DraftForms of 2020 1040-NR and Form 1040 were released August 19, 2020, by the IRS.
Each is a two-page form, to which a variety of Schedules and Forms may be attached.
Neither has an EZ form.
Both Form 1040-NR and Form 1040 will have almost all the same line numbers, according to an IRS Tax Forum presentation August 20, 2020.
On the DraftForms,
Form 1040 Line 1 reads:
- Wages, salaries, tips, etc. Attach Form(s) W-2.
Form 1040-NR Lines 1a, b, and c read:
1a Wages, salaries, tips, etc . Attach Form(s) W-2
b Scholarship and fellowship grants. Attach Form(s) 1042-S or required statement. See instructions.
c Total income exempt by a treaty from Schedule OI Form 1040-NR, Item L, line 1(e).
Amending a return filed on the incorrect form to one using the correct form will be relatively easy when the two forms are similar. The full Form 1040X will be usable, and e-filing should be possible.
Example: an F visa student has filed incorrectly on Form 1040 for 2020. They should have filed on Form 1040NR. The error is discovered when they want to apply for a new visa or a green card. The incorrect return must be amended to the correct form before the application may be considered.
A slide for the IRS Tax Forums presentation on ”Tax Changes From a Forms Perspective” state Form 1040-NR is:
Redesigned to have almost all the same line numbers (on) Forms 1040 and 1040-NR
Will use Schedule 1, 2, and 3 (Form 1040)
Will have 3 new, separate Schedules A, NEC, and OI (Form 1040-NR)
The slide New Products List includes these three slides.
As usual, other Form 1040 schedules such as Schedules C, D and E may be attached to Form 1040-NR.
Spanish-speaking taxpayers may be interested in the Spanish language versions of some tax forms.
Watch the DraftForms list on the IRS website to discover other new draftforms as they are released:
https://apps.irs.gov/app/picklist/list/draftTaxForms.html
The Form 1040-NR draftform is here:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-dft/f1040nr–dft.pdf
All three of the 2020 DraftForms for the traditional Form 1040-NR Schedules (A, NEC, and OI) have now been posted.
A posted 8/24/2020
NEC posted 8/26/2020
OI posted 8/28/2020
There is no substantive change in the wording of the forms.
The headings were reformatted. They now read:
Far left: Schedule designation (A, NEC, OI)
(Form 1040NR)
Center: Schedule name, with brief directions
Itemized Deductions
Tax on Income Not Effectively Connected With a U.S. Trade or Business
Other Information
Far Right
2020
Attachment Sequence No. as, 7A, 7B, 7C