Submit Form button on IRS form not working

Question

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?

Thom Parker · Accepted Answer

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:

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

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

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.

try67 · Answer

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.

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