Anyone notice that the IRS abandoned the new version of Form 1040X?
The one that had only one column?
They haven't updated all of their "collateral" yet. On the IRS website, Tax Topic 308, Amended Returns, still refers to the form that was "redesigned for tax year 2009," and claims that with the new form it is "easier to make changes to previously filed returns."
As I write this, Tax Topic 308 says that the page was last reviewed or updated on February 7, 2011.
But the current version of Form 1040X found on the IRS website now has the "classic" format, with a revision date of December 2010. The version that had only one column had a revision date of January 2010.
Apparently, the "New Form 1040X" didn't last very long.
For those of us, like me, who have been doing income taxes for 20 years or more, and who have prepared dozens of amended returns by hand...
Well... Altering the three-column format of Form 1040X was sacrilege.
Blasphemy.
Heresy.
High Treason!
I suspect that most of the complaints that led to scrapping the new version came from within the IRS.
For those that haven't been around that long, who have never had the epiphany that comes with completing a three-column 1040X by hand, here is a brief history of the form, in all its heavenly glory:
Some say that the three columns of Form 1040X correspond to the Father, Son, and--
Okay, never mind.
BMK
The one that had only one column?
They haven't updated all of their "collateral" yet. On the IRS website, Tax Topic 308, Amended Returns, still refers to the form that was "redesigned for tax year 2009," and claims that with the new form it is "easier to make changes to previously filed returns."
As I write this, Tax Topic 308 says that the page was last reviewed or updated on February 7, 2011.
But the current version of Form 1040X found on the IRS website now has the "classic" format, with a revision date of December 2010. The version that had only one column had a revision date of January 2010.
Apparently, the "New Form 1040X" didn't last very long.
For those of us, like me, who have been doing income taxes for 20 years or more, and who have prepared dozens of amended returns by hand...
Well... Altering the three-column format of Form 1040X was sacrilege.
Blasphemy.
Heresy.
High Treason!
I suspect that most of the complaints that led to scrapping the new version came from within the IRS.
For those that haven't been around that long, who have never had the epiphany that comes with completing a three-column 1040X by hand, here is a brief history of the form, in all its heavenly glory:
Some say that the three columns of Form 1040X correspond to the Father, Son, and--
Okay, never mind.
BMK
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