How do you receive e-file forms from your clients?

Understanding the complexities behind our country's wonderful tax code pales in comparison to the difficulty of getting e-file forms from clients.

How do you all instruct clients to do it?

For me, some clients mail them. Some drop them off in person. Some fax them.

Some prefer to email their forms, and I'm pretty sure some of them "e-sign" their forms, although it's hard to tell if it's their actual signature or not.

Are copies and scans and faxes even allowed? Doesn't the form need to have an original signature on it?

The ones who email their forms: is that even safe to email something without the file being password protected?

Despite my instructions, some sign on the wrong line. Some sign the federal e-file form but forget to sign the state e-file form.

There has to be an easier way to deal with this.

My clients fax or scan them in and email. If they sign them in front of me or mail them in, I scan them in and shred them.

Despite my instructions, some sign on the wrong line. Some sign the federal e-file form but forget to sign the state e-file form.
There has to be an easier way to deal with this.

You can only do so much! Some people refuse to follow the simplest of instructions.

I have quite a few elderly clients who get confused easily so I have started putting colored (Blue for Boy, Pink for Girl) sticky tape where they are suppose to sign and I Print their name. That has helped. Others come to the office to sign in my or assistant's presence.

E-signature for most (completely paperless, KBA in accordance with IRS specs through my tax software vendor). My concern is that when the OP uses the term "e-sign", many people do not understand what that actually means in the context of Form 8879.

A few give me physical wet ink signed copies because I meet with them in person. and the few remaining send me a PDF scan or even a photo.

All electronic through my portal.

Most do an e-signature. Some print, do a hand signature, and scan back in or take a picture.

I instruct them to print out the eFile forms, sign and date, and scan a legible, high quality PDF copy and e-mail to me. Some upload to Sharefile. My issue is not people signing incorrect area, or missing a form--it is using crappy scanner settings and the PDFs being illegible. I may go entirely electronic with them in year or two through UT.

I used DocuSign this year and it went pretty well. The only difficulty is getting husband/wife to both check their email, but it worked pretty well all things considered.

I used DocuSign this year and it went pretty well.

Does that involve the mandatory KBA process per IRS instructions?

Yes , DocuSign is KBA compliant to meet IRS regs , 100%. DocuSign and Intuit have strategic partnership for Lacerte and ProSeries.

I hope IRS ( and states) can expand eSignature to business and extension payment authorizations. I had many stress filled episodes getting clients to authorize large extension payments this tax season.

I hope IRS ( and states) can expand eSignature to business and extension payment authorizations.

If you mean 1040 extensions, I have had clients e-sign Form 8878 including EFW many times, for at least several filing seasons now. Agree that it would be nice for business returns to allow e-sign, but how are they going to come up with knowledge-based questions for a business, for which only the authorized signer would know the answers?

I’m aware of the F8878 for extensions. But , I don’t believe IRS has provided KBA type protocol for eSignatures for that form , correct ?

No, they do allow for KBA to esign Form 8878, just like 8879, I've used it multiple times, and the audit log info I retrieve confirms that KBA was required and used. Plus, my vendor (UltraTax) charges me for it as a KBA-based return signature ($5), not a simple document signature such as engagement letter or consent to disclose ($1).

RE: taking pictures of documents with phone.
I got some documents this tax season where the client used iScanner rather than actually just taking a picture. The results were incredibly better than a photo. So I am letting all my picture-taking folks know about this app.