IRS Form 1040, and the related 1040 variants, is the form used by most United States citizens, residents, and nonresident aliens, to file their annual income tax return. The basic IRS Form 1040 (the “long form”) is made up of two basic pages of information and allows the most options for people trying to optimize their income tax filing.

However, beyond the basic two pages of information, IRS Form 1040 also allows the attachment of eleven different types of schedules that can be used to detail specific tax information related to the filing. Most of the other variations of IRS Form 1040 do not allow these additional schedules.

Schedule A is one of the most common of these additional schedules and allows the filer to itemize each separate deduction on their tax return. While standardized deductions are much simpler to use, itemized deductions can potentially result in more money being saved on the tax bill. However, since itemizing your deductions is not an easy undertaking and everything has to be properly documented before it can be claimed, it is not for everyone.

Three of the schedules relate to investment income. Specifically these are: Schedule B (listing all interest or dividend income over $1,500 for the tax year), Schedule D (detailing capital gains), and Schedule E (detailing income and expenses related to rental properties or pass through entities like trusts of S corporations). Many average people may have to file a Schedule B if investments like their corporate stock plan did well in the year, though Schedules D and E are considerably less common.

Four the schedules relate to the type of business or employment the filer is involved with, specifically they are for the self-employed and for farmers. Schedule C is self-employed sole proprietors, Schedule SE is used to calculate tax owed from income for the self-employed, Schedule F covers the basic income and expenses for farmers, and Schedule J is used to average farm income over multiple years.

The other three schedules are tied to specific personal circumstances. Schedule EIC is used to document your eligibility for the earned income tax credit for low earners with children. Schedule H is used to report taxes owed to the government related to the use of household help. Schedule R is used to calculate the appropriate tax credits for the elderly or disabled.

While no one would ever have to use all of the available schedules, just the list alone can be daunting and adds a lot of pages to the instructions for IRS Form 1040. However, realistically most people only use a few of these schedules regularly and once you have gone through them once, they are easy enough to use again.