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Individual Income E-File Guide And Specifications Forms - Virginia Department Of Taxation - 2015 Page 16

PDF File Guidelines

When creating a PDF file for the e-File submission, follow these guidelines. The IRS and Virginia Tax

Department need a readable PDF using any compatible software that creates a PDF.

•

Do not password-protect or encrypt PDF attachments.

•

Do not exceed 60MB (uncompressed) for each PDF file.

•

Keep binary attachments as small as possible.

NOTE: Exporting a document to create the PDF makes a much smaller file compared to scanning it.

•

Set the compression/quality on the “Create PDF From Scanner” to higher compression in order to lower

the file size when the source document is of adequate quality and from scanner input.

•

Avoid requiring compatibility with Adobe Acrobat earlier than Version 8; it increases the file size.

•

Each PDF must start with %pdf- and end with %%EOF.

•

The return rejects if a PDF is not properly formatted.

NOTE: This error occurs if by the submitter tries to alter a PDF outside of the product that created it.

Create the PDF File

Create one Binary Attachment XML document for each binary attachment in the Submission. There is a one-

to-one relationship between the PDF file and the Binary Attachment XML document that describes it.

•

In the “AttachmentLocationTxt” element – provide the PDF file with a name, including the extension.

•

In the “Desc” element – provide a brief meaningful and unique description of the file contents.

PDF File Name

•

The file name must exactly match the name provided in the “AttachmentLocationTxt” element and is

case sensitive.

•

The schema for the Binary Attachment document is defined in the file named “BinaryAttachment.xsd”.

Desc Element

•

The “Desc” element in the BinaryAttachment.xsd cannot exceed 128 characters.

•

Make it as meaningful as possible; the description is displayed to the IRS User to identify file contents.

NOTE: Out of State return or Form 301 is meaningful, while Other, Miscellaneous and Form

Attachment are not.

Create Reference

•

The references (if any) are created from the element(s) to which the PDF file is “attached” to the “Binary

Attachment XML document”.

•

If the PDF file is to be attached to an element for a line/form/schedule, create a reference from the

element to the Binary Attachment XML document.

Number of Attachments

•

The number of binary attachments must be included in the submission in the binaryAttachmentCnt

attribute.

•

This is used to indicate the number of binary attachments in the return, for the element ReturnHeader.

Attachment Folder

•

Include the PDF file in the attachment folder in the submission zip.

•

Like-kind binary attachments should be placed adjacent to each other in the submission data XML.

Individual Income e-File Guide – Tax Year 2015

Rev. 10/26/15

Page 15

Individual Income E-File Guide And Specifications Forms - Virginia Department Of Taxation - 2015 Page 16

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