Stapling Redux

If you are paper filing, each attached Form and Schedule has an Attachment Number on the upper right.

I do recommend stapling. Additional Numbered Statements should start with Name/SSN/"Form 1040"/TaxYear/Statement Number/ Brief Description of Statement, and they after the last Form/schedule.

If paper filing you should always staple everything together, in proper order, unless specifically instructed NOT to do so. Otherwise there is a risk that pages will be separated and lost, resulting in questions, correspondence, etc.

It's likely that when your unstapled paper return is processed, somebody at the IRS staples it together. And swears at you.

Katie in San Diego

That tells you something right there. I have never had a problem or heard of a client problem regarding stapling, either.

Where would that instruction come from? I don't recall seeing it in the standard form instructions anywhere, nor on any IRS letter to a taxpayer.

Otherwise

Somehow I want to believe that the first thing that happens when the paper envelope is opened, is that the documents are scanned to digital format. Wouldn't that argue against stapling?

I guess the details of how physical, paper-based returns are processed are a closely guarded secret. No one ever seems to know for sure if the IRS wants stapled or not, paper clipped or not, amended 1040 attached to

1040X or not, 1040X attached to CP 2000 response or not, etc.

There is a section in the 1040 instructions telling you how to assemble the return. It says to "attach" schedules, forms, and supporting statements.

New Jersey, on the other hand, specifically states "do not staple" forms together.

It's not a closely guarded secret. All the details of how the IRS processes paperwork are available in the Internal Revenue Manual. The first thing that is done when an envelope is opened is to make sure the contents are stapled together in the proper sequence.

Ira Smilovitz

I did a quick search and found two examples:

Form 1040V says this: Do not staple or otherwise attach the payment or Form

1041-V to the return or to each other. Instead, just put them loose in an envelope.

On the top-right of form 1040, is this: IRS Use Only?Do not write or staple in this space.

paperwork are available in the Internal Revenue Manual. The first thing that is done when an envelope is opened is to make sure the contents are stapled together in the proper sequence.

Thanx, I thought it might require a FOIA request!! ;-)

My next idle curiosity is when (or whether) paper filed returns do get scanned to computer file? Maybe that only happens when a Form 4506 is filed (probably not that often). At some point the staple has to be removed to make copies.

And if returns are actually stored by the IRS in paper form, wouldn't staples wreak havoc with neatly stacking and cramming paper into storage containers?

In any case, I'd like to know which brand and model of stapler the IRS uses, I've read discussions on other boards about tax pro's and their favorite staplers.

[mostly snipped]

That information, I'm afraid, is highly confidential.

Ira Smilovitz

The Government issue stapler, for years, was the all-metal, made in USA, Swingline 400:

patented in 1952:

The one I acquired in another life:

though worn and rusted, is used daily without issue.

The 1990s brought to IRS an influx of the plastic-bodied, easily broken, often misfiring staplers now available in most office supply stores.

The key words are "in this space." It is okay to staple in other spaces. Also note, that you may be required to attach your W-2, W-2G and

1099-R to your return. The 1040 tells you exactly where to attach it. I have always interpreted the word "attach" to mean staple rather than glue or clip.

Should you fail to attach your W-2 exactly where they say to attach it, you can expect two IRS revenue agents to knock down your door and seize your computers.

On 5/24/2011 1:02 PM, Alan wrote: ...

Along the vein, many years ago a coworker who was shall we say, "peeved" at the IRS over perceived injury from previous encounter in the like of the payer using the gunny sack full of pennies in protest stapled all the pages of the entire form on all four sides in an edge-to-edge wall before sending it in.

We all expected _very_bad_things_ (tm) to happen in response, but he never heard word "boo" about the return and the check (also stapled firmly) was cashed. (As another noted in another posting, I suspect some clerk cursed him out roundly but one would presume it wouldn't have been the first time such had been done given the number of returns filed and, of course, this was long before the days of electronic filing).