ll change the name of the form.
Not clear to me what I’d be expected to do with my Schedule F.
This looks to me more like a ‘retired person’s form’ than an ‘over 65 form.’ The two are not synonymous.
But the confusing rules for RMDs and associated heavy penalties for errors remain?
The whole thing seems weird to me. I don’t see the need for a special “seniors” form, and the sample form actually isn’t limited to any age group, since under the “age” entry it doesn’t have any age restrictions, and as far as I can tell someone born in 2000 can use it just as readily as someone born before 1955.
Unless it is on schedule 3, there is no place for foreign tax credit. The only simplification I can see is for the standard deduction.
What the U.S. needs is for the IRS to calculate the taxes and send taxpayers either a refund or a bill. Then only a minority of taxpayers would need to file additional forms–because of self-employment income, etc.
And for this minority there should be IRS online/offline tax preparation software.
it will be rejected since Standard Deduction is based on over 65–only boxes are for one or both over 55
I don’t think this is correct. The “Standard Deduction Chart” farther down on the form says to “Add the number of boxes checked in the ‘Age/Blindness’ section of Standard Deduction”. Up to four boxes can be checked, but if neither the filer nor the spouse is over 65 or blind, then no boxes would be checked, and the Standard Deduction Chart includes values to use in the case that 0 boxes have been checked.