how did form 1040 a work 
form 1040 a also gave taxpayers the opportunity to claim several tax deductions to reduce their taxable income however the only deductions they could claim included student loan interest post secondary tuition and fees classroom expenses and individual retirement account ira contributions taxpayers using form 1040 a could not claim itemized deductions this limitation meant that if an individual qualified for other deductions from sources such as charitable donations or mortgage interest and the total itemized deductible amount was more than the standard deductions it would not have been advantageous for them to use 1040 a 1form 1040 a also could be used to claim tax credits tax credits reduce the bottom line or total tax bill of a taxpayer the credits that could be claimed using this form were the american opportunity tax credit aotc earned income credit eitc child tax and additional child tax credit child and dependent care credit credits for the elderly or disabled and retirement savings contribution credit 3form 1040 a vs form 1040 ezanother variant of form 1040 was form 1040 ez which was even simpler and easier to fill out than form 1040 a and was also eliminated starting with the 2018 tax filing but with form 1040 ez the individual had to file as either a single taxpayer or as married filing jointly they could not claim deductions and could only claim the eic 4 although form 1040 a was slightly more complex than form 1040 ez it was still relatively simple compared to 1040 once their financial situation became complicated with dependents special deductions and credits such as those associated with post secondary education tuition most taxpayers needed to switch from filing with the 1040 ez to the 1040 a the redesigned form 1040 that debuted with the 2018 tax year is designed to be much simpler to use than its predecessor for this reason the irs eliminated both form 1040 a and form 1040 ez 5 