Publication 1796, 2003 Federal Tax Products CD-ROM - Update
This page provides information about how to download tax products that have been revised after distribution of the CD-ROM. It also contains special notices of interest to Tax Products CD-ROM users.

Late Tax Forms, Instructions, and Publications

Customers should download tax products that were revised and issued after the issuance of the Tax Products CD-ROM. The cut-off dates for the content of the two CDs were:

• First release: December 15, 2003
• Second/final release: February 25, 2004

Not all tax products are included on the CD-ROM due to scheduling conflicts or late legislation. Tax Products issued after the final release of Publication 1796 are available at Forms and Publications by Date

Special Notices Regarding the First Release of the CD-ROM

1st Release Fillable Forms

Due to a coordination error during the production of the first release of the Tax Products CD-ROM, some of the forms listed as "fillable" were not. Fillable versions of the affected forms are provided on the second/final release of the CD, and at IRS Fill-In Forms. We sincerely regret any inconvenience this may have caused.

Product Delay:

A significant delay occurred during the production of the first release of the CD-ROM which was beyond IRS's control. Every measure was taken to limit the extent of the delay and expedite delivery of the Tax Products CD-ROM to our customers. Extensive measures are being taken to eliminate any reoccurence in the future. We wish to extend our most sincere apology to those negatively affected by the delay.

The final release of the CD-ROM is being produced and distributed notably later than planned. This is due to lingering effects of the delays experienced during the first release.

Announcement Regarding Fillable PDF Forms on the 2003 Tax Products CD-ROM

IRS is pleased to announce two significant enhancements to all tax forms provided in a fillable PDF format.

• Fillable PDF forms have been enhanced with "document rights" which allow users of the form to SAVE the completed form with the user's data to a local storage device (e.g. hard drive) with e freely-distributed version of Adobe Reader (formerly Acrobat Reader) software. A current release of Adobe Reader software is included on the Tax Products CD-ROM or may be obtained from the Adobe web site.

The ability to freely and easily save completed tax forms to a hard drive offers our customers a wonderful opportunity to archive their tax records electronically.

• Included on the final release of the 2003 Tax Products CD-ROM is a section illustrating a new 2-Dimensional (2-D) barcoding technology. Currently in a development effort, examples of the barcode technology are provided with special versions of Forms 1041 Schedule K-1, Form 1065 Schedule K-1, and Form 1120S Schedule K-1. For further details, please see the 2D barcode section on the 2003 Tax Products CD-ROM or visit Two Dimensional (2D) Bar Coding.