What’s on the First Page of Your Tax Return?

The first page of a 1040 does two jobs: it identifies you and it builds your income picture. Working top to bottom, page 1 collects your name, address, and Social Security number; your filing status; a required answer about digital assets; your dependents; every category of taxable income you received; the adjustments that reduce it; and finally the deduction that gets you to taxable income on Line 15. Along the way it produces the single most important number on the return, your adjusted gross income, on Line 11.

The Header: Name, Address, and Social Security Number

The very top of the form marks the tax year and asks for your full legal name, current mailing address, and Social Security number. On a joint return, your spouse’s name and SSN go in the same block. The IRS matches this header against income documents filed under your SSN, including W-2s and 1099s from employers, banks, and brokerages. If the SSN on your return doesn’t line up with the SSN on those third-party reports, processing slows down fast.

Filing Status

Right below the header is a set of checkboxes for your filing status. This one selection drives your tax brackets, your standard deduction, and your eligibility for a range of credits, so the wrong box can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars.

The five choices are:

Single, if you are unmarried, divorced, or legally separated.
Married Filing Jointly, for married couples combining income and deductions on one return. Most couples pay less tax this way.
Married Filing Separately, for married taxpayers filing individual returns, which sometimes helps when one spouse has large medical expenses or student loan issues.
Head of Household, if you are unmarried and pay more than half the cost of maintaining a home for a qualifying dependent.
Qualifying Surviving Spouse, available for two years after a spouse’s death if you have a dependent child.

Your status is generally based on your marital situation on December 31 of the tax year.¹ The gap between Single and Head of Household is larger than many people realize: Head of Household comes with a bigger standard deduction and wider brackets, but you have to actually qualify by supporting a dependent in your home.

The Digital Assets Question

Before any income line, the form asks a mandatory yes-or-no question about digital assets. The IRS wants to know whether at any point during the year you received digital assets as payment, a reward, or compensation, or sold, exchanged, or otherwise disposed of a digital asset or a financial interest in one.² Every filer answers, even if the answer is no.

You check “Yes” if you received cryptocurrency through mining, staking, airdrops, or as payment for goods and services. You also check “Yes” if you sold crypto for dollars, traded one cryptocurrency for another, or paid a transfer fee using digital assets. The question covers Bitcoin, stablecoins, NFTs, and other convertible virtual currencies.² Simply holding digital assets in a wallet without any transactions during the year means you can check “No.”

Dependents

Below the digital assets question is the dependents section. For each dependent you list a first and last name, a Social Security number, and the relationship to you.³ Two checkboxes ask whether the dependent qualifies you for the Child Tax Credit and whether they qualify you for the Credit for Other Dependents. The form has room for four dependents; if you have more, you check a box and attach additional information.

This section is worth getting right because it determines which credits show up later on the return. A qualifying child under 17 can generate a Child Tax Credit worth up to $2,200, with up to $1,700 of that potentially refundable even if you owe no tax.⁴ Dependents who don’t qualify for the Child Tax Credit, such as older teenagers, aging parents, or adult dependents, may instead qualify for a separate $500 nonrefundable Credit for Other Dependents.⁵

Income, Line 1 Through Line 9

The income section runs from Line 1 through Line 9 and pulls together every category of taxable income you received during the year. Line 1a is where most people see their largest number: wages, salaries, and tips from your W-2.³ The form captures much more than employment income, though.

Separate lines report taxable interest, ordinary dividends, distributions from IRAs, pensions and annuities, and Social Security benefits. Capital gains or losses come in from Schedule D. Business income, rental income, unemployment compensation, and other sources arrive through Schedule 1 and land on Line 8. Line 9 adds it all up into Total Income, the raw sum of every taxable dollar that came your way during the year.³

Adjustments and Adjusted Gross Income on Line 11

Total Income isn’t the number the IRS actually uses to test you against most tax rules. Adjusted gross income is. Between Line 9 and Line 11 the form subtracts what are often called “above-the-line” deductions. These adjustments come off your income before you decide whether to take the standard deduction or itemize, so they benefit everyone who qualifies.

The most common adjustments, listed on Schedule 1, include:

Educator expenses: teachers can deduct classroom supplies they paid for out of pocket.
Health savings account contributions, reported on Form 8889 and deducted on Schedule 1.
Self-employment tax: the deductible half of Social Security and Medicare taxes for self-employed workers.
Traditional IRA contributions, if you qualify for the deduction.
Student loan interest, up to a capped amount each year.

These adjustments are totaled on Schedule 1, Line 26, and that total flows to Line 10 of the 1040.⁶ The form subtracts Line 10 from Line 9 to produce your AGI on Line 11.³

AGI is the most-referenced number in the tax code. It’s what determines whether you can claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, whether your Child Tax Credit phases down, how much of your Social Security benefits are taxable, and dozens of other thresholds. Mortgage lenders and financial aid offices ask for it too. If there’s one line on the return worth knowing by heart, it’s Line 11.

Deductions and Taxable Income on Line 15

After AGI, page 1 moves into deductions, which are subtracted from AGI to reach taxable income. You choose between the standard deduction and itemized deductions, and the rule is simple: use whichever is larger.

Standard Deduction

The standard deduction is a flat amount that depends on your filing status. For tax year 2026, the amounts are:

Single or Married Filing Separately: $16,100
Married Filing Jointly or Qualifying Surviving Spouse: $32,200
Head of Household: $24,150

These amounts are adjusted annually for inflation.⁷ Taxpayers age 65 or older can claim an additional standard deduction on top of these base amounts. For tax years 2025 through 2028, an enhanced deduction adds $6,000 per eligible individual, or $12,000 for a married couple where both spouses qualify, on top of the existing additional deduction for seniors.⁸

Itemized Deductions

If your allowable expenses exceed the standard deduction, you itemize instead by completing Schedule A.⁹ The largest itemized deductions for most filers are state and local taxes (currently capped), home mortgage interest, and charitable contributions. The total from Schedule A flows to Line 12.

Qualified Business Income Deduction and Line 15

Line 13 captures the qualified business income deduction, which lets eligible self-employed individuals and small business owners deduct up to 20% of net business income.¹⁰ It sits apart from the standard-versus-itemized choice, so you can claim it in addition to either one. It phases down at higher income levels.

The form adds Line 12 and Line 13 together on Line 14, then subtracts that total from AGI. What comes out on Line 15 is your taxable income, the number that actually gets run through the tax rate brackets.³

Where Page 1 Ends

Page 1 stops at Line 15. The tax computation itself, the credits, the payments and withholding, the refund or balance due, and the signature block all live on page 2. Everything on page 1 exists to produce two numbers you’ll use again: AGI on Line 11 and taxable income on Line 15.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Filing Status
2
Internal Revenue Service. Digital Assets
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return
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Internal Revenue Service. Refundable Tax Credits
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Internal Revenue Service. Parents: Check Eligibility for the Credit for Other Dependents
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Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Schedule 1 (Form 1040) – Additional Income and Adjustments to Income
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Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026, Including Amendments From the One, Big, Beautiful Bill
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Internal Revenue Service. Check Your Eligibility for the New Enhanced Deduction for Seniors
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Internal Revenue Service. Tax Basics: Understanding the Difference Between Standard and Itemized Deductions
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8995