If you have served jury duty and have received payment for it, you might want to know if this is included in the income. The IRS provides a very easy tool for you to determine whether the payment you’ve received by serving as a juror is taxable under federal law. Here’s how it all works and what you need to know before getting started.
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What information do you need to use the IRS tool?
To use the IRS’s Interactive Tax Assistant (ITA) to assess the taxability of your jury duty pay, make sure you have the following information handy:
- The total amount of jury duty pay you received: This includes any payment you were provided for serving jury duty.
- The amount of jury duty pay, if any, that you turned over to your employer: Some employers require employees to remit jury duty pay to them if they were paid their regular wages during service.
This is a tool that is specifically applicable for US taxpayers. For the whole tax year in question, they should be citizens or resident aliens. If you are married, your spouse must have spent the same time in the US or be a citizen to qualify for the entire year.
The tool does not assist de facto as nonresident aliens or dual-status aliens. Contact the IRS’s information resources for International Taxpayers for the special rules that would apply to you.
Important guidelines and limitations
The conclusions provided by the ITA tool are based solely on your responses to its questions. Keep the following in mind:
- Disclaimer: The tool’s results do not constitute official written advice under section 6404(f) of the Internal Revenue Code. They should be used for general informational purposes only.
- Time Commitment: The tool takes approximately five minutes to complete. However, if you are inactive for 30 minutes, your session will time out, and you’ll need to start over.
When using the ITA tool, avoid hitting the “Back” button on your browser. Doing so could cause the application to crash and require you to begin the process again.
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Additional tips and resources
Taxpayers seeking clarity on how jury duty pay will affect taxable income can refer to IRS Publication 525, which is a comprehensive text relating to taxable and nontaxable income. A tax professional may also be contacted for specific advice suited to personal needs. For example, it is a small but necessary step to take to appreciate the taxability of your jury duty pay and compliance with federal tax regulations. This can be done in just a few minutes by using the IRS ITA tool, allowing clear and convenient filing of taxes.
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