Using Adobe Reader et al. to fill out IRS forms. How?

Using Adobe Reader et al. to fill out IRS forms. How?

A friend says she used to use Adobe Reader (the free version) to fill out her taxes from pdf forms provided by the IRS.

She says a few years ago it stopped working. She and I would appreciate any help you can give her on this.

Now they have a new Adobe Reader X , which Adobe says fills out pdf forms where that is enabled by the author using Adobe Acrobat or one other Adobe Product. It says that on one webpage but on another it includes "or by a similar product".

A) Is that some clever way of saying, Adobe Reader won't usually fill out a form, because too many people don't use Adobe products to write the forms?

B) Do the free versions of Adobe *reader* 9 and 10 allow one to fill in IRS forms, save them, and print them?

C) If not, what free or low-cost Windows applications do allow one to fill in IRS forms, save them, and print them?

What about state tax forms?

D) Is there a way to dl adobe reader 10, X, without AIR? AFAICT, she has no use for AIR, but it will take up space and confuse things. Here's a list of ten AIR-based apps, and neither she nor I have any use for any of them:

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E) In order to make the IRS forms adobe-reader-fillable, would the government have to buy more than one copy of Adobe Acrobat? I know they have 100's, 100's?, of forms, and probably many are finalized just in time for various deadlines, like so many months before the year ends, or before April 15, but surely they wouldn't have to give every form-writer a fully licensed Adobe Acrobat. Couldn't they have someone who did nothing but open IRS forms in Adobe Acrobabt and enable them to be Adobe-reader-fillable? And shouldn't Adobe give the government a discount or a better deal of some sort anyhow? They are doing as much as anyone to spread pdf around.

Plus it's just absurd to make them buy a license for everyone who writes or modifies forms. It drags taxpayers away from Adobe Reader and Adobe in general, and that is contrary to Adobe's interests.

Reply to
Bobby
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Does it still work with older forms from the IRS, or does it not now work at all?

I just grabbed the current 1040 and it's quite fillable. I'm still using Adobe Reader 9.

It's up to the creator to make a form fillable if he wants. He gets to specify which fields can be filled, what fonts they use, etc. He also gets to specify whether the filled-out form can be saved or only printed.

9 does, at least for the latest 1040, because the IRS set the 1040 to allow that.

It's up to the state whether the forms were created with the appropriate fill-in permissions.

No, one copy will suffice if they have one person who can create forms fast enough.

I have no idea what sort of deals Adobe and the various government may have.

Seth

Reply to
Seth

There is somethiing similar called Free Fillable Forms from the IRS. Its basically active versions of IRS forms on the web. You type numbers in the blanks. They have minimal internal arithmetic, i.e. adding lines when specified. They dont do the compilcated calculations like computer the tax table. And they link to another form should a line call for it. And it is automatically efileable.

The tax software packages provide more comprehensive and integrated tax service. And they do more calculations. I just got fed up with the endless solicitations in Turbo Tax to buy this or that new service and switched to FFF. But with FFF its possible to overlook a form. Or compute one of the more compilcated procedures incorrectly. And the tax info does not carry over from year to year.

Reply to
rick++

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