What is form 1040 preparation?
The individual return built from organised records — prepared with the partner CPA firm that reviews, signs and files.
Form 1040 is the return every US individual taxpayer files, and for most people it is the single document that closes out a tax year — W-2 and 1099 income reconciled, deductions and credits claimed, a refund or a balance due arrived at. The IRS charges nothing to file it: Free File Guided Tax Software covers anyone with 2026-season AGI at or under $89,000, and Free File Fillable Forms has no income ceiling at all. What people pay for is the judgment and the assembly — filing status, dependents, which deductions apply, which schedules the return actually needs — and that is where a badly organised set of documents turns a straightforward return into a slow, expensive one.
Under IRS rules, anyone holding a valid PTIN (Preparer Tax Identification Number) may legally prepare a federal return for compensation — there is no CPA, EA or attorney requirement to prepare and file a 1040, and a PTIN itself carries no exam. That is a narrower permission than it sounds, though. A plain PTIN-only preparer has no authority to represent a client before the IRS at all — not on a CP2000 letter, not in an exam, not in an appeal. The one step up from a bare PTIN is the IRS's voluntary Annual Filing Season Program: a preparer who completes AFSP each year earns very limited representation rights, but only for returns they personally prepared and signed, only in front of revenue agents or customer service reps, and never in appeals or collections. Full, unlimited representation rights — power of attorney, correspondence with the IRS as the client's agent, sitting in on an exam — belong only to attorneys, CPAs and Enrolled Agents under Circular 230.
Who does what
Prepared in coordination with partner CPA firms, who review, sign and e-file as paid preparers; any IRS representation stays with an EA, CPA or attorney.
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | Form 1040 preparation, the reconciliations and reporting behind it, and the questions list that keeps it honest. |
| Your CPA or enrolled agent | Everything that carries a licence in United States — rendered exactly as written: issue compilation, review or audit reports — those are restricted to licensed cpa firms. |
| You | One conversation with one named person, and the decisions that are genuinely yours. |
Form 1040 preparation in United States
A PTIN is enough to prepare a 1040 for pay — it is not enough to represent anyone before the IRS
The IRS requires a valid PTIN to prepare a federal return for compensation, and that requirement carries no exam or credential test. What a bare PTIN does not confer is any representation right: per the IRS, a PTIN-only preparer "has no authority to represent clients before the IRS," with a narrow exception limited to pre-2016 returns. CapEasy prepares the return; the partner CPA firm holds the PTIN that signs it as paid preparer and represents the client if a notice ever follows.
AFSP earns limited representation rights — CPAs, EAs and attorneys hold unlimited ones
A preparer who completes the IRS's voluntary Annual Filing Season Program each year gains a narrow representation right: only for returns they personally prepared and signed, only before revenue agents or customer service representatives, never in appeals or collections. Full, unlimited representation — a signed Form 2848 power of attorney, correspondence with the IRS as the client's agent, appearing at an exam — is reserved under Circular 230 for attorneys, CPAs and Enrolled Agents. Any 1040 this leaf prepares that later draws IRS attention routes to that tier of partner.
An EFIN, separate from a PTIN, is what actually transmits an e-filed return
A PTIN authorizes preparation for compensation; transmitting a return electronically requires a separate Electronic Filing Identification Number (EFIN), obtained independently from the IRS. CapEasy prepares the return and its schedules; the return is transmitted by an IRS-authorized e-file provider, either the client filing through their own authorized software or the partner CPA firm transmitting under its EFIN.
Free File exists at $0 — and a paid preparer never charges for what the IRS gives away
IRS Free File Guided Tax Software is free for anyone with 2026-season AGI at or under $89,000, and Free File Fillable Forms carries no income cap at all — filing itself costs nothing regardless of income. What a client pays for through this service is the assembly, the schedules, and the CPA firm review and sign-off behind the return, never the act of filing.
What your CPA or enrolled agent receives from us
- An organised intake file — W-2s, 1099s, the prior-year return and any supporting records for deductions or credits claimed, matched and cross-checked before the return is built.
- A prepared Form 1040 with every applicable schedule attached, built in tax software and ready for the partner CPA firm to review line by line.
- A filing-status and dependents worksheet showing the determination made and the records it rests on, so the reviewing preparer isn’t re-deriving it from scratch.
- A deductions-and-credits summary — itemized vs. standard comparison where relevant, with the documentation behind each claimed item flagged and attached.
- A prepared state return where applicable, built from the same intake so federal and state figures reconcile against each other before either is filed.
- A pre-transmission review packet the partner CPA firm signs off on as paid preparer before the return goes to e-file.
