Updated October 17, 2026. Quick answer: Lines 32 and 33 of Form 1040 are two totals, not entries you look up on a statement. Line 32 adds your refundable credits and other payments from lines 27a, 28, 29, 30 and 31. Line 33 adds your withholding from line 25d, your estimated payments from line 26, and line 32, and the result is your total payments.
More IRS forms and schedules, read line by line: Form 1040-V payment voucher.
Related reading on this site: IRS Notice CP11 (return corrected, amount owed changed), IRS Notice CP12 (refund created or changed) and IRS Notice CP13 (return corrected, zero balance).
Business use of your home (Form 8829), the saver’s credit (Form 8880), clean vehicle credits (Form 8936) and amended returns (Form 1040-X), read line by line: Form 1040-X, Form 1040-X lines 12 to 17 and Form 1040-X Parts II and III.
Schedule 8812 (child tax credit and additional child tax credit) for 2025, read line by line: Schedule 8812 lines 21 to 26 and Schedule 8812 line 27.
Form 8962 (premium tax credit) for 2025, read line by line: Form 8962 line 26.
What lines 32 and 33 ask for
Both lines are sums of lines above them. The form’s caption for line 32 reads “Add lines 27a, 28, 29, 30, and 31. These are your total other payments and refundable credits”. The caption for line 33 reads “Add lines 25d, 26, and 32. These are your total payments”. Nothing is copied from a W-2, a 1099 or a Schedule on these two lines. You add numbers you have already entered.
Because they are only totals, the work is in the lines feeding them. The whole second page of the return is laid out in Form 1040 line by line, and this page covers just the two totals.
Where the line 32 number comes from
Line 32 adds five lines. Each one has its own caption on the form. Line 27a reads “Earned income credit (EIC)”, line 28 reads “Additional child tax credit (ACTC) from Schedule 8812”, and line 29 reads “American opportunity credit from Form 8863, line 8”. Line 30 reads “Refundable adoption credit from Form 8839, line 13”, and line 31 reads “Amount from Schedule 3, line 15”.
If a line does not apply to you, it stays blank and adds nothing to line 32. For the credits behind two of these lines, see the earned income credit page and the child tax credit page.
Where the line 33 number comes from
Line 33 brings together three things. Line 25d is the withholding total, and its caption reads “Add lines 25a through 25c”. Line 26 is the caption “2025 estimated tax payments and amount applied from 2024 return”. The third is line 32, the total you just figured. If you make quarterly payments, the page on Form 1040-ES explains how those payments are made, and your W-2 withholding is set through Form W-4.
A labelled illustration, not an IRS example, of the form’s arithmetic: suppose line 27a is $1,200 and line 28 is $500 and line 29 is $300, with nothing on lines 30 and 31. Line 32 is then $1,200 plus $500 plus $300, for a total of $2,000 in all. Suppose line 25d is $6,000 and line 26 is $1,500. Line 33 is then $6,000 plus $1,500 plus $2,000 for a total of $9,500. The figures are made up to show the arithmetic only.
A refundable credit is added with your payments
The caption for line 32 groups the credits with payments: the sum is called “your total other payments and refundable credits”. On the form, those credits sit in the section headed with the words Payments and Refundable Credits, next to the tax you already had withheld. That is why a credit on lines 27a to 31 can raise the amount on line 34 or lower the amount on line 37, even though it is not a payment you mailed in yourself.
Where it goes next
Line 33 is compared with your total tax from line 24. The form’s caption for line 34 reads “If line 33 is more than line 24, subtract line 24 from line 33. This is the amount you overpaid”. The caption for line 37 reads “Subtract line 33 from line 24. This is the amount you owe.” So line 33 is the number that decides whether the return ends in a refund or a balance due. The lines after it are covered in lines 34 to 36 and line 37.
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
- Leaving a refundable credit out of line 32. The form’s caption says to “Add lines 27a, 28, 29, 30, and 31”, so each of those lines that has an amount counts.
- Forgetting the estimated payments on line 26. The caption for line 33 says “Add lines 25d, 26, and 32”, and line 26 is “2025 estimated tax payments and amount applied from 2024 return”.
- Adding line 24 into the payments. Line 33 is built only from lines 25d, 26 and 32; line 24 is the other side of the comparison, as in “Subtract line 33 from line 24”.
Related: earned income credit, child tax credit, Form 1040-ES, and Form W-4.
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.