Submit Form button on IRS form not working

[gruversm]

I have a subscription to Adobe Acrobat on a Mac.  I'm trying to submit an IRS form via the "Submit Form" button at the bottom of their form.  When I click on the button nothing happens.

Do I need to change anything in preferences to make this work?

[brian_9449 · Accepted solution]

This method worked for me.  After I did it this way, I called the IRS and they confirmed that they received my form 4506-B.

[Thom Parker]

Look in the Console Window to see if there are any error messages, Ctrl-J opens the console. 

The issue could be that it doesn't like your email setup, but it is impossible to tell without more information. 

[gruversm]

I'm on a Mac.  Does Ctrl-J still work for me?

[try67]

You need to have an email account (or application) set up in Acrobat. Look under Menu - Preferences - Email Accounts and make sure there is one there, and that it's defined as the default one to use.

[gruversm]

I have a gmail account that has already been added as 'Default'.  When I select the email account, the 'EDIT' button is greyed out.  I then added a Comcast email account.  I still can't submit the form.

[try67]

It works fine for me... But all this button does (I believe!) is attach the file to an email, directed to tege-eo-my.eo.request@irs.gov with the subject line "Form 4506-B, Request for a Copy of Exempt Organization IRS Application or Letter". You can do that manually...

[gruversm]

Thank you for your suggestion!

[joshua_7441]

How did you determine that this was what the button was doing, and would I be able to follow whatever process you used to determine this on the free version of acrobat?

[try67]

As I said, it worked for me, and the end result was that an email was generated with the file attached to it and the details I provided. I don't know if anything else happens "behind the scenes" so be careful if you submit it manually, as it might miss some important information or validations if you do so, and will be rejected. I don't currently have the necessary software to verify that is all it does, and it can't be done with Acrobat alone.

[joshua_7441]

Thanks for the reply- just out of curiosity, do you have the free or paid version of acrobat, and did you configure an outlook account in Reader, or use an "alternate" email address?

[try67]

Acrobat, and Gmail.

[joshua_7441]

Figured it out. Posting this for others, and maybe should be marked as a "solution"

The issue is that clicking the "Submit Form" button in the IRS form 4506-B form resulted in no action when trying to submit the form, and the IRS does not provide an alternate submisison method.

Here are the steps I took to replicate the issue:

1. Open Google Chrome
2. Went to https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-4506-a 
3. Clicked on "Form 4506-B [PDF]"
4. Default behavior in Chrome in this case is to open the PDF in the browser (not in a new tab, and not in Reader)
5. Filled out information completely in browser
6. Discovered submit button was not working in browser (no action)
7. Clicked the download button, and selected "With your changes"
8. Opened the downloaded version in Reader, and clicked submit -> no action, no errors, etc.

Therefore, I conclude that "something" is happening to strip off certain settings, etc. in the PDF when editing it in part or in whole in the Chrome Browser, and applying the changes. Note that this behavior is the result whether the form is filled out in part or in whole in the browser.

My solution was to:

1. Open Google Chrome
2. Went to https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-4506-a 
3. Clicked on "Form 4506-B [PDF]"
4. Default behavior in Chrome in this case is to open the PDF in the browser (not in a new tab)
5. Immediately click the download icon (or, CRTL+S)
6. Fill out in Reader (or, I assume, in Acrobat)
7. Click the "submit" button 

Note that in order for this to work, you must have configured an email address in Reader, as shared by try67 

Menu - Preferences - Email Accounts and make sure there is one there, and that it's defined as the default one to use.

By @try67

Note: I am on Adobe Reader (free) not Acrobat (paid), but I don't suspect that will make a difference, @gruversm or @try67 , as you both have Acrobat, can you confirm that this pattern is replicated, e.g. partial or fully filled in chrome, then downloaded with changes, and opened in acrobat results in no action.

[try67]

It's likely Chrome is corrupting the file. You should not open it there. Save it directly and then open it in Acrobat or Reader and it should work fine.

[Thom Parker · Accepted solution]

Just a note on forms downloaded from the IRS. 

Most IRS forms are not PDFs, they are static XFA forms.  And this is true for the form discussed in this thread. XFA forms look like a PDF, but they are not.  And in particular, the form fields on these forms are not even remotely related to PDF form fields. As such, any PDF application that does not understand XFA will handle these forms incorrectly. All XFA forms are at a high risk of corruption for this reason. 

The only applications that are known to handle XFA forms correctly are Acrobat Pro and Reader. 

[RH-IAF]

This method worked for me! So glad I found this thread through a Google search. Thank you for sharing!

[brian_9449 · Accepted solution]

This method worked for me.  After I did it this way, I called the IRS and they confirmed that they received my form 4506-B.