J.K. Lasser's Small Business Taxes 2013: Your Complete Guide to a Better Bottom Line

Online Filing of Other Business Returns

At present, employment tax returns and employee benefit returns are not required to be filed online. Certain information returns must be filed online by certain taxpayers—others who are not required to do so may choose to file online.

Employment Tax Returns

Employment tax returns may be filed electronically. These include:

• Form 940, Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return
• Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return
• Form 944, Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return

You must request IRS authorization to participate in the e-file program for employment returns. You do so by submitting a letter of application (LOA)—on paper or electronically—to the IRS requesting authorization to participate. Letter of application and other e-file information about employment forms can be found in IRS Publication 3715, Technical Specifications Guide for Electronic Filing of Form 940, Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return (which contains a sample LOA) when filing Form 940, and IRS Revenue Procedure 2001-9 (see Internal Revenue Bulletin 2001-3 at page 328, for Form 941).

If you need any technical help with e-filing these returns, contact the Electronic Filing Help Desk in Austin, Texas, at [phone], or Memphis, Tennessee, at [phone] ext. 7519.

Information Returns

You may choose to submit certain information returns to the IRS electronically even though you must provide paper returns to your employees or others. ...