A court will send you a 1099 for jury duty only if it paid you $600 or more during the calendar year. Below that, no form is issued, but the pay is still taxable and you still have to report it on your federal return.
When the Court Issues a Form
Federal and state courts follow the same information-return rules as businesses. If total jury payments to you reach $600 or more in a calendar year, the court must file a Form 1099-MISC and send you a copy by the end of January. The amount appears in Box 3, miscellaneous income.
The $600 threshold is annual and cumulative, not per trial or per day. Two separate stints on juries in the same court system add together. Government agencies are explicitly covered by these reporting rules, so both federal district courts and state or county courts have to follow the threshold.
Because daily jury pay is modest, most jurors never cross $600 and never see a form.
The Pay Is Taxable Even Without a 1099
No form does not mean no tax. The IRS treats all jury duty compensation as ordinary taxable income whether or not the court sends paperwork. This surprises a lot of people who assume the absence of a form ends the matter.
Jury checks arrive with no federal income tax withheld. You get the full gross amount, and the tax responsibility lands on you at filing time. The good news: jury pay is not subject to Social Security or Medicare taxes and is not self-employment income. You owe only regular income tax on it, at whatever marginal rate applies to your other earnings.
Where to Report It on Your Return
Jury duty pay goes on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), Part I, line 8h, which is specifically labeled “Jury duty pay.” That line feeds the “Other income” total on line 10, which then carries to your Form 1040.
If you received a 1099-MISC, the Box 3 amount should match what you enter on line 8h. If no form arrived, report the total you were paid using your own records: check stubs, deposit amounts, or a payment statement from the court. The IRS expects you to track this even when no form is issued.
If You Handed the Money Over to Your Employer
Some employers keep paying your regular salary during jury service on the condition that you turn over the fees the court paid you. When that happens, report the full jury pay as income on line 8h, then claim an offsetting deduction on Schedule 1, Part II, line 24a.
Line 24a is an adjustment to income, so it reduces your adjusted gross income directly and does not require itemizing. It effectively cancels out the jury pay so you are not taxed on money you did not keep. Report both the income and the deduction separately. Skipping the income line because you did not keep the cash creates a mismatch with the court’s records and can trigger an IRS notice.
Keep documentation: the amount you turned over, and any employer policy requiring the repayment. A pay stub notation or a receipt from your employer showing the transfer is enough.
Reimbursements and Out-of-Pocket Costs
Many courts reimburse jurors separately for parking, public transportation, or meals. Those reimbursements are generally not part of your taxable jury compensation, and courts typically leave them off the 1099-MISC. They repay a cost, not add income.
Unreimbursed costs are where people get tripped up. Before 2018, some jurors could claim things like parking or gas as miscellaneous itemized deductions. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminated that option, and it remains unavailable through at least 2025. There is no above-the-line deduction for jury service travel either. The only jury-related adjustment to income the IRS recognizes is the line 24a deduction for pay you remitted to your employer. If you spend $15 a day on courthouse parking that the court does not cover, that cost carries no tax benefit.
What Happens If You Leave It Off
When a court issues a 1099-MISC, the IRS gets a copy. If the amount does not show up on your return, the matching system will flag it and send a CP2000 notice proposing additional tax. You will owe the tax on the missing amount plus interest from the original due date.
For most jurors the underpayment is small, so the practical result is a minor adjustment. But the IRS treats failure to report income shown on an information return as potential negligence, which can carry an accuracy-related penalty of 20% of the underpayment.
Even when no 1099 is issued because your pay stayed below $600, the income is still legally reportable. The IRS is unlikely to catch a stray $50 payment on its own, but the obligation exists. Add the amount to line 8h when you file and the issue disappears.