The Service provides guidance for the approval and acceptance of computer–prepared and computer–generated tax forms that are filed by individual taxpayers and tax practitioners.

In all cases these substitute tax forms must have official approval prior to their use, and must be designed under specifically prescribed and limited Service guidelines. For those of you who have previously used the substitute tax form, Form 1040PC, please note that this format is no longer being accepted by the IRS. You are encouraged to use the fastest, most accurate way to file your income tax return – IRS e–file.

If you want to produce your own version of a tax form, you should first obtain a copy of IRS Publication 1167 (PDF), Substitute Printed, Computer–Prepared and Computer–Generated Tax Forms and Schedules. This document describes the general requirements for designing and submitting all such forms for approval and is updated annually to coincide with the current tax year.

You may request Publication 1167. This publication cross–references other similar, related publications that are available for certain specialized substitute forms that differ from normal form size, that require multi–part paper stock, or that have other similarly unique features (such as Forms W–2, l099, and so forth). Publication 1167 also provides actual examples and layouts of some of the most used IRS forms.

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