Is a return due: what the rule actually asks

A reader wants to know what decides whether a federal return is required for a year.

Nothing here decides whether a return is due for you, what your status is, or who you may claim. Those turn on your own facts.

A form arriving is not the rule

A form arriving in the post is evidence of an amount. The duty to file comes from the statute and the amounts it sets for the year, so a missing form does not remove it and an unexpected form does not create it.

What the rules say

We do not work out anyone's tax, refund or balance. We explain what each rule asks for; the arithmetic belongs to you and to whatever you file with.

The amounts for this tax year

Every amount on this page is stated for one tax year and taken from the material that published it for that year. An amount from a different year is a different rule.

The forms involved, and what each one is

There are two different kinds of document here: ones you receive and copy from, and ones that are part of the return itself. They are easy to confuse and they behave nothing alike.

What we are not saying

Sources

Every source on this page shows the body that issued it and the date we read it. Amounts are stated for tax year 2025, and the text behind this centre was last read on 2026-08-16.

What this centre covers, and what it does not

What this centre covers, and what it does not

These are the situations we have written up, and the ones we have not. Pick the line closest to your year and we will say how far this centre goes on it. This is a note about our own pages: it decides nothing about your return, and it is not a view on whether you should use a professional.

  1. Which of these is closest to your year?

  • Wages only, one employer, no other activity — Covered here

    The wage workflow, the filing requirement question and the post-filing operations are all covered.

  • Wages plus bank interest and ordinary dividends — Covered here

    Supported while the facts stay inside the certified scope: the categories exist, and the schedule question is a stated instruction rather than a computation.

  • Self-employment or platform work — Covered, after a step in another centre

    The filing sequence and the return components are supported. The classification and expense law comes from the Gig Worker Center first.

  • Military pay or allowances — Covered, after a step in another centre

    The filing workflow is supported once the Military Tax Center has characterised the pay items.

  • A small number of security or digital asset sales with known basis — Covered here

    The dispositions form and capital gains schedule workflow is covered.

  • Sales where the reader does not know the basis — Turns on facts we cannot see

    Whether the workflow can proceed depends on whether the basis can be established from the reader's own records.

  • One residential rental with ordinary income and expenses — Covered here

    The supplemental income schedule workflow and its records are covered. Loss limitation and depreciation questions are not.

  • A K-1 raising basis or at-risk questions — Outside what this centre covers

    Requires entity-level history outside a filing workflow.

  • Pension, IRA or Social Security income — Covered here

    The statements, the part of the return they feed and the records are covered. How much of a benefit counts turns on the whole year, and distribution-code questions are not covered.

  • Marketplace health coverage during the year — Covered here

    The reconciliation requirement, the statement it comes from and the form that carries it are covered. No amount and no eligibility is worked out.

  • Something wrong on a return already filed — Covered here

    What the correction route is, and which form carries it, are covered. Whether any particular return should be amended is not something we decide.

  • Foreign accounts, foreign assets or filing from abroad — Outside what this centre covers

    Separate information-reporting regimes not researched in SF2.

  • An S corporation or partnership return — Outside what this centre covers

    Self-File is an individual-return centre.

  • Living or working in more than one state — Turns on facts we cannot see

    The federal workflow is unaffected. State filing depth is deferred, so Self-File states the boundary rather than answering it.

  • The reader has not described their situation — Nothing stated yet

    No support determination can be made without stated facts.

Reading this is not a sign that you should file without help. Plenty of situations are worth taking to a professional, and nothing here says otherwise.

The pages these lines point to

Where to go next

Educational information only. This is not tax advice, we are not your tax preparer, and nothing here is a determination about your own return. Check the linked official sources, and consider a professional for anything that turns on your specific facts.