The 1040 tax Form must be your first step for your personal IRS income tax returns. It is created to help out in calculating the total of tax you should pay on the amount of income you have reported.

It will make you more aware if you use this form regularly as your income whether you have to take steps to lower your possibility tax penalty or you may even calculate that you will receive a return.

This is the ‘long form’ or the more complete version and should be used if you have complicated tax issues to calculate. Things like investment income or loss, capital gain or loss or multiple itemized deductions should be entered individually on your 1040 tax form to help you gain a more accurate idea of the amount of tax you should be paying or withholding.

Although the form could be only 2 main pages, they have 11 different attachments or schedules that follow with it. Each different schedule covers a specific aspect of your tax return, so that you may not need all.

1040A Tax Form

The 1040A tax form is the simplified form to help you estimate tax return for the fiscal year. If you do not have complex tax toting up for the year as capital gains or deductions on individual itemized, then the short form will be ideal for you.

1040EZ Tax Form

The 1040EZ tax form is an even more simplified version of the more lengthy 1040 form and is still able to help you determine what your tax bill might amount to at the end of the year very quickly. Once again, this is ideal for those people with no uncomplicated tax issues to account for.

1040NR Tax Form

The 1040NR tax form is designed to help non-resident aliens to calculate the amount of IRS tax return. For any non-resident alien who has been in the United States for under five years and who is earning income on which tax must be paid needs to use this form.

This form shows the IRS the original figures you submitted and then highlights what those figures should have been according to your calculations. In some cases the irs help can help you to increase the amount of tax refund you were due or it might even reduce a pending tax penalty you might incur.