SEC. 2. SPECIFICATIONS FOR

COPY A OF FORMS W–2G

.01 Color and Quality of Paper— Paper for Copy A must be white chemical wood bond, or equivalent, 20 pound (basis 17 X 22–500), plus or minus 5 percent. The paper must consist substantially of bleached chemical wood pulp and be free from unbleached or ground wood pulp or recycled printed paper. It also must be suitably sized to accept ink without feathering.

.02 Color and Quality of Ink—All printing must be in a high quality non-gloss black ink. Bar codes should be free from picks and voids.

.03 Typography—The type must be substantially identical in size and shape with that on the official form. All rules on the document are either 1/2 point (.007 inch), 1 point (0.015 inch), or 3 point (0.045). Vertical rules must be parallel to the left edge of the document; horizontal rules, to the top edge.

.04 Dimensions—The official form is 8 inches wide x 3–2/3 inches deep, exclusive of a 2/3 inch snap stub on the left side of the form. The snap feature is not required on substitutes. The top and right margins must be 1/4 inch plus or minus .0313. If the top and right margins are properly aligned, the left margin for all forms will be correct. All margins must be free of any printing. If the substitute forms are in continuous or strip form, they must be burst and stripped to conform to the size specified for a single form.

(1) The width of a substitute Copy A must be 8 inches. The left margin must be free of all printing other than that shown on the official form.

(2) The depth of a substitute Copy A must be 3–2/3 inches.

.05 Hot wax and cold carbon spots are not permitted on any of the internal form plies. These spots are permitted on

Alternative Tester

If an alternative tester is used it must be approved by the Government so that tested (PCS) values can be established with this equipment. Approval may be obtained by writing to the following address:

Commissioner of Internal Revenue Attn: HR:F:P:P Room 1237 Tax Forms Procurement Analyst 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20224 .04 Typography - Type must be substantially identical in size and shape with corresponding type on the official form. All rules are either 1/2–point or 3/4–point. Rules must be identical to that on the official IRS form. NOTE: The form identifying number must be nonreflective carbon-based black ink in OCR A Font.

.05 Dimension - Three Forms 1098, 1099, or 5498 (Copy A) are contained on a single page, except Form 1099–R, which contains two documents per page, which is 8 inches wide (exclusive of any snap-stubs and/or pinfeed holes) by 11 inches deep. There is a .33 inch top margin from the top of the corrected box, and there is a .25 inch right margin. There is a 1/32� (0.0313�) tolerance for the right margin. These measurements are constant for all Forms 1098, 1099 and 5498. The measurements will be shown only once in the exhibit section of this publication, on the Form 1098. Exceptions to these measurements will be shown on the remainder of exhibits. If the right and top margins are properly aligned, the left margin for all forms will be correct. All margins must be free of all printing. See Exhibits A through R in this publication for the correct form measurements.

.06 The depth of the individual trim size of each form on a page must be the same as that of the official form (3 2/3 inches, except 5 1/2 inches for Form 1099–R). .07 The words ‘‘For Paperwork Reduction Act Notice and instructions for completing this form, see the Instruc- tions for Forms 1099, 1098, 5498, and W–2G’’ must be printed on Copy A. The words ‘‘For more information and the Paperwork Reduction Act Notice, see the 1997 Instructions for Forms 1099, 1098, 5498, and W–2G’’ must be printed on Form 1096.

.08 The OMB Number must be printed on Copies A and Form 1096 in the same location as that on the official form.

.09 Privately printed continuous sub- stitute forms (Copy A) must be perfo- rated at each 11 - (3 per page, or 2 per page for 1099–R) page depth. No perfo- rations are allowed between the 3–2/3 forms (or 5–1/2 - for Form 1099–R) on a single copy page of Copy A.

.10 The words ‘‘ Do NOT Cut or Separate Forms on This Page ’’ must be printed in red dropout ink (as required by form specifications) between the three forms, or two forms for Forms 1099–R. NOTE: Perforations are required between all the other individual copies (Copies B and C, and Copies 1 and 2 for Form 1099–R and Form 1099–MISC, and Copy D for Form 1099–R) included in the set. .11 Chemical transfer paper is permitted for Copy A only if the following standards are met:

(1) Only chemically backed paper is acceptable for Copy A.

(2) Carbon coated forms are not permitted. Front and back chemically treated paper cannot be processed properly by machine.

(3) Chemically transferred images must be black in color.

.12 Hot wax and cold carbon spots are NOT permitted for Copy A. Interleaved carbon should be black and must be of good quality to assure legibility of information on all copies to preclude smudging. All copies must be CLEARLY LEGIBLE. Fading must not be of such a degree as to preclude legibility.

.13 Printer’s symbol—The GPO symbol must not be printed on substitute Copy A. Instead, the employer identification number (EIN) of the forms printer must be entered in the bottom margin on the face of each individual form of Copy A, or the bottom margin on the reverse side of each Form 1096. THE FORM MUST NOT CONTAIN THE STATEMENT ‘‘IRS AP- PROVED.’’

.14 A postal indicia may be used if it meets the following criteria: a) it is printed in the OCR ink color prescribed for the form; and b) no part of the indicia is within 1 print position of the scannable area.

.15 The Catalog Number (Cat. No.) shown on the 1997 forms is used for IRS distribution purposes and need not be printed on any substitute forms.

July 7, 1997 16 1997-27 I.R.B.

the back of a mailer top envelope ply. Interleaved carbons, if used, should be black and of good quality to preclude smudging.

.06 Printer’s Symbol—The Government Printing Office (GPO) symbol must not be printed on substitute Forms W–2G. Instead the employer identification number (EIN) of the forms printer must be printed in the bottom margin on the face of each individual form of Copy A of such substitute forms. The form must not contain the statement ‘‘IRS approved.’’

.07 The Catalog Number (Cat. No.) shown on the 1997 Form W–2G is used for IRS distribution purposes and need not be printed on any substitute forms.

PART D. ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR FORMS 1098, 1099, 5498, AND W–2G