Line 1z on Form 1040 is the subtotal box for wage-type earned income. You add lines 1a through 1h and enter the combined figure on Line 1z, which then feeds into your total income on Line 9.1Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040 (2025) It sits in the “Income” section on page 1, directly below the alphabetized sub-lines, with the printed instruction “Add lines 1a through 1h” next to the entry box.
You don’t put any single source of income directly on Line 1z. Every dollar reaching that line first goes on one of the sub-lines above it. Get 1z wrong and the error carries straight through to adjusted gross income, taxable income, and your final refund or balance due.
The Eight Sub-Lines That Add Into Line 1z
Each of these lines captures a different kind of earned income. The 1z total is simply their sum.1Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040 (2025)
Line 1a — W-2 wages, salaries, and tips. The amount from Box 1 of each Form W-2 you received. For most filers this is the largest piece of 1z.
Line 1b — Household employee wages not on a W-2. If you worked as a household employee and were not issued a W-2, the wages go here rather than on Line 1a.
Line 1c — Unreported tips. Tips you received but that were not included on your W-2. You also file Form 4137 to figure the Social Security and Medicare tax owed on them.2Internal Revenue Service. Tip Recordkeeping and Reporting
Line 1d — Medicaid waiver payments not on a W-2. Under IRS Notice 2014-7, certain Medicaid waiver payments to home-care providers can be excluded from gross income; Line 1d captures those payments when they weren’t reported on a W-2.
Line 1e — Taxable dependent care benefits. The taxable portion of employer-provided dependent care benefits, taken from Form 2441, Line 26.
Line 1f — Employer-provided adoption benefits. Taxable adoption benefits paid under a qualified employer adoption assistance program, calculated on Form 8839. For 2025, the maximum excludable amount is $17,280 per eligible child.3Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit
Line 1g — Wages from Form 8919. If an employer treated you as an independent contractor but you believe you were an employee, Form 8919 figures the uncollected Social Security and Medicare tax, and the total from its Line 6 flows to Line 1g.4Internal Revenue Service. Uncollected Social Security and Medicare Tax on Wages
Line 1h — Other earned income. The catch-all. Common entries include strike benefits, disability pensions received before minimum retirement age, excess retirement plan deferrals above the annual limit ($23,500 for most plans in 2025), and corrective distributions of excess contributions.5Internal Revenue Service. 1040 (2025) Instructions
Line 1i Sits Nearby but Does Not Add In
Line 1i, nontaxable combat pay, prints between Line 1h and Line 1z on the form. It is not included in the 1z total.1Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040 (2025) Service members who received nontaxable combat zone pay can choose to enter that amount on 1i so it counts as earned income when figuring the Earned Income Tax Credit, which can raise the credit for lower-income filers. The combat pay itself stays nontaxable, which is why it stays out of the 1z subtotal that flows into taxable income. If you make the election, you must include all of your nontaxable combat pay, not just part of it.
Income That Looks Like Wages but Belongs Elsewhere
A few earnings sit close enough to wages that filers try to fit them onto Line 1, but they go on other lines of the return.5Internal Revenue Service. 1040 (2025) Instructions
- Taxable scholarship or fellowship grants not reported on a W-2 belong on Schedule 1, Line 8r.
- Disaster-related retirement distributions reported on Form 8915-F flow to Lines 4a/4b (IRA distributions) or 5a/5b (pensions and annuities), not to Line 1h.
- Statutory employee income, where Box 13 on your W-2 has the “Statutory employee” box checked, is reported on Schedule C rather than Line 1a.6Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15-A (2026), Employer’s Supplemental Tax Guide
How Line 1z Flows Into the Rest of the Return
Line 1z is the wage piece of your total income. The form adds Line 1z to Line 2b (taxable interest), Line 3b (ordinary dividends), Line 4b (taxable IRA distributions), Line 5b (taxable pensions and annuities), Line 6b (Social Security benefits), Line 7 (capital gain or loss), and Line 8 (additional income from Schedule 1) to produce Line 9, your total income.1Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040 (2025) Everything downstream, including adjusted gross income and taxable income, builds on that figure.
Because the sub-lines of 1z are earned income, the total also drives eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit and figures into modified adjusted gross income used for benefits like the adoption benefit exclusion, which for 2025 phases out between a MAGI of $259,191 and $299,190.3Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit The EITC has its own income thresholds by filing status and number of qualifying children, and investment income must be $11,950 or less to qualify for 2025.7Internal Revenue Service. Earned Income and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) Tables
Fixing a Wrong Line 1z
If you filed and then realized 1z was off, whether because a W-2 arrived late, tips were miscounted, or income landed on the wrong sub-line, you correct it on Form 1040-X. File a separate 1040-X for each tax year and wait until the original return has been processed.8Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1040-X (09/2024) Enter the original figure in Column A, the change in Column B, and the corrected figure in Column C, attach any additional or corrected W-2s, and explain the change in Part II.
For a refund tied to the correction, you generally have three years from the original filing date (including extensions) or two years from paying the tax, whichever is later. Returns filed before the April deadline are treated as filed on the deadline for this purpose.
Amending on your own initiative also matters because the IRS matches the wages reported on your return against the W-2s and 1099s employers and payers file separately. An omission from 1z is one of the easiest discrepancies for the agency to spot, and the accuracy-related penalty for negligence runs at 20% of the underpaid tax.9Internal Revenue Service. Accuracy-Related Penalty Fixing the number before the IRS asks about it is the cheaper path.