Some types of income you receive are not taxable. When you total your gross income to determine whether you are required to file a tax return, do not include your nontaxable income. You should keep records of your nontaxable income. Some types of income that generally are not taxable include:

• Child support payments,
• Welfare benefits,
• Life insurance proceeds that are received because of the death of an individual,
• Interest on certain state or local government obligations,
• Accident and health insurance proceeds, including certain long term care insurance contracts,
• Certain property received as a gift or inheritance,
• Benefits received under any law administered by the Department of Veteran's Affairs,
• Amounts received under a worker's compensation act for an occupational sickness or injury,
• Qualified education IRA distributions; refer to Tax Topic 451 for more information,
• Certain Roth IRA distributions; refer to Tax Topic 428 for more information,
• Certain amounts withdrawn from Medical Savings Accounts (MSA's) to pay medical expenses, and
• Limited amounts of dependent care assistance paid through a dependent care assistance program.

All or a portion of your Social Security or equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits may be nontaxable. Refer to Tax Topic 423 for more information.

Some scholarship and fellowship grants may be non-taxable. For more information, refer to Tax Topic 421, Scholarship and Fellowship Grants.

Publication 525 (PDF), Taxable and Nontaxable Income, contains additional information on whether specific items of income are taxed.

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