In a bid to comply with IRS requirements, attaching PDF documents to certain tax returns may be necessary so as to provide more information about the return. The IRS may reject returns that are transmitted minus the required documentation forcing a retransmission of the return with the required attachments. PDFs are referred to as binary attachments by the reject codes.
Where to attach documents for Form 1040
Proof of dependent personal information:
Records for a dependent child without a SSN who was born and died within the tax year are some of the documents attached in this section. The records will be needed if you indicate, in the dependent’s SSN page, that they died during the tax year.
To attach the death certificate of a dependent:
- Go to the Main Menu of a tax return and Select Basic Information
- Proceed to Dependents/Qualifying Person
- In the Dependents Menu - Next to Death Certificate, click Begin
- You can upload the required PDFs or simply drag and drop them. The document must be titled Death Certificate to avoid an IRS rejection.
- Click on the Attachment List button that is at the bottom right of the page.
- To view the document, click on the edit button. The return will be shown in the same window. To go back to the tax return, click on the back browser button.
- Click Continue to go back to the Dependents Menu
Form 1099-B (Form 8949) - includes various short and long term stock transactions:
To attach a PDF document of these transactions:
- Go to the Main Menu of a tax return and select Income
- Proceed to Capital Gains and Losses
- Select PDF attachments
- You can either upload the PDFs or drag and drop them. You can only upload a maximum of 4 PDF files that are upto 5MB each.
- Click on the Attachment List at the bottom right of the page.
- To view the document, click on the edit icon. The return will be shown in the same window. To go back to the tax return, click on the back browser button.
- To go back to the Income menu, click Continue.
Preparer Note for Information that is not in PDF form:
In the event that a taxpayer or a preparer wants to communicate any information to the IRS that is not needed in the tax return, they can do so by including a preparer note in the tax return.
To add a preparer note:
- Go to the Federal Section of a tax return
- Proceed to Miscellaneous Forms
- Then to Explanations
- From there, go to Preparer Notes
Troubleshooting Tips:
- The only file format allowed is PDF
- For those returns that are rejected due to the absence of an attachment during transmission of a return, ensure that the document is attached in the right location.
- Attachments included in the initial filing are not to be reattached in an amended return.
Note: This is not tax advice. It is a guide on how to enter PDF attachments into the Taxx Savage ProWeb.
Additional information: