Xan Ostro of the US Internal Revenue Service Electronic Tax Administration (ETA) has posted a collection of eighteen (18) draft XML schemas relating to forms and schedules for IRS 1120. Preliminary docmentation is provided by sample XML instances and a companion document 'Introduction to IRS e-file XML Schemas', representing the most recent thinking of the development team on IRS XML 1120 schemas. This document discusses the schema design, "including treatment of namespaces, naming conventions, element and type reuse, etc., as well as transmission and acknowledgment files and envelopes, and overall e-file schema structures." U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return Form 1120 is used to report income, gains, losses, deductions, credits, and to calculate the income tax liability of a corporation. The draft materials were prepared to facilitate education and preparation for an upcoming TIGERS meetings addressing Tax XML Development. The principal Schema is for IRS Form 1120, excluding embedded schedules and supporting information. The team has also issued a Candidate Release of the IRS 940/941 XML Schema from March 31, 2002. These XML schemas have been created by the Tax Information Group for EC Requirements Standardization (TIGERS), part of the National Standards Institute's ASC X12-Government Subcommittee. This WG "has been chartered to discuss matters relating to business standards and practices surrounding national tax data formatting and transfer, and develops and maintains tax electronic technical format standards for a variety of tax filing and other related government electronic reporting or data exchange applications. The recent focus of the group has addressed the use of XML as a data transformation tool, and efforts to develop a standard taxonomy and schema as guidance for tax agencies. The aim is to create guidance useful to state and federal (IRS) tax authorities to assist them in XML application development."

Examples include an instance of a 1120 transmission envelope, an instance of an 1120 transmission acknowledgement, and an instance of an IRS Form 1120 return. Namespace is typically xmlns="http://www.irs.gov/efile". The transmission file is based upon SOAP 1.1 with attachments (SOAP Messages with Attachments). An XML schema in 'efileTypes.xsd' defines data structures for (1) reusable data types such as EIN, SSN, etc., and (2) required attributes for each return and each return document. An 'efileMessage.xsd' schema defines data structures for the transmission header, PIN registration origin header (formerly as batch headers), return origin header, base return header (return header elements common across families), and acknowledgement. An 'efileIndex.xsd' which includes schemas for efileTypes, efileMessage and the return headers is used for validating XML data for the transmission envelope.

The review package includes draft XML schemas for 1120 (related) forms and schedules:

• Bad Debts: The Current Year's Provision Schedule
• Estimated Tax Payments Schedule
• IRS Form 1120 XML Draft Schema
• IRS Form 1120 Schedule D
• IRS 1120x Payment
• IRS Form 4797
• Itemized Other Current Assets Schedule (schema for information sometimes required to be attached to return)
• Itemized Other Income Schedule
• 1120 Return Contents (schema that contains a list of all forms and schedules allowed to be attached to an Electronically filed XML return)
• Content model for ReturnHeader1120x
• Securities or Commodities Held by a Trader: Mark-To-Market Election
• Schema for SOAP Envelope
• Tax Shelter Disclosure Supporting Information
• Transfer to a Corporation Controlled by the Transferor Election
• Unused Capital Loss Carryover Computation Schedule

The 1120 review package contains XML schemas in eighteen separate files: BadDebtsSchedule.xsd EstimatedTaxPaymentsSchedule.xsd; IRS1120.xsd; IRS1120ScheduleD.xsd; IRS1120xPayment.xsd; IRS4797.xsd; ItemizedOtherCurrentAssetsSchedule.xsd; ItemizedOtherIncomeSchedule.xsd; ReturnData1120.xsd; ReturnHeader1120x.xsd; SOAP.xsd; SecOrCommoditiesHeldByTraderElection.xsd; TaxShelterDisclosureSuppotingInfo.xsd; TransferorControlledCorpElection.xsd; UnusedCapitalLossCarryoverSchedule.xsd; efileIndex.xsd; efileMessage.xsd; efileTypes.xsd.

The Candidate Release of the IRS 94x XML Schemas (IRS 940/941) is distributed as a ZIP archive with some 27 separate schema files. "The package contains a sample transmission file as first step in providing a clearer understanding of how the individual schemas relate to one another, and how to package return data into a transmission. The IRS is also now developing a sample acknowledgment file and sample PIN Registration file to complete the sample package." [Note 2002-04-05: Items to follow (website, after 2002-04-04) include a Complete Sample Package (Acknowledgement, PIN Registration, Transmission File), a Preliminary Technical Guide to the Schemas, and Results of Transmission File Compression Testing.]

According to a 2002-04-04 posting from Jonathan Lyon (Federation of Tax Administrators), the IRS is "looking in particular for comments on the XML 94x Candidate Release within the next 30 days. Reviewers are encouraged to download the information and respond to Xan Ostro at IRS. The 94x schemas will be discussed at the upcoming TIGERS meeting in Louisville, KY. Note that there is also recent information on Draft Sales and Motor Fuel Tax Schemas representing recent thinking on state XML schemas for these taxes."