Taxes Long-form guide

Schedule 1 (Form 1040) 2026 Draft: Every Line That Changed

The 2026 Schedule 1 draft rewords one line: line 14 now covers intelligence community movers. Line-by-line comparison with 2025 and the law behind it.

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Cristian Corrales

Founding editor of finbarrow. Math-first analysis of US personal finance, anchored to primary sources (CFPB, FDIC, FRB, IRS, FICO, FINRA, SEC, NCUA).

Published · 9-minute read
A blank two-page tax schedule fanned open on a desk with a ruler across one row, a mechanical pencil, clipped receipts and a calculator — Schedule 1 of Form 1040 for 2026, line by line.
The short answer. The IRS draft of Schedule 1 (Form 1040) for 2026 is almost identical to the final 2025 form. Comparing the two files text line by line, the only change in the wording of a line, apart from the tax year, is line 14, which now covers moving expenses for "members of the Armed Forces and the intelligence community." No line was renumbered, added or dropped in Part I or Part II. The bigger law changes of 2025 and 2026 show up elsewhere: on Schedule 1-A, on Schedule A and in the rules behind lines 11, 13 and 14.

Each year the IRS posts draft versions of the forms for the coming filing season, and the temptation is to read them as a list of new rules. Schedule 1 shows how little a form can say about the law behind it. I downloaded the 2026 draft and the final 2025 form from the IRS, extracted the text of both and compared them line by line. The result is a short list. That is useful in itself, because it tells you which talk of “new” Schedule 1 lines you can ignore, and where the real changes sit.

One caveat about status. The 2026 file is marked “DRAFT — DO NOT FILE” and its footer reads “Created 4/24/26.” The 2025 form’s footer reads “Created 7/25/25.” The IRS cover sheet on the draft says that if unexpected issues arise or legislation is passed, it will post a new draft, so nothing here is final until the form is released.

What the comparison found

Here is the complete list of differences between the two files.

  • Line 14 changed. The 2025 form says “Moving expenses for members of the Armed Forces.” The 2026 draft says “Moving expenses for members of the Armed Forces and the intelligence community.” The rest of the line, “Attach Form 3903,” and the storage-fees check box are the same.
  • Sub-line labels are printed in full. On the 2025 form the lines under 8 are labeled “a” through “z”; on the 2026 draft they read 8a through 8z. Lines 2b, 19b, 19c and 24a through 24z get the same treatment. The subjects of those lines did not change, and neither did their order.
  • Years moved forward. The form year, the 1099-K lead-in (“For 2026, enter the amount reported to you on Form(s) 1099-K that was included in error or for personal items sold at a loss”) and line 7’s unemployment repayment check (“If you repaid a 2026 overpayment”) now point to 2026.

That is all. The catalog number (71479F) is unchanged. Line 10, which carries additional income to Form 1040 line 8, and line 26, which carries adjustments to Form 1040 line 10, keep their numbers and their wording.

Part I: additional income is the same list

Part I runs from line 1, taxable refunds of state and local income taxes, through line 7, unemployment compensation, then line 8 with its lettered sub-lines from 8a (net operating loss) to 8v (digital assets received as ordinary income not reported elsewhere), plus 8z for anything else. Line 9 totals them and line 10 combines everything.

If you expected a new sub-line for some of the recent law changes, there isn’t one. The 8-series on the 2026 draft is the same list that was on the 2025 form, subject for subject: gambling at 8b, cancellation of debt at 8c, income from Form 8889 at 8f, Alaska Permanent Fund dividends at 8g, prizes and awards at 8i, and so on through 8v. The new tip and overtime deductions don’t go through Schedule 1 at all; they are taken on Schedule 1-A, a separate form. Our overview of the 2026 IRS drafts shows how the pieces connect.

Part II: line 14 and the intelligence community

The one real change is in Part II, and it has a statutory source. Section 70113 of Public Law 119-21 rewrote the moving expense rules. First it removed the sunset: it struck ”, and before January 1, 2026” from section 217(k), so the suspension of the moving expense deduction no longer ends after 2025. Then it added an exception. The new section 217(k)(2) reads: “An employee or new appointee of the intelligence community (as defined in section 3 of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3003)) (other than a member of the Armed Forces of the United States) who moves pursuant to a change in assignment which requires relocation shall be treated for purposes of this section in the same manner as an individual to whom subsection (g) applies.” The effective date is “taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025.”

So line 14 now describes two groups, and the wording of the form tracks the law. For everyone else nothing changes: if you are a civilian outside the intelligence community who moved for a new job, there is still no deduction for moving costs, and line 14 is not for you. Our guide to Form 3903 for military and intelligence community movers walks through who qualifies and what costs count.

Lines where the law moved but the form didn’t

Three lines are worth understanding because the rules or the dollar figures behind them changed even though the text did not.

Line 11, educator expenses. The line reads “Educator expenses” on both forms. Division B of Public Law 119-111, approved September 18, 2026, amended section 62(d)(1)(A) by “striking ‘a kindergarten through grade 12 teacher’ and inserting ‘an early childhood or kindergarten through grade 12 teacher’”. For early childhood education, the school definition now covers “any school or childcare facility” that “provides educational or childcare services for more than 2 individuals (other than individuals who reside at the school or facility) who have not attained age 6” and “operates at the public expense or receives a fee, payment, or grant for providing such services.” The amendments apply “to expenses paid or incurred in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025.” The draft predates the law, and the line’s two words name no grade level, so nothing printed on it conflicts with the change. The cap for 2026 is $350 under section 3.12 of Rev. Proc. 2025-32, up from $300 for 2025 under Rev. Proc. 2024-40. Our daycare and preschool teacher guide covers who counts.

Line 13, health savings account deduction. The line is unchanged and still says to attach Form 8889. What changed is who can have an HSA. Section 71307 of Public Law 119-21 says a high deductible health plan “shall include any plan which is” available as individual coverage through an Exchange and described in section 1302(d)(1)(A) or (e) of the Affordable Care Act, meaning bronze and catastrophic plans, for “months beginning after December 31, 2025.” Section 71308 provides that a direct primary care service arrangement “shall not be treated as a health plan” for the purpose of the HSA coverage test, with a fee ceiling of $150 a month (“twice such dollar amount” for arrangements covering more than one individual). The 2026 contribution limits are $4,400 for self-only coverage and $8,750 for family coverage, from Rev. Proc. 2025-19, up from $4,300 and $8,550 for 2025 under Rev. Proc. 2024-25. The mechanics are in our Form 8889 guide.

Line 21, student loan interest deduction. The wording is the same, and so is the law; only the inflation figures moved. The 2026 numbers come from Rev. Proc. 2025-32: the $2,500 maximum begins to phase out above $85,000 of modified adjusted gross income ($175,000 joint) and disappears at $100,000 ($205,000 joint). For single filers that is the same range as for 2025; the joint range rose from $170,000 to $200,000 under Rev. Proc. 2024-40.

A worked example across lines 8b, 11, 13, 21 and 26

Numbers are easier to trust when you can follow them. Take a single filer, under 55, who is an eligible educator, with $92,000 of wages, $500 of gambling winnings, $620 of unreimbursed classroom supplies, $4,400 of HSA contributions she made herself (no employer contributions) with self-only coverage all year, and $2,100 of student loan interest. I ran the arithmetic in Python.

  • Line 8b gambling: $500. Lines 9 and 10: $500. Total income: $92,000 + $500 = $92,500.
  • Line 11: the $620 of supplies is limited to $350.
  • Line 13: $4,400, which equals the self-only limit for 2026.
  • Modified adjusted gross income for line 21: $92,500 − $350 − $4,400 = $87,750. That is $2,750 over the $85,000 threshold. Section 221 reduces the deduction by the ratio of that excess to the $15,000 phase-out range, so the reduction is $2,100 × $2,750 / $15,000 = $385.
  • Line 21: $2,100 − $385 = $1,715.
  • Line 26, total adjustments: $350 + $4,400 + $1,715 = $6,465. Adjusted gross income: $92,500 − $6,465 = $86,035.

The order matters. Section 221(b)(2)(C) defines modified adjusted gross income as adjusted gross income figured without the student loan deduction itself and without the foreign income exclusions of sections 911, 931 and 933, and “after application of sections 86, 135, 137, 219, and 469.” So the educator and HSA deductions lower the figure used for the phase-out while the student loan deduction does not. I assumed none of those other sections applies; a filer with an IRA deduction on line 20, for example, would subtract it before testing the phase-out, and a filer with a foreign earned income exclusion on line 8d would add it back. One more detail: the line 21 worksheet in the 2025 Form 1040 instructions asks for the ratio “rounded to at least three places.” Carried to more places, as here, it gives $385; cut at exactly three (0.183), it gives $384.30 and a deduction of $1,715.70, which rounds to $1,716.

When the instructions will fill in the gaps

Schedule 1 has no stand-alone instructions; its guidance lives in the Form 1040 instructions. The 2026 edition is not out as far as I could find. The Form 1040 instructions draft in the IRS folder is titled Instructions for Form 1040 (2025) and dated February 25, 2026, and the addresses I tried for a 2026 Schedule 1 or Form 1040 instructions draft returned a “not found” error. I would treat any claim about what the 2026 instructions say as unverified until they appear. The IRS itself notes that drafts of instructions “usually have some additional changes before their final release,” and the form could change too. When the final form posts, I will compare it against this draft and update this page.

Sources

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What changed on Schedule 1 (Form 1040) for 2026?

On the IRS draft created April 24, 2026, apart from the tax year, the wording of one line changed: line 14, which now reads "Moving expenses for members of the Armed Forces and the intelligence community." Compared with the final 2025 form, the line numbers are the same, no line was added or removed, and the sub-lines under 8, 19 and 24 keep the same subjects. The sub-line letters are now printed in full, so "a" became "8a."

Did the early childhood educator change alter line 11?

No. Line 11 still reads "Educator expenses" on the 2026 draft, the same as on the 2025 form. Public Law 119-111 widened who counts as an eligible educator, but the change happens in the definition in 26 U.S.C. 62(d)(1), not in the wording of the line. The draft was created in April 2026, nearly five months before that law was approved on September 18, 2026.

Are the 2026 instructions for Schedule 1 published?

Not as far as I could find on November 11, 2026. Schedule 1 has no instructions of its own; it relies on the Form 1040 instructions. The only Form 1040 instructions draft I found at the IRS draft address is titled Instructions for Form 1040 (2025), dated February 25, 2026. The addresses I tried for a 2026 version returned a "not found" error.

Are the new tip and overtime deductions on Schedule 1?

No. They are reported on a separate Schedule 1-A, which is not part of Schedule 1. Our Schedule 1-A guide covers that form line by line.

How is the student loan interest deduction on line 21 limited in 2026?

Under Rev. Proc. 2025-32, the $2,500 maximum begins to phase out at modified adjusted gross income above $85,000 ($175,000 for joint returns) and is completely phased out at $100,000 or more ($205,000 or more for joint returns). The single range is the same as for 2025; the joint range was $170,000 to $200,000 for 2025. Line 21 itself is unchanged from 2025.

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