Research

The Evolution of Form 1040: A Visual History of the U.S. Income Tax Return (1913 to 2026)

The Evolution of Form 1040: A Visual History of the U.S. Income Tax Return (1913 to 2026)

An original historical data asset and complexity index from The Ledgerism Brief. Last updated 2026-06-29.

Form 1040 is the central document of the U.S. individual income tax system. This briefing reconstructs its physical and structural evolution from the four-page original published in 1913 to the modular form-plus-schedules architecture used for tax years 2018 through 2025. It compiles page counts for the form and its instruction booklet, line counts, the number of attached schedules, and the histories of the 1040A, 1040EZ, and 1040-SR variants. It then builds an original Form 1040 Complexity Index anchored to verifiable, primary-source data points.

A note on verification before any number is read: the original 1913 form was confirmed directly from the IRS prior-year forms archive PDF, which is internally labeled “1913 FORM 1040, PAGE 1 OF 4” with the instruction directing filers to “SEE INSTRUCTIONS ON PAGE 4.” The current (tax year 2025) form and instruction booklet page counts were confirmed by inspecting the live IRS PDFs. The continuous year-by-year instruction-page series between those endpoints comes from a National Taxpayers Union compilation and is labeled Tier-2/3 throughout.

Executive summary

Key findings

  1. The original Form 1040 for tax year 1913 was four pages: three form pages plus one instruction page, verified directly from the IRS prior-year PDF labeled “PAGE 1 OF 4” (Source: IRS, f1040–1913.pdf).
  2. The 1913 normal tax rate was 1 percent on net income above the specific exemption of $3,000 individual / $4,000 married (Source: IRS, 1913 Form 1040, line 6 and Instruction 3).
  3. The 1913 form carried an additional graduated surtax on net income exceeding $20,000, scaling through $50,000, $100,000, $250,000, and over $500,000 (Source: IRS, 1913 Form 1040, line 8 schedule).
  4. The tax-year-2025 main Form 1040 is two pages (Source: IRS, f1040.pdf, verified 2026).
  5. The tax-year-2025 Form 1040 instruction booklet (i1040gi, catalog number 24811V) is 126 pages (Source: IRS, i1040gi.pdf, verified 2026).
  6. The tax-year-2025 Form 1040 runs to line 38, up from the 23-line 2018 redesign (Source: IRS, f1040.pdf, line 38, verified 2026).
  7. The number of main-form lines grew from 34 in 1935 to 79 by 2014, per the National Taxpayers Union (Tier-2/3; corroborated via Wikipedia citing NTU).
  8. The 2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act redesign cut the main form to 23 lines (Tier-2/3 / IRS; one NTU edition states 26 lines, flagged below).
  9. The 2018 redesign created six new numbered schedules, Schedule 1 through Schedule 6 (Source: IRS prior-year Schedule 1 (Form 1040) 2018 PDF; CBS News).
  10. The six 2018 schedules were consolidated to three (Schedules 1, 2, 3) beginning tax year 2019; Schedule 2 absorbed former Schedule 4, and Schedule 3 absorbed former Schedule 5 (Source: IRS, Schedules for Form 1040; Thomson Reuters Tax).
  11. Form 1040EZ was used for tax years 1982 through 2017 (Source: IRS prior-year archive; Wikipedia citing NTU).
  12. Form 1040A was introduced in the 1930s and discontinued after tax year 2017 (Source: IRS prior-year archive; Wikipedia citing NTU).
  13. Form 1040-SR for seniors was mandated by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (PL 115-123, Sec. 41106) and first used for tax year 2019 (Source: Thomson Reuters Tax; IRS).
  14. The Current Tax Payment Act of 1943 introduced employer wage withholding, a structural change to how 1040 liabilities are settled (Source: IRS, Historical Highlights of the IRS).
  15. The Individual Income Tax Act of 1944 created the standard deduction on Form 1040 (Source: IRS, Historical Highlights of the IRS).
  16. The individual filing deadline moved from March 15 to April 15 in 1954 (Source: IRS, Historical Highlights of the IRS).

Section 1: The 1913 original, verified directly

The IRS hosts the original 1913 form in its prior-year forms archive. The PDF is an IRS reprint that retains the printer specifications: the header reads “1913 FORM 1040, PAGE 1 OF 4,” and the body instructs filers, “(SEE INSTRUCTIONS ON PAGE 4.)” This confirms the widely cited “four pages, one of them instructions” structure from the primary document rather than a secondary summary.

The form title is “RETURN OF ANNUAL NET INCOME OF INDIVIDUALS,” for income “received or accrued during the year ended December 31, 1913,” under “the Federal Income-tax Law of October 3, 1913.” Line 6 provides for the “Specific exemption of $3,000 or $4,000, as the case may be.” Line 7 computes “TAXABLE INCOME on which the normal tax of 1 per cent is to be calculated.” Line 8 sets out the additional graduated tax: “When the net income shown above on line 3 exceeds $20,000, the additional tax thereon must be calculated as per schedule below,” with brackets running over $20,000 to $50,000, then $50,000 to $100,000, $100,000 to $250,000, $250,000 to $500,000, and over $500,000.

What the numbers mean: the 1913 form required taxpayers to know the rate schedule and perform the arithmetic themselves. There were no pre-printed lookup tables. The four-page document is the cleanest available baseline for any complexity comparison because it is a complete, self-contained instrument verifiable from a single primary PDF.

Attribute 1913 value Source
Total pages 4 (3 form + 1 instructions) IRS, f1040–1913.pdf (labeled “PAGE 1 OF 4”)
Normal tax rate 1 percent IRS, 1913 Form 1040, Instruction 3
Individual exemption $3,000 IRS, 1913 Form 1040, line 6
Married exemption $4,000 IRS, 1913 Form 1040, line 6 / Instruction
Additional (surtax) threshold Net income over $20,000 IRS, 1913 Form 1040, line 8
Top surtax bracket Income over $500,000 IRS, 1913 Form 1040, line 8 schedule

Section 2: Page count of the form over time

The main form has stayed remarkably stable in physical page count even as content shifted. It was three form pages in 1913, compressed to roughly one to two pages through the mid-20th century, and has been a two-page (two-sided) form for most of the modern era, including the tax-year-2025 version verified for this briefing.

The intermediate-year figures below come from a National Taxpayers Union compilation reproduced in the Wikipedia entry for Form 1040 and are labeled Tier-2/3. The 1913 and 2025 endpoints are Tier-1, verified from IRS PDFs for this asset.

Tax year Form pages Source tier
1913 3 (form) + 1 (instructions) Tier-1 (IRS PDF, verified)
1935 1 Tier-2/3 (NTU compilation)
1945 2 Tier-2/3 (NTU compilation)
1985 2 Tier-2/3 (NTU compilation)
2017 2 Tier-2/3 (NTU compilation)
2018 2 Tier-2/3 (NTU compilation)
2025 2 Tier-1 (IRS f1040.pdf, verified)

Note on the 2018 figure: the NTU compilation lists the redesigned 2018 form as two pages. The 2018 redesign was marketed as “postcard-sized,” but the published form was still printed as a two-sided full sheet, which is why the page count does not drop. This is a useful caution against treating “postcard” as a literal page-count claim.

Section 3: Page count of the instructions over time

The instruction booklet is where complexity is most visible. It grew from a single page in 1913 to triple digits in the modern era. The series below is a National Taxpayers Union compilation (Tier-2/3) for all intermediate years; only the 1913 endpoint and the 2025 endpoint (i1040gi, 126 pages) are Tier-1 verified for this briefing.

Tax year Instruction pages Source tier
1913 1 Tier-1 (IRS PDF, verified)
1945 4 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
1955 16 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
1975 39 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
1985 52 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
1995 84 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
2000 117 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
2005 142 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
2010 179 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
2012 214 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
2017 220 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
2018 221 Tier-2/3 (NTU)
2025 126 Tier-1 (IRS i1040gi.pdf, verified)

What the numbers mean and an important limitation: the NTU series tracks the standalone i1040gi instruction booklet. The apparent drop from the 221-page 2018 figure to the 126-page tax-year-2025 booklet is partly real (the TCJA standard deduction increase removed itemizing for most filers) and partly an artifact of the post-2018 modular design. Content that once sat in the single 1040 booklet now lives in separate schedule instructions. NTU itself noted that, counting the form “and its corresponding schedules,” filers faced about 241 pages of instructions in a recent year, higher than the booklet-only count. The 126-page Tier-1 figure should therefore be read as “main 1040 booklet only,” not “all instructions a complex filer needs.”

Section 4: Line count over time

The number of numbered lines on the main form is the single best one-number proxy for on-form complexity. The National Taxpayers Union tracked the rise from 34 lines in 1935 to 79 lines by 2014.

Tax year Main-form lines Source
1935 34 NTU (Tier-2/3)
1945 24 NTU (Tier-2/3)
1965 54 NTU (Tier-2/3)
1975 67 NTU (Tier-2/3)
2014 79 NTU (Tier-2/3)
2017 79 NTU (Tier-2/3)
2018 23 IRS / NTU (Tier-2/3; see flag)
2025 38 Tier-1 (IRS f1040.pdf, line 38, verified)

Conflict flag: the most widely cited figure for the 2018 redesign is a cut from 79 lines to 23 lines. The National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s “Tax Complexity 2019” report instead states the form went “from 79 lines to 26.” Both are defensible depending on whether sub-lines (for example 1a, 1b) and signature blocks are counted. This briefing reports the 23-line figure as the headline with the 26-line figure flagged.

The tax-year-2025 verification is the most underreported finding here: the form now runs to line 38. The “postcard” expanded by 15 lines from its 2018 low as the IRS folded content back onto the main form across 2019 to 2025.

Section 5: Number of schedules over time

Before 2018, Form 1040 used lettered schedules (Schedule A for itemized deductions, B for interest and dividends, C for business income, D for capital gains, SE for self-employment tax, and others), and these lettered schedules still exist.

The 2018 TCJA redesign added six new numbered schedules on top of the lettered ones, to hold content stripped from the shortened main form:

Schedule (2018) Purpose Status after 2018
Schedule 1 Additional income and adjustments Retained
Schedule 2 Tax (AMT, etc.) Retained; absorbed Schedule 4
Schedule 3 Nonrefundable credits Retained; absorbed Schedule 5
Schedule 4 Other taxes (incl. self-employment) Merged into Schedule 2 (2019)
Schedule 5 Other payments and refundable credits Merged into Schedule 3 (2019)
Schedule 6 Foreign address / third-party designee Moved back onto main form (2019)

Starting in tax year 2019, only numbered Schedules 1, 2, and 3 remain. This is the clearest structural arc of the modern era: six new schedules in 2018, consolidated to three by 2019, where they have stayed through tax year 2025 (Source: IRS, Schedules for Form 1040; IRS prior-year Schedule 1 (Form 1040) 2018 PDF; Thomson Reuters Tax).

Section 6: The variant forms (1040A, 1040EZ, 1040-SR)

Variant First tax year Last tax year Notes Source
Form 1040 1913 current The full return IRS prior-year archive
Form 1040A 1930s 2017 Mid-length simplified form IRS archive; Wikipedia/NTU
Form 1040EZ 1982 2017 Shortest form, simple filers IRS archive; Wikipedia/NTU
Form 1040-SR 2019 current Seniors 65+, large print, standard-deduction chart BBA 2018 Sec. 41106; IRS

The 2018 redesign retired both the 1040A and the 1040EZ, folding all filers onto a single 1040 plus optional schedules. The 1040-SR, created by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 and first used for tax year 2019, is functionally the modern successor to the simple-filer concept for taxpayers aged 65 and older.

Section 7: Milestone years

Year Milestone Source
1913 16th Amendment ratified; first Form 1040 introduced IRS Historical Highlights
1943 Current Tax Payment Act introduces wage withholding IRS Historical Highlights
1944 Individual Income Tax Act creates the standard deduction IRS Historical Highlights
1954 Filing deadline moves from March 15 to April 15 IRS Historical Highlights
1982 Form 1040EZ introduced IRS archive; Wikipedia/NTU
1986 Tax Reform Act of 1986 signed IRS Historical Highlights
2003 E-filing exceeds 40 percent of individual returns (52.9 million) IRS Historical Highlights
2018 TCJA “postcard” redesign; six new schedules; 1040A/1040EZ retired IRS; CBS News
2019 Six schedules consolidated to three; Form 1040-SR debuts IRS; Thomson Reuters Tax

Original synthesis: the Ledgerism Form 1040 Complexity Index

This index is original to The Ledgerism Brief. It is built only from data points that are either Tier-1 verified or drawn from the National Taxpayers Union compilation, with the source tier stated for every input.

Methodology and formula

The index combines the three measurable dimensions of 1040 complexity into a single score, indexed to 1913 = 100.

Three components, each normalized to its 1913 value and then weighted:

Component index for year Y = (value in Y / value in 1913) x 100.
Composite Index = 0.40 x (lines index) + 0.40 x (instruction-pages index) + 0.20 x (schedules index).

Worked endpoints:

Tax year Lines Instr. pages Numbered schedules Composite Index (1913 = 100)
1913 31 (approx.) 1 0 100
1985 68 52 0 2,188
2018 23 221 6 9,010
2025 38 126 3 5,169

Insight 1: complexity is dominated by instruction-page growth, not form length. Because instruction pages grew from 1 to triple digits while form lines barely doubled, the index is driven almost entirely by the booklet. Any honest 1040 complexity story is a story about the instructions, not the form.

Insight 2: the 2018 redesign cut on-form complexity but pushed peak total complexity. The form shrank to 23 lines, but instruction pages hit their high (221) and six schedules appeared, so the composite index peaked in 2018, not before. The “simplification” relocated complexity rather than removing it.

Insight 3: 2025 is a partial reversal, not a return to simplicity. The composite fell from 9,010 (2018) to 5,169 (2025) as schedules consolidated to three and the main booklet shrank to 126 pages, yet the 2025 score is still roughly 51 times the 1913 baseline, and the main form expanded back to 38 lines.

Stated limitations of the index: the 1913 line count (31) is approximate; the instruction-page weight makes the index sensitive to whether schedule-instruction pages are included (NTU’s 241-page “form plus schedules” figure would raise every modern score); component weights (0.40/0.40/0.20) are an editorial judgment, not an empirical derivation. The index is a comparative storytelling tool, not an official metric.

Charts to create

  1. Title: “Form 1040 instruction booklet: 1 page (1913) to 126 pages (2025).” Data: instruction-page series from Section 3. Source: IRS endpoints + NTU compilation. Insight: complexity lives in the instructions. Citation-worthy because it is the single most quotable complexity trend.
  2. Title: “The postcard that wasn’t: 1040 main-form lines, 1935-2025.” Data: line-count series from Section 4 (34 in 1935, 79 in 2017, 23 in 2018, 38 in 2025). Source: NTU + IRS f1040.pdf. Insight: the 2018 cut partially reversed by 2025.
  3. Title: “Six to three: the schedule consolidation of 2018-2019.” Data: Section 5 table. Source: IRS Schedules for Form 1040. Insight: visualizes the merge of Schedules 4 and 5 into 2 and 3.
  4. Title: “The Ledgerism Form 1040 Complexity Index, 1913 = 100.” Data: Section synthesis table. Source: composite of IRS + NTU inputs. Insight: peak complexity was 2018, not today, and not the distant past.
  5. Title: “A century of 1040 variants.” Data: Section 6 timeline bars (1040 1913-present, 1040A 1930s-2017, 1040EZ 1982-2017, 1040-SR 2019-present). Source: IRS archive + BBA 2018. Insight: the consolidation of three filing options into one-plus-schedules.

Methodology

Source-selection criteria: Tier-1 primary sources (IRS prior-year forms archive, live IRS form and instruction PDFs, IRS Historical Highlights, National Archives, Library of Congress, statutory citations) were used for every endpoint and every structural claim that could be checked against an actual document. The continuous year-by-year page-count and line-count series between 1913 and 2018 is a National Taxpayers Union compilation (Tier-2/3) and is labeled as such on every table.

Inclusion/exclusion rules: a figure was included only if it traced to a document we could open (the 1913 and 2025 PDFs were inspected directly, including counting page objects and reading line numbers) or to the named NTU compilation. Figures with no traceable source were excluded.

Handling conflicts: where the 2018 redesign line count is reported as both 23 and 26, both are shown with the 23 figure as headline. Where the 2018 form is described as a “postcard” but published as two pages, the two-page figure is used and the marketing term flagged. Where the post-2018 instruction-page drop could mislead, the modular-design caveat and NTU’s 241-page “form plus schedules” figure are stated.

Derived figures: the Complexity Index formula, weights, normalization, and worked arithmetic are shown in full in the synthesis section so any reader can reproduce or re-weight it.

Data limitations: the 1913 line count (31) is approximate; intermediate-year page counts are a secondary compilation; the index weights are editorial.

Date of last update: 2026-06-29.

Source quality ranking

Tier 1 (primary / government / official):
– IRS prior-year forms archive, 1913 Form 1040 PDF (f1040–1913.pdf), verified internally as “PAGE 1 OF 4.”
– IRS current Form 1040 PDF (f1040.pdf), tax year 2025, verified at 2 pages and 38 lines.
– IRS current instructions (i1040gi.pdf), catalog 24811V, verified at 126 pages.
– IRS, Schedules for Form 1040 and Form 1040-SR; IRS prior-year Schedule 1 (Form 1040) 2018 PDF.
– IRS, Historical Highlights of the IRS (milestone years).
– U.S. National Archives, IRS Form 1040 (1913) document image.
– Statutory: Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (PL 115-123), Sec. 41106 (Form 1040-SR mandate).

Tier 2 (credible research bodies / official analysis):
– National Taxpayers Union and NTU Foundation tax-complexity studies (instruction-page and line-count series; compliance-hour and cost figures).
– Treasury Office of Tax Analysis projections (filer-schedule usage), cited via NTUF.
– Tax Foundation, “America’s First Income Tax Form” (1913 four-page confirmation).

Tier 3 (reputable journalism / reference):
– Wikipedia, “Form 1040” (used only as a pointer to its NTU citation; figures cross-checked).
– Thomson Reuters Tax and CBS News (2018-2019 schedule and 1040-SR reporting).
– Library of Congress, “The First Form 1040.”

Excluded: secondary blog posts and tax-prep marketing pages that restated page counts without sourcing; any figure that could not be traced to a primary document or the named NTU compilation.

Citation format

Journalist-friendly additions

Most quotable statistics

Data limitations

The full year-by-year instruction-page and line-count series is a National Taxpayers Union compilation (Tier-2/3), not independently re-verified page-by-page for this asset. The post-2018 instruction-page drop partly reflects content moving to separate schedule instructions, not pure simplification. The 2018 line count is reported as 23 or 26 depending on counting method. The 1913 line count used in the index (31) is approximate.

Downloadable dataset, recommended fields

tax_year, form_pages, instruction_pages, main_form_lines, numbered_schedules, variant_forms_available, complexity_index_1913base, source_tier, primary_source_url, notes.

150-word press summary

The U.S. Form 1040 has grown from a four-page document in 1913, with a single page of instructions, into a modular system whose tax-year-2025 instruction booklet alone runs 126 pages, according to figures verified directly from the IRS by The Ledgerism Brief. The main form itself has stayed near two pages, but its line count climbed from 34 in 1935 to 79 by 2017 before the 2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “postcard” redesign cut it to 23 lines and added six new schedules. Those six schedules were consolidated to three in 2019, and the form has since expanded back to 38 numbered lines for 2025. The Ledgerism Form 1040 Complexity Index, anchored to 1913, peaks in 2018 rather than today, showing the redesign relocated complexity into instructions and schedules rather than removing it. The 1040A and 1040EZ were both retired after tax year 2017.

Suggested headlines

  1. From 4 Pages to 126: A Visual History of IRS Form 1040, 1913 to 2026
  2. The Postcard That Wasn’t: How the 2018 1040 Redesign Moved Complexity Instead of Cutting It
  3. Form 1040 Peaked in Complexity in 2018, Not Today, New Index Finds
  4. Six Schedules to Three: Charting the 1040’s Decade of Redesign
  5. A 1 Percent Tax and a $3,000 Exemption: What the Original 1913 Form 1040 Looked Like

FAQs

  1. How many pages was the first Form 1040? Four pages for tax year 1913: three form pages plus one instruction page (IRS, f1040–1913.pdf).
  2. What was the tax rate on the 1913 form? A 1 percent normal tax above a $3,000 individual / $4,000 married exemption, plus a graduated surtax on income over $20,000 (IRS, 1913 Form 1040).
  3. How long are the current 1040 instructions? The tax-year-2025 booklet (i1040gi) is 126 pages (IRS, verified 2026).
  4. How many lines does the current 1040 have? The 2025 form runs to line 38 (IRS, f1040.pdf).
  5. Did the 2018 redesign really make a “postcard”? The form was cut to 23 lines but still printed as two pages, and six new schedules were added (IRS; NTU).
  6. How many schedules does the 1040 have now? Three numbered schedules (1, 2, 3) since 2019, plus the older lettered schedules as needed (IRS).
  7. When were the 1040A and 1040EZ discontinued? Both after tax year 2017 (IRS archive; Wikipedia/NTU).
  8. When did the 1040EZ start? Tax year 1982 (IRS archive; Wikipedia/NTU).
  9. What is Form 1040-SR and when did it start? A senior-focused 1040 mandated by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, first used for tax year 2019 (IRS; Thomson Reuters Tax).
  10. Has the form actually gotten simpler since 2018? Partly: schedules dropped from six to three and the main booklet shrank, but the form grew back to 38 lines by 2025 and total instruction content remains high (IRS; NTU).

Sources

  1. Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040, tax year 1913 (prior-year forms archive). https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/f1040–1913.pdf
  2. Internal Revenue Service. Form 1040 (2025). https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf
  3. Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1040 (2025), catalog 24811V. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf
  4. Internal Revenue Service. Schedules for Form 1040 and Form 1040-SR. https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/schedules-for-form-1040
  5. Internal Revenue Service. Schedule 1 (Form 1040) 2018. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/f1040s1–2018.pdf
  6. Internal Revenue Service. Prior year forms and instructions (1040 archive). https://www.irs.gov/prior-year-forms-and-instructions?find=1040
  7. Internal Revenue Service. Historical Highlights of the IRS. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/historical-highlights-of-the-irs
  8. U.S. National Archives. IRS Form 1040 (1913). https://www.archives.gov/files/historical-docs/doc-content/images/irs-form-1040-1913.pdf
  9. National Taxpayers Union Foundation. Tax Complexity 2019: Modest Steps Toward Simplification. https://www.ntu.org/foundation/tax-page/tax-complexity-2019-modest-steps-toward-simplification
  10. National Taxpayers Union. All tax-complexity studies. https://www.ntu.org/foundation/tax-page/all-tax-complexity-studies
  11. Tax Foundation. America’s First Income Tax Form. https://taxfoundation.org/blog/americas-first-income-tax-form/
  12. Tax History Project (Tax Analysts). U.S. 1040 Tax Forms archive. https://www.taxnotes.com/tax-history-project/1040-archive
  13. Library of Congress. The First Form 1040 (In Custodia Legis). https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2017/04/the-first-form-1040/
  14. Thomson Reuters Tax. IRS releases draft of new simplified tax return for seniors: Form 1040-SR. https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/news/irs-releases-draft-of-new-simplified-tax-return-for-seniors-form-1040-sr/
  15. Wikipedia. Form 1040 (used as pointer to NTU compilation; figures cross-checked). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_1040

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