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Comment by singron

7 months ago

1040-EZ was discontinued in 2018. You just fill out 1040 now and leave lines blank. If you only have W2 income and don't make too much, it is really easy. You just fill out lines 1a, 12, 25a and the IRS will figure the rest (you can calculate the intermediate numbers if you want to, but they will do it for you).

However, knowing it's that easy requires reading a lot of instructions, and if you make enough money (depending on filing status), it suddenly gets much more complicated (forms 8959, 8960, 6251 have income triggers), and if you have 1099s (INT or DIV) you might need to file Schedule B and form 8995. And if you have a mortgage, you should do your taxes twice to see if itemizing with Schedule A is better. And god forbid you sold anything and have to do Schedule D and forms 8949.