The US Internal Revenue Service has set up an online "94x XML Developers' Forum" to provide information and technical guidance for software developers interested in developing software for the new Employment Tax e-file System in XML. The website provides links to the relevant XML Schemas, technical documents, news, and announcements. Supported tax forms include: Form 940 - Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return (Forma 940-PR in Spanish), Form 941 - Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return (Form 941-PR in Spanish), Form 941-SS - Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return, Form 941c - Supporting Statement to Correct Information, and XML PIN Registration. An Employment Tax e-file System Implementation and User Guide and a Preliminary Guide to Creating 94x Return Transmission Files provide procedural guidelines and validation criteria for the Employment Tax e-file System. Section 5 of the User Guide ('Building XML Transmission Files') describes the procedure for creating a 94x return transmission file with XML structures for the SOAP Transmission Envelope, TransmissionHeader, PINRegistrationOriginHeader, PIN Registration Transmission Envelope, and a complete Transmission Envelope with the ReturnData and MIME parts. "The new Employment Tax e-file System has been designed to replace all previous electronic filing options for returns in the 940 and 941 families. Previous e-file formats will be maintained in order to allow for transition to the new XML based system." The IRS XML Development Teams also maintain two lists (XML Schema News and Information, XML Schema Discussion Group) for distributing communications, and encouraging open discussion on the overall XML development effort. An associated US Fed/State Employment Tax XML Forum provides guidance for software developers and Federal/State partners who are interested in developing a gateway and/or software to file both federal and state employment taxes along with payments. The state level XML schemas are designed to be used with the Federal 94x schemas.

Complete 94x e-filing instructions are presented in Employment Tax e-file System Implementation and User Guide 2003. Forms 940, 940PR, 941, 941PR, 941SS, and Related Schedules. "This publication contains the procedural guidelines and validation criteria for the Employment Tax e-file System. Planned implementation of the System for Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Processing Year 2003 includes the following forms, schedules, and attachments: Form 941; Forma 941PR; Form 941SS; Form 940; Form 940PR; Form 941 Schedule B; Forma 941PR Anexo B; Form 941c; Forma 941c; PIN Registration; Payment Record. Formatted return files will be transmitted electronically via the IRS Electronic Management System (EMS), located at the Tennessee Computing Center (TCC). Formatted PIN Registration files will be transmitted electronically via EMS, located at the Austin Submission Processing Center (AUSPC). Software Developers and Transmitters should use the guidelines provided in this document along with electronically published XML Schemas, and Test Scenarios in order to develop and test their software for use with this system. You may obtain additional copies of this publication by calling 1-800-829-3676. The publication is also available electronically on the IRS Web Site, in the 94x XML Developers' Forum (www.irs.gov)..."

From the Employment Tax e-file System Implementation and User Guide: "The 94x XML Schemas were designed following the format of each of the paper returns they are designed to replace. XML tag names are closely aligned with the text from those returns, and the format and content of each of the data elements is defined in the schema. Common data types have been identified and defined in the schema efiletypes.xsd... Formatted return files [are to be] be transmitted electronically via the IRS Electronic Management System (EMS), located at the Tennessee Computing Center (TCC)... The new Employment Tax e-file System has been designed to replace all previous electronic filing options for returns in the 940 and 941 families. Previous e-file formats will be maintained in order to allow for transition to the new XML based system. We will provide updates to all impacted partners as transition schedules are finalized..."

The US Fed/State Employment Tax XML Forum "provides information and technical guidance for software developers and Federal/State partners who are interested in developing a gateway and/or software to file both federal and state employment taxes along with payments. The state level schemas are designed to be used with the Federal 94x schemas, and share a common directory structure. When extracting the files from this archive, you should extract them to the same root directory where you extracted the federal schemas. The federal and state schemas share two common files, efiletypes.xsd, and soap.xsd. Please be aware of this when extracting the files..."