IRS Package X Soon to Be Obsolete

As part of cost-cutting measures and a move toward online services, the Internal Revenue Service will no longer mail out its compilation of federal tax forms and instructions for tax professionals, known as Package X.

In the past, tax professionals were able to order and receive a free copy of the packet from the IRS, and firms were allowed to order multiple copies to provide one for each employee.

To reduce the $1.8 million in printing and mailing costs associated with Package X and to support the agency's transition to electronic media and communications, the IRS said that Package X will become obsolete in the summer of 2005. The IRS plans to eliminate the Tax Professional Mailing List in calendar year 2006 , because with the obsolescence of Package X, it won't need to maintain a mailing list.

Individual tax products are available online at http://www.irs.gov and from other commercial and government sources. Publication 1796, IRS Tax Products (a CD-ROM equivalent to Package X) is sold by both the Superintendent of Documents under the Government Printing Office and the National Technical Information System under the U .S. Department of Commerce. The IRS will mail one final copy of Publication 1045, Tax Professionals Guide to Federal Tax Products, in late summer 2005, which will contain order blanks from the two government agencies cited above, communications from various IRS stakeholders, and a listing of current Web site addresses.

Through the early summer of 2006, the IRS said that it will collect and update mailing list data (including e-mail addresses) and provide the TPML to the Government Printing Office and the National Technical Information System one last time for future communications and marketing regarding published products.