New tax form is postcard size, leaves off popular deductions

A new postcard-sized version of the income tax form leaves off a number of popular deductions, making taxpayers search for them on several accompanying worksheets.

The new form, set for release this week, includes six accompanying worksheets for deductions ranging from student loan interest to teaching supplies, according to a copy of the form obtained by The New York Times.

The postcard-sized form also includes a line for the expanded child tax credit but omits lines for other types of childcare. 

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The idea of a postcard-sized income tax form has long been a promise of conservatives, who have complained that current forms are too long and cumbersome for many Americans. 

“Next week, we will be unveiling the new 1040 [form], and it will be a postcard, as we’ve promised, and hardworking taxpayers won’t have to spend nearly as much time filling out their taxes,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at an event in the Capitol last week.

But the additional worksheets accompanying the new form could create more paperwork for some taxpayers and it could make the paperwork more difficult for the Internal Revenue Service to process. 

More than 90 percent of taxpayers file their taxes online, which helps the IRS with processing. If the postcard-sized forms reverse that trend and prompt more taxpayers to file on paper, it could burden the agency with more work, the Times reported.