Typically, if you do not have any taxable income, you do not need to file a tax return. However, the stimulus payments in recent years have shown us how important it is to have your information updated with the IRS, so filing returns without any taxable income has become very normal.
There are one main way to file without any taxable income, and that is adding $1 of interest income to your return and filing it normally.
How do I add $1 of interest income?
If you file a tax return without any taxable income, the IRS will reject it. To get around this rejection, the IRS suggests people report $1 of interest income on their tax return. To accomplish this within the program, please follow the steps listed below.
- Select Federal from the navigation bar
- Select Income from the same navigation bar
- Select 099-INT, DIV, OID from the Income page
- Choose Did you earn any interest or dividend income from a bank, brokerage firm or some other financial institution?
- Select Interest Income, Form 1099-INT, (including interest income < $1,500), then press continue
- Enter your name in the box titled "Payer's Name" and $1 inside the box labeled "Interest Income (Box 1)"
- Press continue at the bottom of the page to save your entries to your tax return