https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-dft/f1040--dft.pdf
Above is a link to the draft of the 2018 1040. It will have a substantial number of changes including more use of supplemental schedules. The 2018 draft Form 1040 contains fewer entries than the 2017 Form 1040 for types of income received by the taxpayer. The omitted items were moved to new Schedule 1, including taxable refunds, credits, or offsets of state and local income taxes; alimony received; business income or loss; capital gain or loss; other gains or losses; rental real estate, royalties, partnerships, S corporations, trusts, etc.; farm income or loss, unemployment compensation; and other income.
The 2018 draft Form 1040 contains a line where taxpayers indicate whether they are claiming the standard deduction or itemized deductions and provides the 2018 standard deduction amounts in the margin
On the 2018 draft Form 1040, in addition to the checkbox reflecting whether a dependent qualifies for the child tax credit, a second checkbox has been added for a taxpayer to reflect whether a dependent qualifies for the new $500 credit for other qualifying dependents, relatives who are not your child.
The 2018 draft Form 1040 directs a taxpayer with a foreign address to attach a new Schedule 6, "Foreign Address and Third Party Designee", and provide this information on that Schedule.
The 2018 draft Form 1040 also has a new line for the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction.
The 2018 draft Form 1040 contains fewer lines relevant to calculating a taxpayer's total tax, instead moving the entries to a new Schedule 2, "Tax". Schedule 2 includes tax on child's unearned income (i.e., kiddie tax); tax on lump-sum distributions; other taxes; alternative minimum tax; and excess advance premium tax credit.
The 2018 draft Form 1040 contains an entry for "child tax credit/credit for other dependents" and has moved the other items to new Schedule 3, "Nonrefundable Credits". The lines for "other taxes" on the 2017 Form 1040 were moved to a new Schedule 4, "Other Taxes", which includes self-employment tax; social security and Medicare tax on tip income not reported to employer; uncollected social security and Medicare tax on wages; additional tax on IRAs, other qualified retirement plans, and other tax-favored accounts; household employment taxes; repayment of first-time homebuyer credit; health care: individual responsibility; additional Medicare tax; and net investment income tax.
Payments and other refundable credits were moved to a new Schedule 5, "Other Payments and Refundable Credits".
The 2018 draft Form 2018 eliminates the "Third Party Designee" section that had previously appeared on the 2017 Form 1040. The 2018 draft Form 2018 instead provides a checkbox where a taxpayer can check "3rd Party Designee".
-Jake M. Bodenheimer, CPA