I get alot of questions about where I find material. I usually say when you spend as many hours out on the internet as I do you just run into things. But one site I have made a career in the last 15 years or so of studying is http://www.irs.gov/. I used this back when it was a bulletin board and we were requesting pubs in DOS. So I have over the years covered my fair share of the site, especially the parts that relate to payroll. But branching out is always a good thing and so I have done with the IRS site. Which brings me back around to answering questions. I am constantly asked how I know what a new form is going to look like when it has not been released for the general use by the IRS. I answer simply, I look at the draft the IRS puts out for opinions as they are required to do by statutes.
And since draft forms are an area where payroll professionals like to keep ahead of the game knowing what a new form will look like prior to it landing on your desk to complete is the best of policies. And this is where the draft forms section comes in handy.
The IRS puts all forms that it is going to release out on this section and lets everyone and anyone look at them. Right now if you went out there you could see the 2011 Form W-4, the latest version in 2010 of the Form 941X and so on. And with as much changes as forms are getting lately advance copies are nice.
Once the form gets to the draft stage it is usually set in stone for major changes. You can access this area by going to the IRS website...www.irs.gov and clicking on Tax Professionals on the top tool line. Then go down the left side under Tax Professional Topics and see "More Topics" as it is on the second page of topics. Click on this. Then scroll down the topics listed in the center of the page until you get to Draft Tax Forms Picklist. That is where all the forms are. You can review by revision date or by posted date.
Checking out this area of the IRS website is a good practice to get into especially as year end approaches.
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