Form IT-225: New York State Modifications for Tax Year 2025 Explained

Form IT-225, New York State Modifications, is the schedule taxpayers use to report additions and subtractions to federal adjusted gross income that New York State requires but that don’t have their own dedicated line on the main personal income tax return. If you’re filing Form IT-201 (resident) or IT-203 (nonresident/part-year resident) and your income includes items New York treats differently than the IRS does, this is the form that captures those differences.

New York’s tax code doesn’t mirror the federal code line for line. Certain types of income that are tax-exempt federally become taxable at the state level, and vice versa. Rather than cramming dozens of obscure adjustment codes onto the main return, the state moved these modifications to IT-225, where each addition or subtraction gets its own line with a corresponding code from the instructions.

Who Needs to File Form IT-225

You’ll need this form if any of the following apply to your 2025 tax year:

• You received income from a partnership, S corporation, estate, or trust that includes state-specific modification items passed through on a Schedule K-1 equivalent.
• You have interest income from federal bonds that’s exempt federally but taxable in New York, or vice versa.
• You claimed a federal deduction that New York doesn’t recognize, such as certain depreciation adjustments.
• You’re contributing to or withdrawing from a New York 529 college savings program in a way that triggers a modification.
• You have other state or local bond interest, or need to add back taxes paid to other jurisdictions.

Not every taxpayer needs IT-225. If your income situation is straightforward — a W-2 job with no unusual investments or pass-through income — you likely won’t need this schedule at all. It exists specifically for the exceptions, not the general case.

When and How It’s Used

Form IT-225 gets filed alongside your main New York return, not separately. The additions go in Part 1 and subtractions in Part 2, each requiring a specific code that corresponds to the type of modification. The instructions packet that accompanies the form lists every valid code, along with a brief description of what triggers it. Getting the code right matters — an incorrect code can delay processing or trigger a notice from the Tax Department asking for clarification.

Part 3 and Part 4 of the form cover modifications specific to partners, shareholders, and beneficiaries, which is where most of the pass-through entity adjustments land. If you received a Schedule K-1 with New York-specific modification information, this is usually where those numbers get transferred.

The form has fillable fields, so you can complete it digitally on your computer before printing or attaching it to an e-filed return through approved tax software. Because the codes and dollar amounts need to line up precisely with your K-1s or other supporting documents, it’s worth double-checking each entry before submission.

Getting the Form Right

Since IT-225 deals with adjustments rather than a full return, it’s easy to overlook if you’re not expecting a modification. Reviewing your federal return and any K-1s you received for state-specific footnotes is the best way to catch items that belong here. Tax software generally prompts for these entries automatically, but if you’re filing by hand, cross-referencing the instruction booklet’s code list against your income documents is essential.

Other New York filers dealing with credits and family-related tax benefits, such as those completing Form IT-216 for the Child and Dependent Care Credit, may find that some of their modification items on IT-225 interact with other schedules on the same return, so it helps to prepare all supporting forms together rather than piecemeal.

If you’re new to navigating state-specific tax paperwork in general, comparing how different states and agencies structure their disclosure and authorization forms can be useful context — resources like the FTB Form 743 guide or the FTB Form 7904 explainer show how other tax authorities handle similar administrative requirements, even though those are California forms rather than New York ones.

Form IT-225 is issued by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and is updated annually to reflect current tax law changes, so always confirm you’re using the version specific to tax year 2025 rather than a prior year’s form, since modification codes occasionally change or get retired.