Tax Forms Guides for 2023 and 2024 Editions of Tax Preparer

HowardSoft Manuals for 2024 Editions

Tax Forms Guide 2024 Edition. The latest revision of Tax Forms Guide 2024 Edition is automatically installed when you update to the latest release of Tax Preparer 1040, and is accessible from your Tax Preparer Control Panel for on-screen viewing while using Tax Preparer. However, if you want to download the latest revision manually, you can do so here. Just right-click the underlined link, then click Save Target As... and save the file to the same location as your Tax Preparer software (usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\HowardSoft Tax Preparer" or "C:\Program Files\HowardSoft Tax Preparer"). The on-screen manual will then be accessible from the Documents button on the floating Tax Preparer Control Panel while you use a 2024 Edition of Tax Preparer.

•   Tax Forms Guide 2024 Edition for our software for preparing Form 1040 returns (also included in Tax Preparer release 2024.01f). (Adobe Acrobat format, 11,031 KB, revised 4/14/2024)

California Supplement Tax Forms Guide 2024 Edition. The latest revision of California Supplement Tax Forms Guide 2024 Edition is automatically installed when you install release 2024.01, and is then accessible from your Tax Preparer Control Panel for on-screen viewing while using Tax Preparer. However, if you want to download the latest revision manually, you can do so here. Just right-click the underlined link, then click Save Target As... and save the file to the same location as your California Supplement software (usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\HowardSoft Tax Preparer" or "C:\Program Files\HowardSoft Tax Preparer"). The on-screen manual will then be accessible from the Documents button on the floating Tax Preparer Control Panel when you use Tax Preparer's California Supplement.

•   California Supplement Tax Forms Guide 2024 Edition for our software for preparing Form 540 returns (also included in California release 2024.01). (Adobe Acrobat format, 1,938 KB, revised 3/10/2024)

HowardSoft Manuals for 2023 Editions

Tax Forms Guide 2023 Edition. The latest revision of Tax Forms Guide 2023 Edition is automatically installed when you update to the latest release after installing release 2023.01, and is then accessible from your Tax Preparer Control Panel for on-screen viewing while using Tax Preparer. However, if you want to download the latest revision manually, you can do so here. Just right-click the underlined link, then click Save Target As... and save the file to the same location as your Tax Preparer software (usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\HowardSoft Tax Preparer" or "C:\Program Files\HowardSoft Tax Preparer"). The on-screen manual will then be accessible from the Documents button on the floating Tax Preparer Control Panel while you use a 2023 Edition of Tax Preparer.

•   Tax Forms Guide 2023 Edition for our software for preparing Form 1040 returns (also included in Tax Preparer release 2023.01g). (Adobe Acrobat format, 11,211 KB, revised 3/27/2023)

Partnership Tax Forms Guide 2023 Edition. The latest revision of Partnership Tax Forms Guide 2023 Edition is automatically installed with the latest release of the Partnership software (2023.01), and is then accessible from your Tax Preparer Control Panel for on-screen viewing while using Tax Preparer. However, if you want to download the latest revision manually, you can do so here. Just right-click the underlined link, then click Save Target As... and save the file to the same location as your Tax Preparer software (usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\HowardSoft Tax Preparer" or "C:\Program Files\HowardSoft Tax Preparer"). The on-screen manual will then be accessible from the Documents button on the floating Tax Preparer Control Panel when you use any version of Tax Preparer.

•   Partnership Tax Forms Guide 2023 Edition for our software for preparing Form 1065 returns (also included in Partnership release 2023.01). (Adobe Acrobat format, 1,296 KB, revised 4/3/2023)

California Supplement Tax Forms Guide 2023 Edition. The latest revision of California Supplement Tax Forms Guide 2023 Edition is automatically installed when you update to the latest release after installing release 2023.01, and is then accessible from your Tax Preparer Control Panel for on-screen viewing while using Tax Preparer. However, if you want to download the latest revision manually, you can do so here. Just right-click the underlined link, then click Save Target As... and save the file to the same location as your California Supplement software (usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\HowardSoft Tax Preparer" or "C:\Program Files\HowardSoft Tax Preparer"). The on-screen manual will then be accessible from the Documents button on the floating Tax Preparer Control Panel when you use Tax Preparer's California Supplement.

•   California Supplement Tax Forms Guide 2023 Edition for our software for preparing Form 540 returns (also included in California release 2023.01a). (Adobe Acrobat format, 1,938 KB, revised 4/17/2023)

User's Guide for all editions

User's Guide revised January 2015. The User's Guide provides general operating instructions that do not change from year to year, but we updated it in 2015 to refect an entirely new installation program, the features of our new version for 64-bit Windows, changes in printer specification for laser-graphic printers, additional hot keys for resizing the main window with scalable fonts, and new rules for using locations for data other than our defaults. In addition, the colors in the figures for our on-screen version of this manual are true to the default colors of the software. Otherwise, the manual is similar to prior editions, including quick guides for getting you started, tutorials using a sample return, and detailed instructions on keyboard controls, using a mouse instead of the keyboard, managing stored data (including copying or translating returns, removing forms from a return, printing client lists and mailing labels, etc.), high-volume data entry, printing, and program settings.

The latest revision of User's Guide is automatically installed when you install any release for the 2019 filing seasons. However, if you want to download the latest revision manually, you can do so here. Just right-click the underlined link, then click Save Target As... and save the file to the same location as your Tax Preparer software (usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\HowardSoft Tax Preparer" or "C:\Program Files\HowardSoft Tax Preparer").

•   User's Guide for all Tax Preparer products for 2015 and later. (Adobe Acrobat format, 3,471, rev. 1/24/2015)

Once you copy this file to the proper location, you can easily access it from the floating Tax Preparer Control Panel by clicking either Documents or Help, then the name User's Guide.

Tips for using on-screen manuals

HowardSoft manuals and IRS documents are supplied in PDF format for easy on-screen viewing and printing. To view these documents you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer (available free on the internet and included on HowardSoft CD-ROMs). Here are our recommendations on using the manuals and documents in concert with Tax Preparer:

•   Access manuals and IRS documents through Tax Preparer. Start Tax Preparer through Windows the way you normally do, then click Documents on the floating Tax Preparer Control Panel. From the drop-down menu you can choose HowardSoft's Tax Forms Guides or the IRS's Forms and Publications. Either way, the document you choose will open in its own Adobe Reader window.
•   Position Tax Preparer and Adobe Reader windows side-by-side. Reposition the main Tax Preparer window and the Adobe Reader window by dragging the top bar of each window. Once you have them where you want them, you can resize them as follows:
  •   To resize Adobe Reader window: drag any corner of the window to change the size to your preferences. Resize the document within the window by clicking the Fit Page or Fit Width icon (from a Tool Bar or from View on the Menu Bar).
  •   To resize Tax Preparer window: Click the icon in the top left corner of the main window. Choose Properties from the drop-down menu, then choose the Fonts tab. Change the size of the font to change the size of the window -- a larger font produces a larger window.
•   Use Bookmarks to find a chapter or section. Bookmarks provide a clickable Table of Contents of for all HowardSoft manuals:
  •   Click the Bookmarks tab on the left edge of the window (for recent versions of Adobe Reader only), to alternately see the bookmarks or hide them.
  •   Press F5 (Bookmarks key) (for older versions of Adobe Reader only), to alternately see the bookmarks or hide them.

  Once you see the bookmarks, click any topic to jump to that section of the manual.

•   Use Find or Search to find a word or phrase. Find and Search both let you find the phrase you want, but each functions in its own unique way:
  •   Press ctrl-F (Find), enter a phrase, and you are taken to the first occurence of the phrase. Press ctrl-G (Find Next) and you are taken to the next occurence. (You can press ctrl-G as many times as you want until you have viewed all occurences of the phrase.)
  •   Press shift-ctrl-F (Search), enter a phrase, and you are shown a list of all occurences of the phrase (along with a few surrounding words). Click any item in the list, and you are taken directly to the corresponding page. (You can return to the list as many times as you want to choose other items in the list.)

  Both options are also accessible through the Edit choice on the Adobe Reader menu bar.