The End of the Paper Era: IRS Discontinues Package X

In another sign that the times-they-are-a-changing, the IRS has announced that it is doing away with the once-popular Package X, the bound copy of tax forms sent to practitioners annually free of charge.

To reduce costs ($1.8 million in printing and mailing) and to support the IRS transition to electronic media and communications, PKG X will be obsolete in the summer of 2005. In calendar year 2006, IRS plans to eliminate the Tax Professional Mailing List (TPML) because with the obsolescence of PKG X, IRS will no longer have a need to maintain a mailing list.

The IRS offers this advice to practitioners for the post-Package X world:

Individual tax products are available on-line at www.irs.gov and from other commercial and government sources. Publication 1796, IRS Tax Products (a CD-ROM equivalent to PKG X), is sold by both the Superintendent of Documents under the Government Printing Office (GPO) and the National Technical Information System (NTIS) under the US Department of Commerce. In late summer 2005, IRS will mail one final copy of Publication 1045, Tax Professionals Guide to Federal Tax Products. This last version will contain order blanks from the two government agencies cited above, as well as communications from various IRS stakeholders and a listing of current web site addresses. Through the early summer of 2006, IRS will collect and update mailing list data (including email addresses) and provide the TPML to GPO and NTIS one last time for future communications and marketing regarding published products.