Modernized e-File (MeF) is an electronic system for filing

tax returns A tax return is the completion of documentation that calculates an entity or individual's income earned and the amount of taxes to be paid to the government or government organizations or, potentially, back to the taxpayer. Taxation is one of ...

with the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

(IRS) of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The MeF system describes tax forms in terms of

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. T ...

and supports web-based filing. Modernized e-File was originally introduced in 2004, exclusively for corporate tax returns. Initially, there was only support for

Form 1120 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax forms are forms used for taxpayers and tax-exempt organizations to report financial information to the Internal Revenue Service of the United States. They are used to report income, calculate taxes to be paid t ...

and related forms, but each year additional corporate tax forms were supported. Beginning with

tax year A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or ...

2009, the IRS will extend the Modernized e-File program to cover the 1040 series of forms for income tax returns filed by individuals. The IRS expects to accept the first MeF-based individual income tax filings in 2010.{{Cite web, url=https://www.irs.gov/uac/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free, title=Free File: Do Your Federal Taxes for Free, last=, first=, date=, website=www.irs.gov, publisher=Internal Revenue Service, access-date=2016-09-04 In the initial phase, MeF for individual returns will support form 1040, schedules A, B, C, D, E, EIC, M, R, SE, as well as the additional forms 1099-R, 2106, 2210, 2441, 4562, 4868, 8283, 8812, 8829, 8863, 8880, 8888, and W-2. XML schemas for Form 1040 MeF ar
available on the IRS web site

References

Internal Revenue Service

See also

References