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Unemployment Benefits: Taxable and Nontaxable Income (2025 IRS Guide)

This guide covers “Unemployment Benefits” within taxable and nontaxable income. The following material presents the IRS treatment of this topic, including the qualifications, exceptions, and examples in the source section. Read the rules alongside the facts of your own situation before deciding what to report, deduct, or document.

Adapted from Publication 525 (2025), Taxable and Nontaxable Income, published by the Internal Revenue Service. This guide retains the source edition’s years, amounts, deadlines, and examples. It is guidance for that edition, not a statement that the same figures apply to every tax year.

Context for these rules

This section discusses various types of income. You may have taxable income from certain transactions even if no money changes hands. For example, you may have taxable income if you lend money at a below-market interest rate or have a debt you owe canceled.

Unemployment Benefits

The tax treatment of unemployment benefits you receive depends on the type of program paying the benefits.

Unemployment compensation.

Generally, you must include in income all unemployment compensation you receive. You should receive a Form 1099-G showing in box 1 the total unemployment compensation paid to you. In most cases, you enter unemployment compensation on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 7.

Caution:

If you received unemployment compensation but didn’t receive Form 1099-G through the mail, you may need to access your information through your state’s website to get your electronic Form 1099-G.

Types of unemployment compensation.

Unemployment compensation generally includes any amount received under an unemployment compensation law of the United States or of a state. It includes the following benefits.

  • Benefits paid by a state or the District of Columbia from the Federal Unemployment Trust Fund.

  • State unemployment insurance benefits.

  • Railroad unemployment compensation benefits.

  • Disability payments from a government program paid as a substitute for unemployment compensation. (Amounts received as workers’ compensation for injuries or illness aren’t unemployment compensation. See Workers’ Compensation under Sickness and Injury Benefits, earlier.)

  • Trade readjustment allowances under the Trade Act of 1974.

  • Unemployment assistance under the Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1974.

  • Unemployment assistance under the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 Program.

Governmental program.

If you contribute to a governmental unemployment compensation program and your contributions aren’t deductible, amounts you receive under the program aren’t included as unemployment compensation until you recover your contributions. If you deducted all of your contributions to the program, the entire amount you receive under the program is included in your income.

Repayment of unemployment compensation.

If you repaid in 2025 unemployment compensation you received in 2025, subtract the amount you repaid from the total amount you received and enter the difference on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 7. On the dotted line next to your entry, enter “Repaid” and the amount you repaid. If you repaid unemployment compensation in 2025 that you included in your income in an earlier year and the amount is more than $3,000, you can deduct the amount repaid on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 16, if you itemize deductions, or you can take a credit against your tax on Schedule 3 (Form 1040), line 13b. See Repayments, later.

Tax withholding.

You can choose to have federal income tax withheld from your unemployment compensation. To make this choice, complete Form W-4V and give it to the paying office. Tax will be withheld at 10% of your payment.

Caution:

If you don’t choose to have tax withheld from your unemployment compensation, you may be liable for estimated tax. If you don’t pay enough tax, either through withholding or estimated tax, or a combination of both, you may have to pay a penalty. For more information, see Pub. 505.

Supplemental unemployment benefits.

Benefits received from an employer-financed fund (to which the employees didn’t contribute) aren’t unemployment compensation. They’re taxable as wages and are subject to withholding for income tax. They may be subject to social security and Medicare taxes. For more information, see Supplemental Unemployment Compensation Benefits in section 5 of Pub. 15-A. Report these payments on line 1a of Form 1040 or 1040-SR.

Repayment of benefits.

You may have to repay some of your supplemental unemployment benefits to qualify for trade readjustment allowances under the Trade Act of 1974. If you repay supplemental unemployment benefits in the same year you receive them, reduce the total benefits by the amount you repay. If you repay the benefits in a later year, you must include the full amount of the benefits in your income for the year you received them.

Deduct the repayment in the later year as an adjustment to gross income on Form 1040 or 1040-SR. Include the repayment on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 24e. If the amount you repay in a later year is more than $3,000, you may be able to take a credit against your tax for the later year instead of deducting the amount repaid. For information on this, see Repayments, later.

Private unemployment fund.

Unemployment benefit payments from a private (nonunion) fund to which you voluntarily contribute are taxable only if the amounts you receive are more than your total payments into the fund. Report the taxable amount on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8z.

Payments by a union.

Benefits paid to you as an unemployed member of a union from regular union dues are included in your income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8z. However, if you contribute to a special union fund and your payments to the fund aren’t deductible, the unemployment benefits you receive from the fund are includible in your income only to the extent they’re more than your contributions.

Guaranteed annual wage.

Payments you receive from your employer during periods of unemployment, under a union agreement that guarantees you full pay during the year, are taxable as wages. Include them on line 1a of Form 1040 or 1040-SR.

State employees.

Payments similar to a state’s unemployment compensation may be made by the state to its employees who aren’t covered by the state’s unemployment compensation law. Although the payments are fully taxable, don’t report them as unemployment compensation. Report these payments on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8z.

Using the guidance

Keep the documents that establish the dates, amounts, and circumstances described above. References to other chapters, forms, worksheets, or earlier and later sections refer to the linked IRS publication. Check the full publication and its updates before relying on a rule for a different tax year or a situation not addressed here.

Sources and further reading

The cited U.S. government text is in the public domain. Source accessed October 28, 2026. Fynoptic has organized this material for educational use and is independent of, and not endorsed by, the IRS.

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