Rev. Proc. 74-44

Section 1. Purpose.

The purpose of this Revenue Procedure is to restate the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service relating to the preparation of acceptable reproductions and private printing of substitutes for Federal tax return forms and schedules for filing purposes in lieu of the official forms and schedules.

Sec. 2. General Instructions.

.01 When filing reproduced or privately printed Federal tax returns and schedules use the preaddressed label on the copy that is filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

.02 State tax information must not appear on the Federal tax return which is filed with the Internal Revenue Service Center, except when the amount paid is claimed on Schedule A (Form 1040) as a deduction.

Sec. 3. Specifications.

.01 Subject to the conditions enumerated in Section 5, the Service will accept, for filing purposes, reproduced copies of any of the following tax return forms and schedules: U.S. Estate Tax Return, Form 706.

U.S. Quarterly Gift Tax Return, Form 709.

Claim, Form 843.

U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040.

Itemized Deductions AND Dividends and Interest Income, Schedules A&B (Form 1040).

Profit or (Loss) From Business or Profession, Schedule C (Form 1040).

Capital Gains and Losses, Schedule D (Form 1040).

Supplemental Income Schedule AND Retirement Income Credit Computation, Schedules E&R (Form 1040).

Farm Income and Expenses, Schedule F (Form 1040).

Income Averaging, Schedule G (Form 1040).

Computation of Social Security Self-employment Tax, Schedule SE (Form 1040).

U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Short Form 1040A.

U.S. Departing Alien Income Tax Return, Form 1040C.

U.S. Fiduciary Income Tax Return, Form 1041.

Capital Gains and Losses, Schedule D (Form 1041).

Beneficiary's Share of Income, Deductions, and Credits, Schedule K-1 (Form 1041).

Allocation of Accumulation Distribution, Schedule J (Form 1041).

U.S. Partnership Return of Income, Form 1065.

Partner's Share Income, Credits, Deductions, etc., Schedule K-1 (Form 1065).

U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return, Form 1120.

Capital Gains and Losses, Schedule D (Form 1120).

U.S. Small Business Corporation Income Tax Return, Form 1120S.

Capital Gains and Losses, Schedule D (Form 1120S).

.02 Specifications.--Basic specifications such as margin, pagination, etc., will be printed in the margins of the reproduction proofs and must be removed before printing. The official reproduction proof margins across the top, bottom and sides must be maintained on all reproductions and privately printed Federal tax returns and schedules.

Sec. 4. Physical Aspects.

The conditions with respect to size, number of printed pages, quality of paper, and color of both paper and ink are as follows:

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------

² Forms cannot exceed sizes shown, nor be less than size of official forms.

³ This is a 3-part snapout with a 1/2- to 3/4-inch left-hand stub.

/*/ If approval is necessary, the cut-off date is December 20 of the current year.

/**/ When reproduced or privately printed, Form 1040A must be back-to-back, or page 2 face-to-back of page 1 so as to have a form that is read left to right for Service Center processing without flipping top-to-bottom.

SEC. 5. CONDITIONS.

.01 Reproductions and privately printed substitutes must meet the following conditions:

(a) Must be facsimiles of the official forms produced by photo-offset, photo-engraving, photocopying, or other similar reproduction process.

(b) Must be on chemical wood writing paper equal or better than the quality used for the official forms. The thickness of the stock cannot be less than 0.0030 inch.

(c) Must substantially duplicate the colors of the paper and ink of the official form in order to be accepted, except that Form 1040 reproductions may be in black ink.

.02 Reproductions must have a high standard of legibility, both as to original form and as to filled-in matter. The Service reserves the right to reject any reproductions with poor legibility.

.03 Reproductions and privately printed substitutes may be the same size as that of the official form; however, the standard commercial size of 81/2 x 11 (as noted in columns 2 and 3 of table in Section 4) will be accepted. The image size of printed material should be as close as possible to that of the official form.

.04 Reproductions of official forms and substitute forms which do not meet the requirements of this Revenue Procedure may not be filed in lieu of the official forms. They may, however, be filed as supporting statements to provide detail and explain entries made on the official forms. The supporting statements must furnish all required information in the same sequence as called for on the official forms and be attached to the form in the same order as the entries appear on the official forms. Supporting statements must conform to the size of the form to which they apply. The totals on all supporting statements must also be entered on the appropriate official forms.

.05 While it is preferred that both sides of the paper be used in making reproductions, resulting in the same page arrangement as that of the official form, the Service will not object if only one side of the paper is used or if the reproduction has a different fold than that provided on the official form.

Sec. 6. Additional Instructions.

.01 The Service ordinarily does not undertake to approve or disapprove the specific equipment or process used in reproducing official forms, but requires only that the reproduced forms and schedules satisfy the stated conditions.

.02 Reproductions of forms may be made after insertion of the tax computations and other required information. However, all signatures on forms to be filed with the Internal Revenue Service must be original signatures, affixed subsequent to the reproduction process.

.03 Reproductions of forms and schedules meeting the above conditions may be used without the prior approval of the Service. However, if specific approval of a reproduction of any such form or schedule is desired, or if the use of a reproduction of any form or schedule not listed herein or otherwise specifically authorized is desired, a sample of the proposed reproduction should be forwarded, by letter, to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Attention: ACTS: T:P, 1111 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20224, for consideration. The cut-off date for submitting a request for approval of a reproduction is December 20 of the current year.

Sec. 7. Reproduction Proofs.

Order blanks for reproduction proofs will be mailed to requesters of record and, on request, to prospective users. Printers and others wishing to obtain reproduction proofs may send their requests to the Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service, Washington, D.C. 20224, Attention: A:FM:P.

A charge of $0.75 per page will be made for each reproduction proof regardless of page size. After an order has been filled, invoices will be mailed to the consignee.

Reproduction proofs are available for the following forms:

 Form                                Form

This Revenue Procedure supersedes Rev. Proc. 73-31, 1973-2 C.B. 485.