Completion of the Filing Process · Electronic filing
E-file mandate and exceptions (Form 8948)
tax year · reviewed 2026-08-18 · I. Ohu
The e-file mandate is a rule about preparers, not about taxpayers. Nothing in it obliges anyone to file their own return electronically. What it does is oblige a preparer above a volume threshold to transmit electronically any individual income tax return they both prepare and file — and then provide three quite different escapes, only one of which requires asking permission.
The rule
Who is caught. The Secretary must require any individual income tax return prepared by a tax return preparer to be filed on magnetic media if the preparer files it and is a specified tax return preparer for the calendar year (IRC § 6011(e)(3)(A)). A specified tax return preparer is a preparer who does not reasonably expect to file 10 or fewer individual income tax returns in the calendar year — that is, 11 or more, counted across the firmTY2026 (IRC § 6011(e)(3)(B); Reg. § 301.6011-7(a)(3)). “Individual income tax return” means any subtitle A return of individuals, estates or trusts (IRC § 6011(e)(3)(C)) — so Forms 1041 count, and the threshold is not a Form 1040 count.
The count is a firm count. A preparer who is a member of a firm is a specified tax return preparer unless the firm’s members in the aggregate reasonably expect to file 10 or fewer, and “member” reaches employees, agents, members, partners, shareholders and other equity holders (Reg. § 301.6011-7(a)(3)). The determination is made separately for each calendar year and before the firm files its first individual income tax return that year (Reg. § 301.6011-7(d)(2); Rev. Proc. 2011-25 § 7.01).
What “filed by the preparer” means. A return is filed by the preparer if the preparer submits it to the IRS on the taxpayer’s behalf, electronically or on paper — including transmitting, sending, mailing or otherwise delivering the paper return, whether by the preparer or by any member, employee or agent of the preparer’s firm (Reg. § 301.6011-7(a)(4)(i)).
The taxpayer’s own choice is a complete answer. A return is not treated as filed by the preparer if, on or before the filing date, the preparer obtains a hand-signed and dated statement from the taxpayer — by either spouse on a joint return — that the taxpayer chooses paper and that the taxpayer, not the preparer, will submit it (Reg. § 301.6011-7(a)(4)(ii)). The mandate then simply does not apply to that return.
Two exclusions, and they work differently. The IRS may grant an undue hardship waiver on application, based on all facts and circumstances (Reg. § 301.6011-7(c)(1)); and may provide administrative exemptions for classes of preparers or types of returns (Reg. § 301.6011-7(c)(2)). Administrative exemptions are automatic — no application, no IRS approval — though the burden of showing entitlement rests on the preparer, who must demonstrate it on request (Notice 2011-26, “Exemptions are Automatic”).
The administrative exemptions. Exempt preparers: a member of a recognised religious group conscientiously opposed to using electronic technology and continuously in existence since 31 December 1950; a foreign preparer without a social security number who is not a member of an e-file-eligible firm and has applied for a PTIN; and a preparer currently ineligible for IRS e-file under an e-file sanction, for the sanction period (Notice 2011-26 § A.1–3). Exempt returns for technological reasons: a return rejected where the preparer tried and could not resolve the reject condition; a return with a form or schedule the preparer’s software does not support; and a short-term inability to e-file from some other verifiable and documented technological problem (§ B.1–3). Exempt returns because e-file cannot take them: any return IRS e-file does not currently accept or that taxpayers are instructed not to file electronically, and required documentation or attachments the IRS cannot yet accept electronically (§ C.1–2).
The counting interaction. Returns exempt under the taxpayer-choice rule or under an administrative exemption are not counted toward the threshold; returns covered by an undue hardship waiver are counted (Reg. § 301.6011-7(d)(1)).
Form 8948. A specified tax return preparer who files on paper a return that could have been e-filed attaches Form 8948, Preparer Explanation for Not Filing Electronically, to the paper copy furnished to the taxpayer. Its reason boxes track paragraphs A and B of Notice 2011-26. A return in category C.1 — one e-file does not accept at all — does not require Form 8948 (Notice 2011-26).
Form 8944. An undue hardship waiver is requested on Form 8944, Preparer e-file Hardship Waiver Request, signed and dated, sent to the address in the instructions, and not attached to the taxpayer’s return (Rev. Proc. 2011-25 § 6). It must ordinarily be filed between 1 October of the preceding calendar year and 15 February of the applicable calendar yearTY2026 (§ 7.02), and a waiver is not ordinarily granted for more than a one calendar year periodTY2026 (§ 5.02). The requirement is not waived unless the preparer receives written notice of approval (§ 8.01).
Current figures
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Specified tax return preparer | a preparer who does not reasonably expect to file 10 or fewer individual income tax returns in the calendar year — that is, 11 or more, counted across the firmTY2026 |
| Window for a Form 8944 waiver request | between 1 October of the preceding calendar year and 15 February of the applicable calendar yearTY2026 |
| Duration of an undue hardship waiver | not ordinarily granted for more than a one calendar year periodTY2026 |
| Periods for which Form 1040-X may be e-filed | the current tax period and the two prior onesTY2026 |
How it works in practice
Three distinct escapes get confused constantly, and the difference is procedural rather than substantive.
The taxpayer-choice route is not an exemption at all. The return never becomes one the preparer filed, so the mandate never engages. It costs a hand-signed, dated statement obtained on or before the filing date — a signature after the fact does not retroactively fix a paper return the preparer mailed. These returns drop out of the threshold count too, which can move a marginal firm below the line entirely.
An administrative exemption is automatic and needs no permission. Nothing is filed to claim it and nothing is approved. The exposure is evidentiary: the preparer must be able to demonstrate entitlement when asked, so a note in the file about which reject code could not be resolved, or which schedule the software did not support, is what the rule expects even though it does not say to keep one.
An undue hardship waiver is the only route that requires an application, and Rev. Proc. 2011-25 says the IRS will grant them “only in rare cases”. The timing rule is the practical trap: the window closes on 15 February of the year in question, and late requests are not considered absent unusual, unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances. Since a denial can be followed by up to 45 days to get e-file authorisation, a preparer who leaves the request until filing season has already lost.
One counting subtlety repays attention: waiver returns count toward the threshold, exempt returns do not. That is coherent — a waiver is relief for a preparer who is within the mandate, while an exemption removes the return from it — but it means the two are not interchangeable even where either would produce a paper filing.
The small firm that was not small
An enrolled agent prepares six individual returns a year. She is one of four preparers in a firm; between them the firm expects to file about thirty. She files all six on paper, reasoning that six is well under the threshold.
Analysis. Wrong test. Reg. § 301.6011-7(a)(3) aggregates the firm's members, and thirty is comfortably over ten, so she is a specified tax return preparer and each of her six returns is caught. Being a small part of a large firm does not help; the individual number is irrelevant once firm membership is in the picture.
The signature obtained the following week
A client tells his preparer by telephone that he wants to file on paper and will mail it himself. The preparer, taking him at his word, prints the return and hands it over. The client changes his mind and asks the preparer to mail it. She does. A hand-signed statement arrives a week later.
Analysis. Two failures. Reg. § 301.6011-7(a)(4)(ii) requires the hand-signed, dated statement on or prior to the filing date, and it requires that the taxpayer, not the preparer, submit the return. The preparer mailed it, so under § 301.6011-7(a)(4)(i) she filed it, and a statement dated afterwards does not undo that. The return needed to be e-filed or to carry a Form 8948 reason.
The reject that could not be cleared
A preparer attempts to e-file a return three times. Each attempt is rejected on a condition tied to a dependent's identifying number that the client cannot resolve before the deadline. The preparer files on paper.
Analysis. This is the Notice 2011-26 § B.1 administrative exemption — a return the preparer attempted to e-file, rejected, with a reject condition the preparer attempted but could not resolve. The exemption is automatic, so nothing is applied for, but Form 8948 still goes on the paper copy because the reason falls in paragraph B. A contemporaneous note of the reject code is what would demonstrate entitlement if the IRS asks.
Traps
The threshold is a firm count, not a personal one. Aggregate the members, including employees and agents.
It is not a Form 1040 count. Estate and trust returns under subtitle A are individual income tax returns for this purpose.
Exemptions are automatic; waivers are not. Never file a Form 8944 to claim an administrative exemption — the guidance says expressly not to.
The taxpayer's paper election must be hand-signed and dated on or before the filing date, and the taxpayer must actually submit the return.
Waiver returns count toward the threshold; exempt returns do not.
Form 8948 attaches to the taxpayer's paper return; Form 8944 does not. The waiver request goes to the IRS separately and is retained by the preparer.
How this has changed
The mandate as drafted moved in steps: a preparer filing 100 or more individual income tax returns was caught for calendar year 2011, and from 2012 the trigger fell to 11 or more (Reg. § 301.6011-7(a)(3); Notice 2011-26). That transitional language is still in the regulation and can be misread as current — the 2011 hundred-return figure is dead.
Notice 2011-26’s category C.1 exempts returns “not currently accepted electronically” and then lists examples from 2011, including Form 1040-NR and all amended returns such as Form 1040-X. The category is self-updating and still operative; the examples are not. The IRS confirms that Form 1040-X may now be filed electronically for the current tax period and the two prior onesTY2026, amending Form 1040, 1040-SR or 1040-NR, with Form 8879 where a preparer e-files it. A preparer reading the 2011 list as a live catalogue of paper-only returns would be wrong on both examples. What governs is what IRS e-file actually accepts at the time of filing.
Separately, do not confuse this mandate with the general electronic filing threshold in IRC § 6011(e)(5), which fell to 10 aggregated returns for calendar years after 2021. That provision governs filers of information and other returns; § 6011(e)(3) is the preparer rule, and § 6011(e)(1) expressly protects individuals, estates and trusts from being required to file electronically in their own right except through § 6011(e)(3).
Exam focus
Know the definition of a specified tax return preparer and that the count aggregates firm members and covers estate and trust returns. Be able to separate the three routes to a paper return — taxpayer choice, administrative exemption, undue hardship waiver — by whether an application is required and by which form goes where. Recognise the Notice 2011-26 categories, especially the three technological ones, and know that a return e-file cannot accept at all needs no Form 8948. Expect the timing of a Form 8944 request to be tested.
Check yourself
1. A preparer expects to file 8 individual income tax returns. She is a partner in a firm whose members expect to file 40 in total. She is: (A) Not a specified tax return preparer, being under the threshold (B) A specified tax return preparer, because the firm’s members are aggregated (C) A specified tax return preparer only for returns she personally e-files (D) Exempt, as a firm member Answer: B. Reg. § 301.6011-7(a)(3).
2. To claim an administrative exemption under Notice 2011-26, a specified tax return preparer must: (A) File Form 8944 and await written approval (B) Do nothing to claim it, but be able to demonstrate entitlement on request (C) Attach Form 8944 to the taxpayer’s return (D) Obtain a private letter ruling Answer: B. The exemptions are automatic.
3. A client wants to file on paper and mail the return himself. For the mandate not to apply, the preparer must obtain: (A) An oral instruction, noted in the file (B) A hand-signed, dated statement on or before the filing date, with the taxpayer submitting the return (C) Form 8948, signed by the taxpayer (D) An undue hardship waiver Answer: B. Reg. § 301.6011-7(a)(4)(ii).
4. A preparer’s software does not support a schedule the return requires, so the return is filed on paper. The preparer should: (A) File Form 8944 before filing (B) Attach Form 8948 to the paper return, the exemption being automatic (C) Do nothing further (D) Request a private letter ruling Answer: B. This is a Notice 2011-26 paragraph B reason, and Form 8948’s boxes track paragraphs A and B.
5. An undue hardship waiver request on Form 8944 must ordinarily be submitted: (A) At any time during the calendar year (B) With the first paper return filed (C) Between 1 October of the preceding year and 15 February of the applicable year (D) Within 30 days of the return’s due date Answer: C. Rev. Proc. 2011-25 § 7.02.
Change log
- Initial publication from IRC § 6011(e)(3), Reg. § 301.6011-7, Notice 2011-26 and Rev. Proc. 2011-25, each opened at source.
Related topics
- Application process to be an e-file provider (e.g., e-services, EFIN) 3.4.3.a
- Types of penalties (e.g., negligence, substantial understatement, overvaluation) 3.1.4.b
- Incompetence and disreputable conduct that may result in a disciplinary proceeding 3.1.3.a
- Definition and responsibilities of an ERO 3.4.3.d