SEC. 1. PURPOSE

The purpose of this revenue procedure is to provide the general requirements and conditions for the development, printing, and approval of all substitute tax forms to be acceptable for filing in lieu of official IRS produced and distributed forms. All IRS tax forms of the types identified in Section 2.03, whether or not specifically mentioned herein by title or form number, are covered by this general revenue procedure. Certain unique, specialized forms require the use of other additional revenue procedures to supplement this publica

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TUTES FOR FORM 1042–S

ments, which appeared in Revenue Procedure 95–46, have not been added to this procedure. While barcodes will appear on the official forms, they are not required on substitute returns.

.02 Statement of Intention for Form 1040 processing deleted. .03 Payment vouchers for Forms 1040, 941, 940, 940–EZ, 943, 945, and 2290 are required for tax year 1996 forms.

.04 Minor revisions have been made to the addresses for the Substitute W–2 Coordinator and the Employee Plans OCR Forms Coordinator.

.05 References to OMB expiration dates have been deleted. These dates are being phased out as forms are revised.

.06 Revision to preparer’s information instructions. Preparer’s data will now be preprinted on Page 2 of Form 1040EZ. .07 Definition of conditional approval modified. Forms will not be accepted for conditional approval (i.e. based on drafts) after the final version has been published.

.08 Requirement to have forms which are filed quarterly approved each quarter has been deleted. Quarterly forms must be approved during the year if the form has been revised.

.09 Assignment of Forms Approval Number changed to assignment of Source Codes.

.10 Non-tax material (e.g., logos, firm names) may not be printed anywhere along the top margin.

.11 Paragraph referencing separate approval numbers for electronically filed returns deleted.

.12 Printing specifications now require that fill-in data (i.e. taxpayer entries) be no smaller than eight points in height.

.13 Form 3975, Tax Practitioner Annual Mailing List Application Update, may only be used to order Package X. Other publications may be ordered by phone.

.14 The reproduction proof and reader list programs are being discontinued as of October 1, 1996. Additional information has been added regarding the IRIS Bulletin Board, the Internet, and tax forms on CD–ROM.

.15 Graphics changes revised for Form 1040, Page 2.

.16 Additional information has been added to the specifications for substitute envelopes.

.17 The section on Form 945 requirements for scanning has been deleted.

.18 Reference added to Form 5471, Schedule J; reference deleted for Form 5471, Schedule P. .19 The exhibit which lists the forms referenced in this document has been updated.

.20 An exhibit showing the specifications for payment voucher scanlines has been added.

.21 Various editorial changes.