How to find gross yearly/monthly income on a 2021 1040 tax form?

But wait, isn't AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) what most places are asking for? That would be line 11 right? I always get confused between total income, gross income, and AGI. What's the difference?

Great question! There's definitely confusion between these terms. Total Income (Line 9) includes all your income sources added together. Adjusted Gross Income or AGI (Line 11) is your total income MINUS certain adjustments like student loan interest, retirement contributions, etc. When a form asks for "gross income," they typically want your total income before any deductions or adjustments - so Line 9 is usually correct. However, some organizations specifically want AGI instead. If the form doesn't specify, I'd recommend using the higher number (Total Income from Line 9) to be safe, as that's your true gross income before adjustments.

Does this actually work with older tax forms? I need to find some info from my 2020 return and I'm dreading digging through all that paperwork.

Sounds interesting but I'm always skeptical of uploading my tax docs to random sites. How secure is it? Do they store your tax info or is it just a one-time analysis?

Yes, it works with returns from previous years! I actually used it with my 2019, 2020, and 2021 returns to compare my income trends over time. It recognized all the different form versions without any issues. They don't store your documents permanently - they process them for the analysis and then delete them. They have a whole privacy explanation on their site, but basically they use the same encryption standards as banks. I was also hesitant at first, but it was honestly such a huge timesaver compared to staring at tax forms trying to figure out what means what.

How is that even possible? I thought the IRS wait times were just something everyone had to suffer through. What's the catch - do you have to pay them?

Sounds too good to be true. I've literally spent DAYS of my life on hold with the IRS and never gotten through. How exactly does this work? They must have some kind of special access or something?

No real catch - they basically navigate the IRS phone tree for you and wait on hold in your place. When they get a human, they call you and connect you directly to the agent. It works because they have a system that can handle multiple calls simultaneously, so they're essentially waiting on hold for lots of people at once. It's not special access to the IRS - just a more efficient way to handle the hold time. It definitely saved my sanity after trying to get through on my own for weeks. The agent I finally spoke with helped me understand that my side gig income was what was causing the discrepancy between what I reported and what they had on file.

This is a really good point. My apartment complex wanted my last 4 paystubs for the monthly amount and my tax return for the yearly. I was confused why they needed both but apparently they compare them to make sure your income is stable?

Exactly! They like to see consistency between what you reported on taxes and what you're earning now. If there's a big jump or drop, they'll usually ask for an explanation. For example, if your tax return shows you made $40k in 2021 but your current paystubs show you're on track to make $75k this year, they'll want to know what changed (new job, promotion, etc.). They're basically trying to verify that the income you're claiming is accurate and stable. It's also why some applications ask for both the annual amount and the monthly amount separately, instead of just dividing your annual by 12 themselves.

If it makes you feel any better, I did the opposite - I put my gross income when they wanted AGI and it looked like I was trying to hide money! The financial aid officer gave me such a suspicious look lol. The difference was like $12k because of my retirement contributions.

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses! I checked my 2021 1040 and found Line 9 showing $54,230 as my total income. That seems to include both my W-2 jobs and the side gig stuff I reported. Dividing by 12 gives me $4,519 for monthly gross income. I appreciate all the clarification about the difference between total income and AGI - I definitely would have used the wrong number (Line 11) if I hadn't asked!

This is such good advice! I learned this the hard way when I was applying for a personal loan last year. The application just said "annual gross income" with no clarification, and I assumed they meant AGI since that's what I was used to seeing on most financial forms. Turns out they actually wanted the total income figure (Line 9), and using the lower AGI number made it look like I didn't qualify for the loan amount I was requesting. Had to resubmit everything with the correct number. A quick call to their customer service could have saved me weeks of back-and-forth!

This is such great advice from a tax professional! I wish I had known about keeping a spreadsheet of key tax numbers earlier. I'm definitely going to start doing this for 2022 and beyond. It would have saved me so much time this year when I was applying for various things and kept having to dig out my tax return to find the same numbers over and over. Do you recommend including any other specific line numbers or calculations in that spreadsheet beyond Line 9, Line 11, and the effective tax rate?

@1e0e05271c72 That's a fantastic suggestion about keeping a spreadsheet! As someone who's had to hunt through tax documents multiple times this year alone, I'm definitely implementing this system. Beyond the numbers you mentioned, would you also recommend tracking things like total tax withheld (for estimated tax purposes) or any specific deduction amounts that commonly get asked for on applications? I'm thinking student loan interest, mortgage interest, that sort of thing?