Form 1040 for 2020... Which line shows your adjusted gross income vs taxable income?

AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) and taxable income are definitely not the same thing, so whoever told you that was incorrect. On the 2020 Form 1040, your AGI is on line 11, which is your total income minus certain adjustments (like student loan interest, self-employment tax, etc). Your taxable income (line 15) will always be lower than your AGI because it's what's left after you subtract either the standard deduction or your itemized deductions, and any qualified business income deductions. That's why the numbers are different - the government doesn't tax your full AGI. For your rental application, they almost certainly want your AGI (line 11). That's the number typically used for qualifying for loans, rentals, healthcare subsidies, etc. since it represents your total income before the personal deductions are taken out.

After spending hours trying to figure out which numbers matter on my tax forms, I finally found taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) and it saved me so much confusion. I uploaded my 2020 Form 1040 and it immediately identified my AGI on line 11 and explained the difference between that and taxable income on line 15. The tool highlighted all the important numbers on my tax form and explained each one in simple language. It even showed me which numbers I needed for different financial applications - like mortgage applications vs healthcare subsidies vs student loan repayment plans. Saved me from making some embarrassing mistakes on applications.

I was really skeptical about taxr.ai at first (I commented above), but I gave it a shot because I was desperate to understand my tax forms before a mortgage application. Wow, it actually delivered! I uploaded my 2020 and 2021 returns and it immediately highlighted the AGI on each return and explained all the differences between that and my taxable income. It also pointed out that my mortgage lender would likely be looking at my MAGI for certain calculations, which I didn't even know was a thing. The comparison showed me exactly which lines matter for different financial situations. No more guessing which income number I'm supposed to use for different applications!

For anyone still struggling with getting answers about tax forms - I was in the same boat last month trying to get clarification about AGI vs taxable income for my financial aid application. After waiting on hold with the IRS for literally 3+ hours over multiple days, I finally found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). They got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes who explained the difference between lines 11 and 15 on my 2020 return. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. Honestly shocked it worked after wasting so many hours on hold before.

I'm the person who commented above about being skeptical about Claimyr. I feel like I need to come back and eat my words. After another failed attempt to reach the IRS (2.5 hours on hold before being disconnected), I tried the service out of pure frustration. It actually worked exactly as advertised. I got a call back in about 25 minutes saying they had an IRS agent on the line. The agent clarified everything about my 2020 return AGI vs taxable income question, and even helped me with a missing tax document issue I'd been trying to resolve for weeks. I've spent literally days of my life on hold with the IRS over the years, so this was honestly life-changing.

Just to add more confusion to this thread - there's also Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) which is different from both AGI and taxable income. Some financial aid forms ask for MAGI instead of AGI and it's calculated by adding back some deductions to your AGI. For 2020 Form 1040, you'd start with your AGI (line 11) and then add back things like student loan interest, tuition deductions, IRA contributions, etc. It's super confusing because different programs calculate MAGI differently. Tax forms should come with a translator lol.

Is anyone else bothered by the fact that the tax system is so complicated that we can't even figure out what our actual income is? Like there are at least 3 different versions of "income" on one form (total income, AGI, taxable income) and they all mean different things. And then there's MAGI which isn't even on the form! How is a regular person supposed to understand this stuff??

I completely feel your frustration! I went through this exact same confusion last year when I was doing my 2019 taxes. The terminology is absolutely mind-boggling for regular people. Just to clarify for the original poster - your AGI (line 11) is what you'll need for most applications like rentals, loans, etc. The $18,200 difference between your AGI and taxable income sounds about right when you factor in the 2020 standard deduction plus any other deductions you qualified for. What helped me was thinking of it this way: AGI is your "real" income after work-related adjustments, taxable income is what the government actually taxes you on after personal deductions, and MAGI is just AGI with some stuff added back for specific programs. It's still unnecessarily complicated, but at least there's some logic to it. The fact that we need entire Reddit threads to explain basic tax concepts shows how broken this system is. Other countries have much simpler tax systems where the government just tells you what you owe!