January 2000

FAQs, cyberspeak for "frequently asked questions," is a feature of The Trusted Professional that answers common questions about http://www.nysscpa.org. Members can post inquiries and comments about the Society's website by clicking on the Technical Problems and Website Suggestions links at the bottom of the home page.

During this busy tax season, the Society receives many questions regarding tax forms and publications. The following are recent inquiries posed to website editors:

Where do I go in order to download tax forms from the Society website?

To download tax forms from the Society website, go to the Find It Fast menu on the home page and click on Professional Library for a drop-down menu of its contents. Underneath, you will find options for, among other things, federal, New York state, and New York City tax forms. Select your option and click the Go button to access an exhaustive library of tax forms and publications.

I can download tax forms directly from the IRS's home page or from the New York state government website. Why should I go to nysscpa.org for them?

If you have attempted to download these forms from the IRS, especially during the brunt of the tax season, you have no doubt noticed it takes a long time for the pages and forms to load. This is because of the enormous amount of traffic these sites generate around tax time. We have taken the wait out of your download by putting these forms on the less-trafficked NYSSCPA server, where you will find that because of less "net congestion," there is less of a wait to get what you need.

I recently attempted to download tax forms from www.nysscpa.org, but I kept receiving an "error" message. In fact, I had the same result when I attempted to download forms directly from the IRS and New York state sites. Do I need special software in order to download the forms?

Yes, you do. Because all the tax forms are available in ".PDF" format (portable document format), you will need the latest copy of the Adobe Acrobat Reader software in order to view and download tax forms and publications from any of the above-mentioned sites. The latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader (version 4.05) allows users to actually edit the forms online, instead of having to print the forms out and manually fill them in. You can download this free software at www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html.

I represent clients with respect to tax issues in states other than New York, so I often need tax forms and publications from those other states. Is there any way to access other state tax forms from the Society's website?

Although other state forms are not physically located on our server--as opposed to the New York state and federal forms, which are on http://www.nysscpa.org--you can still access tax forms and publications from states other than New York through the Society's website. Simply go to the Find It Fast menu on the home page and click on Professional Library for a drop-down menu, and select the State and Local Taxation option. Click the Go button, which will bring you to a page with links to all 50 states and Puerto Rico, where you can download their tax forms and publications.

The website staff thanks you for all your questions and encourages members to send their questions and comments to us at staff@nysscpa.org. You may also contact our website editing staff via the main Society numbers, (212) 719-8300 or (800) 633-6320. *