Other Income
Updated on: Dec 6, 2018
The new tax law made minor changes to the types of income reported on line 21.
Previous (2017)
Line 21 is used to report taxable income that you didn’t report elsewhere on your return or other schedules. Examples of Other Income include:
- Most prizes and awards;
- Gambling winnings, including lotteries and raffles;
- Jury duty pay;
- Hobby income;
- Cancelled debts;
- Taxable distributions from a Coverdell education savings account or a qualified tuition program;
- Health Savings Account (HSA) distributions not used to pay or reimburse you for qualified medical expenses;
- Reimbursements for items erroneously deducted in an earlier year (such as medical expenses and real estate taxes);
- Alaska Permanent Fund dividends;
- Net operating loss (NOL) deduction carried over from a previous year; and
- Taxable portions of disaster relief payments.
You shouldn’t report the following as Other Income:
- Self-employment income; or
- Non-taxable income (child support, life insurance proceeds, gifts).
Change
The new tax law generally didn’t change the types of taxable income reported in Line 21, Other Income. However, it did make the following miscellaneous changes:
- Discharge of Student Debt Due to Death or Disability: For tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, a discharge of student debt due to death or total and permanent disability (TPD) is no longer included in income.
- NOL Carrybacks: For noncorporate taxpayers, any net operating loss (NOL) arising in a taxable year ending after December 31, 2017, the new tax law generally disallows the carryback of net operating losses (NOLs) but allows for the indefinite carryforward of NOLs.
How will this affect me?
Scenario 1
In 2018, Dylan builds model airplanes as a hobby and sometimes sells the completed models on Craigslist. During the year, Dylan also received compensation for serving on a jury. Dylan reports income from these activities as Other Income on Form 1040, line 21.