Updated October 17, 2026. Quick answer: Line 1b of Form 1040 is for wages you received as a household employee when those wages were not reported on a Form W-2. You enter the total of that pay. It comes from your own records of what the household paid you, and it is added into the first total of the income section.
More IRS forms and schedules for individual filers, read line by line: Schedule H Part I, Schedule H Additional Medicare Tax lines 5 and 6 and Schedule H W-2 and W-3 for household employees.
More IRS forms for employers and business owners, read line by line: Form 940 instructions.
Line-by-line IRS form guides for 2025: Form 2441 and Form 2441 lines A, B and 1.
Schedule 2 (Form 1040) for 2025, read line by line: Schedule 2 line 9.
What line 1b asks for
The form’s caption for the line reads “Household employee wages not reported on Form(s) W-2”. The instructions give the entry rule: “Enter the total of your wages received as a household employee that was not reported on Form(s) W-2.” The line is therefore for one specific situation, work done for a household, where no W-2 showed the pay.
The neighbouring lines of the income section are walked through in Form 1040 line by line.
Why there may be no W-2
The instructions explain why a household worker can end the year without a form: “An employer isn’t required to provide a Form W-2 to you if they paid you wages of less than $2,800 in 2025.” That sentence is about the 2025 return only, and it is about the employer’s duty to send a form. It does not say that pay below that amount is left off your return. The line itself asks for “the total of your wages received as a household employee”.
If a household did send you a Form W-2, the wages on it are not entered here. Those go on line 1a, the line for box 1 of your W-2s.
Where the number comes from
With no W-2 to copy from, the figure comes from whatever record you kept of the pay you received: the pay you were handed across the year, added up. Add every household job together and enter one total.
A labelled illustration, not an IRS example: if one household paid you $1,400 and another paid you $900 and neither sent a W-2, the line 1b total is $1,400 plus $900 for a total of $2,300. The figures are made up to show the arithmetic only.
Employment taxes for household work
The instructions point to a separate source for the tax side of household work: “For information on employment taxes for household employees, see Tax Topic 756.” Line 1b only reports the wages as income on your return. Anything about the household’s own payroll obligations is outside this line, and the Form 1040 instructions send you to that topic page for it. If you want the return itself, see the Form 1040 page.
Where it goes next
On the form, the lines at the top of the income section feed one total. The form’s own caption for it reads “Add lines 1a through 1h”. That total is line 1z, and line 1b is one of the amounts added into it.
Line 1z then carries into the next step of the income section. The form’s caption for line 9 reads “Add lines 1z, 2b, 3b, 4b, 5b, 6b, 7a, and 8. This is your total income”. So whatever you enter on line 1b moves your total income, and the surrounding lines are explained in Form 1040 line by line.
Edition and line numbers
This page reads the 2025 Form 1040 and its 2025 instructions, the current files irs.gov served on 2026-10-17. They are the forms for the tax year 2025 return, filed in 2026. The instructions say “The lines on Forms 1040 and 1040-SR are the same.” so everything here applies to Form 1040 and to Form 1040-SR alike. Check the tax year printed on the form you are filling in and use the line numbers on that year’s form, because a different year’s form can number or word its lines differently.
Common mistakes
- Putting a W-2 amount here. The line is for wages “that was not reported on Form(s) W-2”, so wages that appear on a W-2 belong on line 1a.
- Assuming no W-2 means no entry. The instructions say an employer is not required to provide one “if they paid you wages of less than $2,800 in 2025”, but the line asks for “the total of your wages received as a household employee”.
- Reading the line as a payroll tax calculation. The instructions send you elsewhere for that: “see Tax Topic 756”.
Related: Form 1040, Form W-4, Schedule 1 (Form 1040), and self-employment tax explained.
Sources
- Instructions for Form 1040 and Form 1040-SR (2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040gi.pdf
- Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return (2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040.pdf
Read from the IRS documents linked above on October 17, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the account provider or the IRS is the right place to confirm anything consequential.