Reproduced/Substitute Forms Approval Process
Getting Approval
Any company or individual that designs and/or markets substitute/reproduced tax forms must get approval from the department. Income Tax forms must be approved each year as they are reviewed annually (ex: IL-1040, Schedule NR, etc.). It is incumbent upon the company or individual to maintain the current version of any other department form that is being reproduced or used (ex: ST-1, RMFT-5, etc.).
The Illinois Department of Revenue
does not require
a Letter of Intent prior to submissions, and does not have a specific
deadline for submissions of income tax forms.
It is preferred that forms be submitted for review prior to distribution,
release to customers/clients, or use of form. A form that has not
been approved, but is included in the release of a product, must
have a prominent notice on the form stating that it has not been
approved for filing and should not be filed. The department reserves
the right to deny and/or reject any form that does not follow the
guidelines specified in this document. Filers of unapproved forms
may be subject to penalties and interest under the Uniform Penalty
and Interest Act.
For Non-Scannable forms and those with a Bar-code (those without a scan
line), a PDF file sent as an attachment through email, is the preferred
method of submission. The files need to be submitted in the following
formats:
- One PDF file per form.
- Recognizable name for each file.
For example, if you are sending the IL-1040, Schedule F, and the IL-1041, the department should receive three
PDF files with names such as IL1040.pdf or 1040.pdf,
and so forth. By submitting these files in this type of a format,
reduces processing time on our end, speeding up the time for approvals.
For Scannable forms (those with a scan line),
5 examples with unique sample taxpayer data will need to be mailed
to the department for approval for testing purposes. If the tax
type is such that has varying liability periods, then there should
be a variety in the 5 examples. These samples should also be cut
to size and separated by form type (IL-1040-ES’s in one group
and IL-1040-V’s in a separate group).
We will notify you by email once the form is reviewed, generally within 5-8 business days. (We do not send confirmation of
receipt of forms for emails, faxes, or hard copies.) If the form is not approved, you will need to resubmit the form for
approval. Please mark your second email as “Resubmission” in the subject area, as these will be given higher priority than
first submissions. Your three digit identification number must appear on each form submitted for approval. This identifi cation
number must be placed on the bottom left corner of the form near the revision date in the following format: ID: 999.
For Scannable forms (those with a scan line), 5 examples with unique sample taxpayer data needs to be mailed to the
department for testing approval. If the tax type has varying liability periods, there should be a variety in the 5 examples.
These samples should also be cut to size and separated by form type (IL-1040-ES in one group and IL-1040-V in a
separate group).
We will notify you of the results, by email, once the forms are reviewed and tested. (We do not send confi rmation of receipt
of forms for emails, faxes, or hard copies.) If the form is not approved, you will need to make the necessary changes and
resubmit the forms for testing.
Once the department approves a form, a three digit identification number (if not previously issued) is assigned to the
producer of the form. This identifi cation number must be placed on the top of the form under the form name in the following
format: ID: 999. The identifi cation number for he ST-1 must also be placed on the top part of the return as well (the ST-1
return and coupon are separated in processing).
Note: The response time for forms approvals both non-scannable and scannable forms, will be longer during our peak
times, which is December, January and February. We recommend submitting forms for approval as they are released as “DRAFTS” under the secured area on our Web site.
Draft Approvals
Income Tax draft forms are usually released beginning in August. We post them to our Web site (usually a link from the Tax
Professionals page to “200X DRAFT FORMS”. This is a secured area and you must obtain a user name and password
from the Forms Approval Contact Vickie Harvey. Submitted drafts for approval are considered “Approved Pending
Legislation”. If the form doesn’t change, the approval will stand in December, when forms in Illinois are usually made final
for public use, and you will not need to resubmit them. However if the form changes before December or due to any
legislation, you will need to resubmit the form for approval. You should not release to your customers any draft form that is
approved, until the form is made final. We do not review or approve the logic of specific software programs or confirm the calculations entered on substitute forms
output from software programs. The accuracy of software programs is the responsibility of the software developer,
distributor, or user.
Secondary Software Companies
Companies that purchase forms software from another software vendor must get approval from the department if the form
is scannable (thus inserting the variable data with logic they program into the software). In this case, companies will have
their own identifi ation number with Illinois for their approved forms. If the form is non-scannable, and the vendor they
purchased the forms software from has already received approval for the forms in Illinois, then the company is not required
to seek further approval. However, if companies wish to have their name placed on our “Approved Software Developers” list, they need to send an email to the contact above, with the forms listed and from what company they bought those
forms.
Once reviewed and/or tested (vouchers), you will be notified by
email within 5-10 business days normally. (We do not send confirmation
of receipt of forms for emails, faxes, or hard copies.) If the form
is not approved, you will need to resubmit the form for approval.
Please mark your second email as “Resubmission” in the
subject area, as these will be given higher priority than first
submissions. Upon approval of a form by the department, a four digit
identification number (if not previously issued) will be assigned
to the producer of the form. This identification number must be
placed on the bottom left corner of the form near the revision date
(for non-scannable forms) and at the top left under the form name
(for scannable forms/vouchers) in the following format: ID: 9999.
Note: The response times listed for forms
approvals, for non-scannable and scannable forms, will be longer
during peak times (December - February).
For more detailed information on reproducing forms - please see
our
Guidelines.
Forms Approval Contact
All forms to be reviewed should be directed to:
Vickie Harvey
vickie.harvey@illinois.gov
Office of Publications Management/Web Services, 3-375
Illinois Department of Revenue
101 West Jefferson Street
Springfield, Illinois 62702
217 524-0091 Phone
217 524-0513 Fax
