SEC. 9. GENERAL GUIDELINES

.01 The Official Form is the Standard. Because a substitute form is a variation from the official form, you should know the requirements of the official form for the year of use before you modify it to meet your needs. The Service provides several means of obtaining the most frequently used tax forms. These include the sale of a CD–ROM, and access to an electronic forms bulletin board (See Part A, Section 17–19).

.02 Design. Each form must follow the design of the official form as to format arrangement, item caption, line numbers, line references, and sequence.

.03 State Tax Information Prohibited. State tax information must not appear (be visible) on the federal tax return or associated form or schedule which is filed with the Internal Revenue Service, except where amounts are claimed on or required by the federal return, e.g., line 5, Schedule A (Form 1040). (See Part A, Sec. 14.03 Block Out Methods.)

.04 Federal and State Columns. When a form is designed with both federal and state columns, the federal column must be to the left of the state column and adjacent to the line caption. Again, state tax information must not be on a federal tax form.

.05 Vertical Alignment of Amount Fields.

1 When a form is to be computerprepared, you may remove the vertical line in the amount field that separates dollars from cents. When a form is to be computer-generated, vertically align the amount entry fields where possible. You must also use one of the ten-character amount formats shown in Part B, Sec. 3.04. 2 If the possibility exists that a form may be manually prepared, the federal column must have a vertical line or some type of indicator in the amount field to separate dollars from cents if the official form has a vertical line. The cents column must be at least ² ⁄10 inch wide.

.06 Attachment Sequence Number. Please note that most individual income tax forms have an ‘‘attachment sequence number’’ located just below the year designation in the upper right corner of the form. The Service uses this number to indicate the order in which forms are to be attached to the tax return so they may be processed in that order. On computer-prepared forms it must be printed in no less than 12-point boldface type and centered below the form’s year designation. On computer-generated forms, place the sequence number following the year designation for the tax form and separate with an asterisk. It is not necessary to duplicate the ‘‘Attachment Sequence Number’’ wording, except for the actual number. (See Forms Exhibits at end of this Revenue Procedure.)

.07 Attachment Sequence Numbers Required. The attachment sequence number is required on most IRS forms. Please note that some of the numbers necessarily change each year. The specific sequence numbers used on official IRS forms must be duplicated on the representative substitute form. If a sequence number is not provided on the official form, it is not required on a substitute of that form either.

.08 Paid Preparer’s Information and Signature Area. On Forms 1040EZ, 1040A, 1040, and 1120, etc., the ‘‘Paid Preparer’s Use Only’’ area may not be rearranged or relocated. You may, however, add three extra lines to the paid preparer’s address area without prior approval. This applies to other tax forms as well. Please note that the preparer’s area on Form 1040EZ is on the bottom of Page 2. Substitute Forms 1040EZ with the preparer area on Page 1 or in a different location on Page 2 will not be accepted.

.09 Assembly of Forms. If developing software or forms for use by others, please inform your customers/clients that the order in which the forms are arranged may affect the processing of the package. A return must be arranged in this order: (1) the tax return, (2) Form 1040: schedules and forms in sequence number order; all others (Forms 1120, 1120S, 1065, 1041, etc.): lettered schedules (Schedule D, etc.) in alphabetical order and numbered forms in numerical order (Forms 2220, 4626, etc.), (3) supporting statements in the same sequence as the forms they support, and (4) additional information required or voluntarily submitted. In this way, they are received in the order in which they must be processed. If you do not send them to us in this order, the Service has to delay the return package to disassemble them and place them in this order before processing is continued.