Pay
Is jury duty pay taxable?
Enter the juror fees you received this year and whether you handed them to your employer: the tool gives the two amounts for your federal return.
Jury pay on your federal tax return
Jury pay that stays taxable
$150
| Report on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8h | $150 |
| Deduct on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 24a | $0 |
IRS Publication 525 (2025): jury duty pay is income; the part you must give to an employer who kept paying your salary is an adjustment to income. Mileage refunds are not covered here.
Jury duty pay is taxable: the IRS counts it as income, and Publication 525 (2025) says where it goes: the fees you receive are reported on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8h, among the "other income" items, not as wages. The court does not withhold tax from the fee. If your employer kept paying your salary while you served and required you to give it the juror fees, you can deduct what you handed over as an adjustment to income on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 24a, so the same money is not taxed twice: once as salary, once as a fee. For most jurors the amounts are small. A week of federal jury service pays $250; a week in California pays $60 in court fees. Mileage refunds are a separate question that this page does not treat. The rules here were read on irs.gov on October 29, 2026.
Court fees for your days of service
California, 10 days
$135
| First day | $0 |
| Day 10 | $15 |
| Mileage: At least 34 cents per mile to and from court from the second day, or up to $12 a day for public transit from the first day | |
Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 215 Rules read on October 29, 2026.
Statutes and court pages read by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
Two lines, one rule
The IRS rule fits in two sentences of Publication 525. Jury duty pay you receive is income. If you must give it to your employer because the employer kept paying your salary, the amount you give is deducted. Everything else follows from those two sentences: the fee is taxed like any small income, and an arrangement with your employer does not create extra tax.
The calculator above applies them. With $150 of fees kept, all $150 is taxable. With $150 handed to your employer, the same $150 is reported and deducted, and your taxable income from jury service is zero beyond the salary already on your W-2.
What counts as jury duty pay
The daily attendance fee set by state law, or by federal law in a federal court, is the core. Some states pay a different amount for the first day, or more for long trials; all of it is jury pay. The fees for a whole year add up across courts: a juror who served in a state court in March and a federal court in October reports both. The second tool on this page gives the court fees of any state for the number of days you served, from the same data as the state pages.
When the employer pays you
Wages your employer pays during jury service are ordinary wages: they appear on your W-2 with the usual withholding. In the 9 jurisdictions whose law requires some employers to keep paying, those wages are still wages, not jury pay. Only the court fee goes on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8h. The employer page lists who must pay and for how long.
State income tax
States with an income tax start from federal income in different ways, and their forms change each year, so this page does not give state lines. Many states begin from federal adjusted gross income, which already includes the fee you reported. Your state revenue department's instructions for the year answer the question for certain.
Keep the paper trail
Keep the court's attendance record and the payment notice, plus your employer's written policy if you handed the fees over. If the IRS asks about the adjustment on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 24a, those documents show that you received the fees and repaid them. They also settle disputes with an employer about the days you were away.
A worked example
Take a juror summoned to federal court for a five-day trial. The court pays $250 in fees. If the employer pays nothing during those days, the $250 goes on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 8h and is taxed with the rest of the year's income; no adjustment applies. If the employer keeps the full salary running and its policy asks for the fees back, the juror still reports $250 as income, hands the same amount to the employer, and enters it on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), line 24a. The net effect on taxable income is nil, and the salary shows on the W-2 as usual. A juror who keeps the fees and the salary simply reports both. The same steps apply in any state, with that state's fee in place of the federal one; the calculator gives it for your days.
No federal tax is withheld from most juror fee payments, so a long trial can leave a small balance due in April. Courts that send a year-end statement make the total easy to find; otherwise add up the payment notices.