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Form 1099-G: Certain Government Payments

tax form, United States

Written byNancy Ashburn

Fact-checked byThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Illustration of a 1099-G tax form with decorative green background patterns, labeled sections, and placeholder text and dollar signs, with large bold text reading 1099-G and COPY B.

Use Form 1099-G to report certain government payouts.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

If you received payments from a federal, state, or local government agency during the tax year, you may receive Form 1099-G. Like other Forms 1099, it reports a specific type of payment to help you prepare your tax return. Form 1099-G commonly reports unemployment compensation, state or local income tax refunds, taxable grants, agricultural payments, government paid family leave benefits, and other types of government payments.

Not every amount reported on Form 1099-G is taxable. For example, a state income tax refund is generally taxable only if you claimed a deduction for state and local taxes on your federal income tax return in the previous year.

Key boxes on Form 1099-G

Box 1: Unemployment compensation you received during the year, which is generally taxable for federal income tax purposes.
Box 2: State or local income tax refunds, credits, or offsets. These may be taxable if you claimed a deduction for those taxes on a prior year’s federal return.
Box 4: Federal income tax withheld from your payments.
Box 5: Reemployment trade adjustment assistance (RTAA) payments.
Box 6: Taxable grants.
Box 7: Taxable payments from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Box 10: Payments from a government paid family leave program.

Using Form 1099-G

Use Form 1099-G, along with your other tax documents, when preparing your federal income tax return. Keep the form with your tax records, even if some payments reported on it aren’t taxable, because the information may still be needed to complete your return correctly.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Nancy Ashburn