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When tax season rolls around, people and businesses alike are busy collecting vital information from the past year for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to review. Businesses have a unique set of tax forms that they need to submit before their tax records can be accepted, including Form 1096.
1096 tax forms can’t be downloaded from the IRS website, because they have to be in a scannable format and contain fields that the IRS uses to track compliance with entity and payee form submissions. Additionally, 1096 tax forms are only available for paper submissions and not an electronic tax return. Entities are required to use the printed 1096 tax form available from manufacturers certified by the IRS, like Staples.
Learn more about Form 1096 and the requirements your business needs to keep in mind by reading more below.
What is IRS Form 1096 Used for?
Form 1096, the Annual Summary and Transmittal of US Information Returns form, provides the IRS with details about one or more of seven different types of tax information that need to be submitted on behalf of your business or institution in paper form.
The seven types are:- Form 1097 (Bond Tax Credits)
- Form 1098 (Mortgage Interest Statement)
- Form 1099 (Miscellaneous Income)
- Form 3921 (Exercise of an Incentive Stock Option)
- Form 3922 (Transfer of Stock Acquired through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan)
- Form 5498 (IRA Contribution Information)
- Form W-2G (Certain Gambling Winnings)
Essentially, Form 1096 serves as a summary or cover sheet that will introduce the other financial information that a company or institution is sending to the IRS for a given year. If you’re planning on submitting 250 information returns or more of a single type for a calendar year, the IRS will require you to submit them electronically and you can bypass Form 1096.
What are “Information Returns”?
Information returns are mandatory tax forms that businesses, health insurance providers, financial institutions, and universities submit to the IRS for the purposes of disclosing their tax liability.
What are the Benefits of a Form 1096?
These packs of 1096 forms are especially useful if you need more than the few that are included with the pack of 1099s. They’re very compatible with QuickBooks and other accounting software and are inkjet and laser printer compatible. They come in white and have scannable red ink required by the IRS for paper filing. Their acid-free paper and heat-resistant inks produce smudge-free, archival-safe records.