Small Business Resource Guide 2002
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Pre Start-Up
Starting Your Business
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Small Business Resource Guide

About This CD
Comments
Disclaimer of Endorsement
Technical Support Help Desk
Read Me File
Toolbar
IRS Tax Products
Adobe Acrobat Approval 5.05
Fill In Forms Help
Accessibility

About This CD

The Small Business Resource Guide was developed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in cooperation with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in an effort to help businesses find the information needed for success.

This CD contains IRS tax forms, instructions, publications and other tax-related products in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). These tax products can be viewed, printed, searched and in many cases filled in using the Adobe Acrobat Approval software provided. For more information about Acrobat see the Adobe Acrobat Approval paragraph below. Also included are Taxpayer Information Publications (TIPS) in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) format.

We hope you will find this product useful and would appreciate your comments or suggested improvements:

E-Mail: irssbacd@Fedworld.gov
Phone: (703) 487-4608

Disclaimer of Endorsement

As a convenience to taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Small Business Association (SBA) have provided links from the CD-ROM to other Web sites offering information that may be of interest to small business taxpayers. The IRS, SBA, and the United States Government do not endorse or warrant these Web sites, the organizations, or their products and services. The decision to use or not use any of these Web sites or products and services will not result in any special treatment from the IRS or SBA. 


Technical Support

To obtain assistance for the installation or operation of this CD-ROM, please use one of the following to contact the IRS CD-ROM Technical Support Help Desk:

Phone: (703) 487-4608
Fax (703) 605-6745
E-Mail: irssbacd@Fedworld.gov

Please also view the ReadMe file.

Do Not use the publicized IRS toll-free telephone number for taxpayer assistance. The operators are not trained to answer any questions regarding this CD-ROM. All such inquires will be referred back to the Technical Support Help Desk listed above.

Toolbar

In order to make information easier for you to locate on the "Small Business Resource Guide," we have included a toolbar with the following topics:

Help. This help file.

Updates. Provides a direct link to the Web Business Resource Guide updates page on the IRS' World Wide Web site "The Digital Daily." The Small Business Resource Guide updates page will provide current information about this CD-ROM and additional links to the most current information resources available on any of the government agencies web sites that contributed to the content of the CD.

What's New. Provides information to important tax law changes and other changes for this printing of the CD.

Tell Me More. Provides additional information, such as accessibility features and newsletter subscription options.

Feedback. Provides two primary ways that you can provide your comments regarding this CD.

Statistics. Provides links to sites containing the latest economic statistics trends and outlooks.


IRS Tax Products

This CD contains current business related tax forms, instructions, and publications, approved before January 21, 2002. Tax products released after the issuance of the CD-ROM can be downloaded from the IRS World Wide Web site, 2002 SBRG Updates page at www.irs.gov/businesses/sbrg_updates.

Please note that the IRS Web site is in the process of being restructured. As a result, some links on this CD-ROM may change and may not connect. In the event that this occurs, please go to www.irs.gov and search for the most current revision of all tax products.

The tax products on this CD provided in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) file structure are produced from the same PostScript files used to create the original camera copy for printing the bulk quantities for IRS. Forms which are "optically read" (e.g. Form 1096 and the 1099 series), must be screened properly and printed in the correct color, in order to match the "official" IRS printed product. Procedures contained in IRS Publication 1167 (Catalog #47013F), Substitute Printed, Computer-Prepared and Computer-Generated Tax Forms and Schedules, apply to the reproduction of IRS forms.

In addition to the PDF files, the Taxpayer Information Publications (TIPS) are also provided in HyperText Markup Language (HTML). If the printed version of the publication has an index, it will not be included in the electronic version. The printed copies, which you can order by calling (800) 829-3676, will have complete indexes. The TIPS items are in an HTML viewable format using a standard Internet browser.

The 2002 CD again provides the fill in and save forms feature. A feature of Adobe Acrobat that enables the CD-ROM user to enter data on a tax form and print the form with the data on it. You cannot file these fill in forms electronically. PDF files enable you to view, search text, navigate, fill in and print pages of information in the same format that you are accustomed to seeing on paper products.

Paper copies of IRS products that are not contained on this disc may be ordered through one of the IRS' Area Distribution Centers by calling (800) 829-3676.

IRS electronic information can be accessed via the Internet. There are over 900 current tax forms with instructions and over 100 publications available for downloading. Many tax research tools are available including tax regulations, tax topics, frequently asked questions, statistical studies, important changes, newsletters and much more. There is also information on a variety of programs like Electronic Filing, TeleFile, 1040-PC, and others.

Product files are available through one of the following:
FTP Site Access Via Internet = ftp.irs.gov
World Wide Web (Home Page) = www.irs.gov

Adobe Acrobat Approval 5.05 (PDF Files)

A fully functional version of Acrobat Approval 5.05 is included on the SBRG CD-ROM. To install, navigate to the "Acrobat" folder on the SBRG CD and double-click "Setup". You should close all applications, including the SBRG, before installing Acrobat. (The IRS has paid a licensing fee for this software and it may NOT be copied or used on more than one workstation.)

Adobe Acrobat Approval and full-versions of Acrobat enable you to Fill-in, Print, Search, and save PDF documents. While viewing PDFs in your browser, you may only search for text in the pdf you are viewing. To search all of the pdfs on the SBRG simultaneously (Index Search), follow the instructions below.

Troubleshooting: See ReadMe


Performing an Index Search:

Open the file named "indexsearch.pdf" directly from the CD-ROM. Click the "binocular with paper" icon on the Acrobat toolbar. For complete instructions, view the Acrobat Help Guide for information on how to use the Index Search.



Fill-in Form Help

Fill-in forms enable you to enter information and then print the form if desired. These forms give you a cleaner crisper printout for your records and for filing with the IRS. There is no built-in mechanism for self-computation or self-verification of the information you enter, and you are still responsible for entering all required information (some instructions may require you to hand-write an amount on the form). 

Note: The Adobe Acrobat Approval product supplied with this CD enables you to save your completed form to disk. However, you must start the Acrobat Approval application and then open the specific form you wish to fill-in. Forms you access through a Web (html) browser can be filled-in and printed, but cannot be saved. 

Entering Information
A fill-in form contains two types of fillable areas: check box and text field.

Check Box - To fill-in a check box, make sure the "hand" (cursor) is selected and move your mouse over the check box until the hand turns into a pointer. Select the box and a check mark will appear. If you select the field a second time the check mark will disappear.

Text Box - To fill-in a text box, make sure the "hand" (cursor) is selected and move your mouse over a fillable area until the hand turns to an "I". Select the field and the "I" will appear in position to begin entering information. All text data is left justified, while numeric data is right justified. 

Note: You cannot change the characteristics of the fillable areas. Text boxes can be multi or single-line. A multi-line field allows you to use a carriage return when entering information. We have used a multi-line field when name and address is requested in the same box. However, the majority of the fillable areas are single line.

CD-ROM Basic Form Navigation
You can move through the form by using the tab key or by selecting additional fields with your mouse. The Acrobat Reader does not enable auto tabbing and the tab key must be used each time to advance to the next fillable area.

To view and search the PDF files on this CD, PDF navigation files with cross-document links and indexes were created using Adobe Acrobat and Acrobat Catalog software. The CD-ROM provides full text search capabilities for all the PDF files.

Tax Forms and Document Accessibility

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) files are considered accessible for persons using screen-reading devices and refreshable Braille displays. In addition to HTML files there are Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) tax forms and documents. The IRS uses PDF as a means of distributing these government forms and documents. Tax products in PDF format are electronic images of the IRS printed products and these files generally do not lend themselves well to non-graphical representation. Persons using screen-reading devices generally cannot directly read the PDF documents on this CD-ROM. However, Adobe Systems, Inc. provides a free translation service through their "Access" web page.

To make IRS products more accessible, the IRS Alternative Media Center is preparing the most popular tax forms, instructions, and tax publications using full text descriptions. These files will be available for download through the IRS Digital Daily web site. These files will be prepared in ASCII text format, HTML, enhanced PDF, and/or transcribed for Braille. For updated information please view the IRS web site.