Rev. Proc. 61-31

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 of Federal tax return forms and schedules for filing purposes in lieu of the official forms and schedules.

SEC. 2 SPECIFICATIONS

Subject to the conditions enumerated in section 3 below, the Service will accept, for filing purposes, reproduced copies of any of the following tax return forms and schedules:

Employee's Withholding Exemption Certificate, Form W-4

U.S. Estate Tax Return, Form 706

U.S. Gift Tax Return, Form 709

Life Insurance Statement, Form 712

Claim, Form 843

U.S. Exempt Cooperative Association Income Tax Return, Form 990-C

U.S. Return of Employees' Trust Described in Section 401(a) and Exempt Under Section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, Form 990-P

U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040

Supplemental Schedule of Income and Credits, Schedule B (Form 1040)

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

Gains and Losses from Sales or Exchanges of Property, Schedule D (Form 1040)

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

Declaration of Estimated Tax, Form 1040-ES

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

U.S. Fiduciary Income Tax Return, Form 1041

Allocation of Accumulation Distribution, Schedule J (Form 1041)

U.S. Partnership Return of Income, Form 1065

Gains and Losses from Sales or Exchanges of Property, Schedule D (Form 1065)

Statement in Support of Credit Claimed by Domestic Corporation for Taxes Paid or Accrued to a Foreign Country or a Possession of the United States, Form 1118

U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return, Form 1120

Schedule of Gains and Losses From Sales or Exchanges of Property, Schedule D (Form 1120)

U.S. Small Business Corporation Return of Income, Form 1120-S

Gains and Losses from Sales or Exchanges of Property, Schedule D (Form 1120-S)

Return of Information and Authorization and Consent of Subsidiary Corporation Included in a United States Consolidated Income Tax Return, Form 1122

Statement for the Purpose of Extending Time for Payment of Taxes by Corporations Expecting Carrybacks, Form 1138

Application for Tentative Carryback Adjustment, Form 1139

SEC. 3. CONDITIONS

.01 Reproductions must be facsimiles of the official form, produced by photo-offset, photoengraving, photocopying, or other similar reproduction process.

.02 Reproductions must be on paper of substantially the same weight and texture and of a quality at least as good as that used in the official form.

.03 Reproductions must substantially duplicate the colors of the paper and/or ink of the official form in order to be acceptable.

.04 Reproductions must have a high standard of legibility, both as to original form and as to filled-in matter. The Internal Revenue Service reserves the right to reject any reproductions with poor legibility, to withdraw the benefits of this Revenue Procedure from any firm or individual, and to reject any process which fails to meet these standards.

.05 Reproductions of Schedule C-3 and Schedule F-1, Form 1040, which contain Schedule SE, U.S. Report of Self-Employment Income, musts be on properly perforated paper of substantially the same weight and texture as that used in the official form.

.06 Reproductions can be the same size as that of the official form. However, the standard commercial size of 8-1/2 x 11 (as noted in columns 2 and 3 of table in section 5 below) will be accepted, but no tolerances will be permitted in the image size of printed material.

SEC. 4. 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 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.

.03 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 Service must be original signatures, affixed subsequent to the reproduction process.

.04 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: D:S:P, Washington 25, D.C., for consideration.

SEC. 5. PHYSICAL ASPECTS

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

                                                  Tolerances

The Service, upon application, will furnish one set of black and white proofs to be used as the reproducible media in the printing of forms. These proofs, for which separate requests must be received annually, will be supplied free of charge to all concerns in the forms reproduction business. Reproduction proofs are available only for the following forms:

         W-4                               1065

SEC. 7. EFFECT ON OTHER DOCUMENTS

This Revenue Procedure supersedes Revenue Procedure 60-27, C.B. 1960-2, 1003.