The US Internal Revenue Service has proposed adding a citizenship and work-authorisation question to the 2026 Form 1040, marking the first time the individual income tax return would require taxpayers to affirm their immigration or citizenship status.
The question appears in a draft of the tax form released by the agency for public review. Although the wording could still change before the form is finalised, the proposal represents a departure from the way the IRS has traditionally collected information from taxpayers.
The Form 1040 is primarily used by millions of Americans and other eligible filers each year to report income, deductions, credits, and tax liabilities. Over time, however, the form has expanded to include questions designed to help the government verify eligibility and enforce tax rules.
For example, taxpayers are asked whether they received, sold or exchanged cryptocurrency during the tax year. Such questions provide the IRS with information that can be used to track areas that have historically presented challenges for tax enforcement.
The proposed citizenship question would take that approach further by asking taxpayers to explicitly confirm their status.
What The New Question Says
The draft Form 1040 contains a yes-or-no question asking:
“At the time you file your return, are you, and your spouse if filing jointly, a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or an alien lawfully authorized to work in the U.S.?”
The proposal comes as the Treasury Department and IRS consider immigration-related eligibility restrictions for the refundable portions of several tax credits.
The affected credits include the earned income credit, additional child tax credit, American opportunity tax credit and adoption credit.
A proposed new Schedule 3-A connected to those credits would also ask whether a taxpayer or spouse qualifies as a citizen, national, or eligible alien under federal benefits law.
The citizenship question on Form 1040 could therefore provide the IRS with information needed to determine whether taxpayers qualify for certain benefits.
Concerns Over Taxpayer Privacy
The proposal has also raised questions about how the information collected by the IRS could be used or shared with other government agencies.
Federal law places restrictions on the disclosure of confidential tax-return information, including when such information can be provided to other government agencies.
The concerns come after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction involving an IRS procedure used to provide more than 47,000 taxpayer records to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The court found that it could not be certain that the requests complied with federal requirements governing the disclosure of confidential tax information.
Although federal tax privacy rules remain in place, the ruling has fuelled concerns about how securely taxpayer information can be protected once it is collected.
Taxpayer advocates have also warned that asking about citizenship or work authorisation could make some immigrants reluctant to file tax returns because of fears about how the information might be used.
Such concerns could potentially affect tax compliance if eligible taxpayers decide not to submit returns.
When Could The Question Take Effect?
The 2026 Form 1040 remains a draft, meaning the proposed citizenship question could still be modified or removed before the final version is issued.
If the question remains in the completed form, taxpayers would encounter it when filing their 2026 tax returns in spring 2027.
For now, taxpayers, tax professionals and non-citizen filers will have to wait for the IRS to release the final version of the form before knowing exactly how the citizenship and work-authorisation requirement will appear.
