IT-221: Disability Income Exclusion (2025)
New York · NY DTF · Used for tax years 2025
Form IT-221 calculates the disability income exclusion for New York State, New York City, and Yonkers. It reports disability pay received by you and, if applicable, your spouse, and figures the exclusion after applying its limit.
Who files this form
Use Form IT-221 to claim the disability income exclusion with Form IT-201 or IT-203. The form covers New York State, New York City, and Yonkers.
Enter your disability income in Column A. If you are married and your spouse also received disability income, enter your spouse’s amounts in Column B.
The form refers to Form IT-221-I for exclusion limits. Those instructions are not included here.
What you'll need
To complete the form, have these details available:
- Names as shown on your return and your Social Security number.
- Your employer’s name and the payer’s name, if different.
- Retirement dates for you and your spouse, as applicable.
- Total disability pay received during 2025, including amounts paid for each week or partial week.
- The amount from Form IT-201, line 19, or Form IT-203, line 19, Federal amount column.
A completed Physician’s statement is required unless you qualify to check the box for a previously filed statement. If both spouses take the exclusion, the form requires a statement for each spouse, subject to that exception.
How to file
- Complete your disability pay calculation in Column A and your spouse’s in Column B, if applicable.
- Use lines 7 through 10 to calculate the limit on the exclusion. If line 9 is larger than line 6, stop: you cannot claim an exclusion.
- Enter the exclusion on line 11. If both spouses received disability pay, the form directs you to the instructions for proration.
- Transfer the total of line 11, Columns A and B, to Form IT-225, line 10, Total amount column. Enter subtraction modification S-124 in the Number column.
- Submit Form IT-221 with Form IT-201 or IT-203. If a new Physician’s statement is required, have your physician complete page 2 and submit both pages with your return.
The supplied form does not give a mailing address or e-file directions.
Common mistakes
- Do not skip the special instructions if your filing status is Married filing separate return.
- Mark the spouse-living-apart box if you did not live with your spouse during any part of the tax year.
- If you retired after December 31, 1976, enter the retirement date in the designated space and on the Physician’s statement.
- If a Physician’s statement is required, submit both pages, not just the first page.
- The physician must mark only one box, A or B, and sign the statement.
- Do not claim an exclusion if line 9 is larger than line 6.
Questions people ask
Do I need a new Physician’s statement every year?
Not necessarily. You may check the permanent-and-total-disability statement box if you filed a Physician’s statement for this disability for tax year 1984, or for a later tax year with box B checked, and your continued disability kept you from engaging in any substantial gainful activity during 2025. If you check that box, you do not need another statement for 2025.
What does permanently and totally disabled mean on this form?
It means you cannot engage in any substantial gainful activity because of a physical or mental condition, and a physician determines that the disability has lasted or is expected to last continuously for at least a year, or is expected to lead to death.
How are full weeks of disability pay counted?
For weeks when payments were at least $100, line 2 uses $100 multiplied by the number of those weeks. For weeks when payments were less than $100, line 3 uses the total actually received for those weeks.
How does income affect the exclusion?
Line 7 uses the amount from line 19 of Form IT-201 or the Federal amount column of Form IT-203. Line 9 subtracts $15,000 from that amount, using zero if $15,000 is larger. Line 10 subtracts line 9 from the combined excludable disability pay on line 6.