The Internal Revenue Service has released a draft version of the Form 1040 for tax year 2020 with several significant changes probably in store for next tax season.
They include moving the question about virtual currency from the attached Schedule 1 to near the top of the main form, right under the name and address, asking, “At any time during 2020, did you receive, sell, exchange, or otherwise acquire any financial interest in any virtual currency?” The question comes at a time when the IRS has made it more of a priority to crack down on cryptocurrency investors who haven’t been reporting their gains on their tax filings, including by issuing summonses to major cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase and Bitstamp in recent years seeking information on their customers who trade in digital currency such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Another big change, as Kelly Phillips Erb of Forbes noted, is the inclusion of a question about charitable contributions on the main tax form for taxpayers who claim the standard deduction. Normally, taxpayers who claim the charitable deduction have to itemize it on Schedule A, but the CARES Act this year includes a provision for taxpayers to deduct up to $300 in charitable contributions even if they’re only claiming the standard deduction. That’s why there is now a line 10b for “charitable contributions if you take the standard deduction” on the draft Form 1040. Instructions will be provided for taxpayers and tax preparers, according to the form.
The flip side of the form includes a number of changes, including splitting the federal income tax withheld line into separate entries from W-2, 1099 and other forms, as opposed to a single line for federal income tax withholding. This suggests to Erb that the IRS may be planning to do extra scrutiny of gig workers and the self-employed.
A new line has been added to page 2 for the “recovery rebate credit,” which will be reporting the economic impact payments or stimulus checks that went out from the IRS this year as a result of the CARES Act. That too will be explained in the instructions for Form 1040, and Erb says there will be a separate reconciliation schedule that will carry over to that line on the form.
Julia Hu is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Lark. Founded on the personal experience of having grown up with an undiagnosed chronic condition, Julia is passionate about bringing compassionate care to those preventing or managing chronic disease. Hu was named to Business Insider’s 30 Under 40 Changing Healthcare list and was awarded as a member of the UCSF Health Awards Hall of Fame in 2021, as well as the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ North America Class of 2021. Prior to founding Lark in 2011, Julia ran global startup incubator, the Clean Tech Open, built a sustainable construction startup, and was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Stanford’s StartX incubator. She is on the board of the Council for Diabetes Prevention and a Singularity University faculty member. Hu received her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees at Stanford University and half of an MBA from MIT Sloan before founding Lark.
Bernie Dyme is president and CEO of Perspectives LTD, a behavioral health firm committed to delivering high-quality employee assistance programs, behavioral health, and organizational consulting services.
He is passionate about ending the stigma attached to mental health ensuring that everyone in companies has full access to mental health services and also focuses on prevention and early intervention. He is an active member of more than a dozen professional and community organizations that work toward his passion of bringing resources to all employees and organizations to ensure full access to help. These include the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA), the Society of Human Resource Professionals (SHRM), and the Executives Club of Chicago. He is also the Chair of the Advisory Council of The Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice at the University of Chicago. He is the past president of the Board of Directors for the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless and is currently an active member of the Board.
Bernie is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). He has his master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago.
Brandon Roberts is chief revenue officer, fitness & wellbeing for Xplor Technologies, a global platform for SMBs combining SaaS solutions with embedded payments and commerce accelerating technologies, where he leads a team of 200 commercial sales, account management and client service people across North America.
Before joining Xplor in 2020, Brandon spent eight years at Mindbody, ultimately as global director of operations. He has a B.S. in Kinesiology from California Polytechnic State University and a MBA from the University of Phoenix.
The “Amount You Owe” section of the form includes a new cautionary note, saying, “Schedule H and Schedule SE filers, line 37 may not represent all of the taxes you owe for 2020. See Schedule 3, line 12e, and its instructions for details.” Schedule3, line 12e is new, according to Erb, and corresponds to another provision of the CARES Act allowing employers to defer their portion of the payroll tax for Social Security.
The form so far does not seem to include a line for the new payroll tax deferral for the employee’s share of Social Security taxes under President Trump’s recent executive order or memorandum. The draft form is likely to change before it’s finalized, though, as the IRS receives comments from the tax practitioner and accountant communities, as well as others.
