When preparing a federal income tax return, does the IRS *REQUIRE* the
use of all captial letters? And, if so, what states require all caps?

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Request for Question Clarification by richard-ga on 04 Jun 2005 10:37 PDT

Do you really need the answer for 50 states?
At this price I expect I could come up with the answer for federal
income tax and one or two states, but not 50.

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Clarification of Question by ffunm-ga on 05 Jun 2005 06:38 PDT

No not all fifty. How about Missouri and Arkansas?

Hello and thank you for your question.

With a few exceptions, below, all you need to do is type or print
entries, if possible, using black ink.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-97/i1040sh.pdf

The exceptions are certain forms, usually where there are individual
boxes for each letter that need to be machine-read, and the place
where you would need to write in capital letters a substitute for the
mailing label that the IRS provides.

For example:
Use the IRS label.  Otherwise, please print in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-97/f1040a.pdf

Marking Instructions for Tax Form 8655:? Use black or blue ink only. ?
Please print legibly. Use one character per block. ? Use only capital
letters.
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8655.pdf

Please use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS in the spaces provided
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-95/f8888.pdf

Topic 752 - Form W?2 ? Where, When, and How to File
It is your responsibility, as an employer, to file Copy A of Form W-2 (PDF), 
Type all entries using black ink and, if possible, a 12?point Courier font. 
http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc752.html


It's the same in Missouri.  If a form needs to be scanned for coding,
there are certain lines where all caps are needed.  Otherwise it's not
required.
http://www.missourimost.org/pdf/mo_withdrawal.pdf
http://www.dor.mo.gov/tax/personal/individual/forms/2005/m1040esi.pdf

Arkansas wants blue or black ink, but they don't specify capital letters.
For example,
http://www.arkansas.gov/dfa/income_tax/documents/AR1000S_Instr_2004.pdf

In searching for 'capital letters' issues, I came across some tax
protestor nonsense, for example
http://www.patriotist.com/elarch/el20011015.htm
http://hometown.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/1st_amendment3.htm
There is no magic surrounding legal names, capital letters, etc., and
you should ignore these sorts of sites.


Search terms used:
"capital letters" instructions site:irs.gov
"capital letters" instructions missouri tax

Thanks again for letting us help
Richard-ga