One thing our government knows how to do is to make forms and when it comes to tax time, you will be inundated with forms of various kinds. If you visit the IRS website, chances are that you’ll find hundreds of different forms to choose from each with its own purpose. There are forms for filing taxes, schedules for claiming deductions, forms for insurance credits, losses due to theft as opposed to losses incurred from a natural disaster and so on.

The good news is that most people will not need to use the majority of these forms. In fact, the vast majority of people will only use maybe ten of the most common IRS Tax Forms. It’s important for everyone to know not only the right form for their unique situation but when to use it in order to avoid making some pretty costly mistakes.

The 1040:

The most commonly used IRS form is the 1040, the US Individual Income Tax Return. It is the one form that everyone will have to use in one form or another. There are three different types of the 1040, the 1040EZ is for those who do not need to itemize their deductions and will claim only the standard deduction allowed by the government. The form 1040A is used for those who have a limited number of deductions and earn under $100,000 a year. And the 1040, or otherwise called the “long form” is the most difficult and complicated to fill out. No matter who you are this is the most widely used of the IRS Tax Forms and almost everyone on the country will have to use it at some point or another.

The W-2:

If you work at all, chances are you’ve received a W-2. It’s often referred to as the Wage and Tax Statement, and every business that has paid out a minimum of $600 in wages for the year will have to submit one for each person in their employ. It is the statement that details exactly how much income you’ve earned as well as how much Social Security or Medicare taxes have been withheld from your paycheck. The information you find on the W-2 form is what you will use to file your 1040 taxes during the tax season.

The W-4:

This form is also called The Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate and is to be filled out before you begin work on a new job. It informs your employer on things like how much taxes they should withhold from your paycheck. The employer will decide this based on the number of exemptions you will claim on the form. If you claim zero or one then the amount withheld from your paycheck will be considerably less than if you claim ten. You may find that if you claim too few exemptions that you end up overpaying on your taxes but if you claim too many you could underpay over the year and end up having to write a big fat check at the end of the year.

There are many different IRS Tax Forms that you may have to choose from but for the vast majority of people, they will only use one of only ten of the most commonly used forms in the IRS.