Free Tools

Tax year 2026 · arriving January 2027

What is new on your 2026 tax forms

2026 is the year the OBBBA reporting rules actually hit paper. One brand-new form, one form that changes shape, and two familiar forms that gained boxes. Here is what each one carries, when it shows up, and the single thing worth checking before it flows onto a return.

Form W-2 (2026)

By January 31, 2027

Three new Box 12 codes and a new Box 14b

Box 12 gains code TA (employer contributions to a Trump account), TP (total cash tips reported to the employer) and TT (total qualified overtime compensation). Box 14b carries the Treasury Tipped Occupation Code, and up to two codes can appear.

Check this first

TP and TT are already inside Box 1 — they identify a deductible slice, they are not extra income. TA is excluded from Box 1. If you worked a tipped job and Box 14b is blank, ask payroll before you file: without a TTOC the tips deduction has no substantiation.

Flows to Schedule 1-A Parts II and IIIParse this document type →

Form 1098-VLI

By Jan 31, 2027 for 2026 interest

Vehicle Loan Interest Statement — first mandatory filing year

Lenders must issue Form 1098-VLI to borrowers who paid more than $600 of interest on a specified passenger vehicle loan. For the 2025 tax year lenders only had to make the total available to the borrower; 2026 is the first year the form is actually filed with the IRS.

Check this first

Confirm the interest total covers only the qualifying loan, and have the VIN handy — Schedule 1-A Part IV asks for it. If you bought in 2025 and got an ad-hoc letter instead of a form, this year should look different.

Flows to Schedule 1-A Part IVParse this document type →

Form 1099-DA

Early 2027 for 2026 transactions

Digital asset proceeds — first year of mandatory basis reporting

For 2025 sales, brokers reported gross proceeds only and cost basis was optional. Assets acquired on or after Jan 1, 2026 and held with the broker are covered securities, so the 2026 forms are the first to carry mandatory cost basis.

Check this first

Reconcile the broker basis against your own records before it flows to Form 8949. Transferred-in lots and pre-2026 acquisitions can still arrive with missing or wrong basis, and the broker number is what the IRS sees.

Flows to Form 8949 / Schedule DParse this document type →

Form 1099-NEC (2026)

By Feb 2, 2027 for 2026 payments

Tips and overtime boxes, and a higher filing threshold

The 2026 Form 1099-NEC adds boxes for cash tips, the Treasury Tipped Occupation Code and qualified overtime compensation, so contractors get the same substantiation employees get on the W-2. Separately, the general reporting threshold for payments made in 2026 rises to $2,000 (it was $600 for payments before 2026).

Check this first

Under the higher threshold you may simply not receive a 1099-NEC you used to get. The income is still reportable — reconcile against your own invoices rather than against the forms that show up.

Flows to Schedule C, then Schedule 1-A Parts II and IIIParse this document type →

The pattern behind all four

Every one of these changes does the same thing: it makes a number the IRS could not previously see into a number it now matches against. Your tips and overtime premium used to be your business and your employer's; now they are a code on a W-2. Your car loan interest was a line on a statement; now it is an information return. Your crypto basis was in a spreadsheet; now a broker asserts a figure on your behalf.

That makes the January reconciliation more valuable than it used to be. A wrong figure on an information return does not stay a private disagreement — it becomes the version of your finances the IRS starts from. The cheapest time to catch it is the week it arrives, while payroll and the lender can still issue a correction.

Run the numbers

Decode 2026 W-2 Box 12 codes →Schedule 1-A estimator →Tipped occupation code lookup →1099 self-employment tax estimator →

Questions people ask about this

What is Form 1098-VLI?

The Vehicle Loan Interest Statement. Lenders use it to report interest received on a specified passenger vehicle loan when a borrower paid more than $600 during the year. It substantiates the car loan interest deduction on Schedule 1-A Part IV. For the 2025 tax year lenders only had to make the total available to borrowers; 2026 is the first mandatory filing year.

Why does my 1099-DA look different this year?

Because 2026 is the first year of mandatory cost basis reporting. Digital assets acquired on or after January 1, 2026 and held with the broker are covered securities, so the form now carries basis as well as gross proceeds. For 2025 transactions brokers reported proceeds only, and basis was optional.

I did not get a 1099-NEC this year. Do I still owe tax on that income?

Yes. The general reporting threshold for payments made in 2026 rose to $2,000, up from $600 for earlier payments, so payers who used to send you a form may no longer be required to. The income is reportable whether or not a form arrives — reconcile against your own invoices rather than against the forms in your mailbox.

Do these forms change what I have to keep?

They change what you have to reconcile. Each new form is the government-visible version of a number you already knew: your tips, your overtime premium, your car loan interest, your crypto basis. When your records and the form disagree, the form is what the IRS matches against, so the reconciliation has to happen before you file rather than after a notice.

When do all of these arrive?

Most arrive in the ordinary January window for 2026 activity: W-2 and 1098-VLI by January 31, 2027, Form 1099-NEC by February 2, 2027, and Form 1099-DA in early 2027. A corrected form can arrive well after that, which is a reason not to file the moment the first envelope lands.

Reconcile from the document, not from memory

Upload a 1099, W-2 or 1098 and get every box back as structured JSON or CSV, so comparing what arrived against what you expected takes a diff instead of an afternoon. Three free, no credit card.

Want the 1099 extraction guide?

Get a free step-by-step guide to extracting and reviewing data from 1099s — plus tips for recurring workflows.

Free. No credit card. Unsubscribe anytime.