Chapter 12

NORTH CAROLINA RECORD LAYOUT

North Carolina Forms D-400 and D-400TC are the only North Carolina individual income tax returns that are accepted for electronic filing for tax year 2007. The record layout lists the data fields contained in the proposed IRS generic record. The Department of Revenue’s designation of the data fields is listed below the IRS field description. All North Carolina data will be contained in the generic record for tax year 2007.

Please note the following items:

• The IRS convention of “sign trailing” will be used for all IRS numeric data fields. These money fields are 12 characters: 11 numeric characters must be right-justified and zero filled followed by a negative sign (-) if negative or by a blank ( ) if positive.
• North Carolina has adopted the standards established by all states participating in the Federal/State Electronic Filing Program. However, North Carolina redefines the following IRS alphanumeric fields so that the entire North Carolina individual income tax return can be transmitted in the generic record format without using unformatted records:
  • IRS Field #0300b
  • IRS Field #0305

For detailed information, please refer to the record layout attached.

• If a primary taxpayer and/or spouse elects to contribute to the NC Political Parties Financing Fund in the IRS fields #0305b and #0305c, each transmitted record must contain a valid code of ‘1’, ‘2’, or ‘3’. The codes represent the following: 1 – Democratic, 2 – Republican, or 3 – Unspecified. If no election is made, the field must be blank.
• If a primary taxpayer and/or spouse elects to contribute to the NC Public Campaign Fund in the IRS fields #0305k and #0305l, each transmitted record must contain a valid code of ‘Y’, ‘N’ or blank. If no election is made, the field must be blank.
• The generic record must be used to transmit North Carolina returns. Unformatted records containing state data will not be edited or processed.
• Only whole dollar amounts should be entered on North Carolina forms.
• If a paid tax preparer completed the return, the following fields must be present:
  • A ‘Y’ must be present in byte 1 of IRS field #0305a.
  • A paid preparer must include either his SSN or PTIN in IRS field #0050a and his EIN in IRS field #0050b, if applicable.
  • The name of the preparer, the preparer’s firm name, street address, city, state and zip code must be included in IRS fields #0050c, #0050d, #0052b, #0052c, #0052d, #0052e, #0052f, and #0300b.
• Each transmitted record must contain a valid Software Developer Code in the IRS field #0300a. The developer must provide their ID to NCDOR during PATS testing.
• Each transmitted record must contain a valid ETIN in the IRS field #0023a. Note: This is not the mailbox number, but the ETIN of the original transmitter.
• All numeric fields must be complete using the specified number of bytes if filled. These fields should be right-justified and zero filled unless otherwise specified in the generic record layout.
• If a primary taxpayer and/or spouse has a tax credit for Other Miscellaneous Income tax credits in the IRS fields #0305m thru #0305q or #0305u, each transmitted record must contain a valid code of ‘Y’, ‘N’ or blank for each field where applicable. If no tax credit is present, the field must be blank. The codes represent the following:
  • Property Taxes on Farm Machinery
  • Gleaned Crops
  • Poultry Composting
  • Handicapped Dwelling Units
  • Conservation Tillage Equipment
  • Recycling Oyster Shells

FEDERAL DATA

A complete copy of the federal data must be supplied for all returns. The federal data should be placed in the unformatted state record. The federal data should be identical to the IRS data with the exception of four characters. For these characters, a state character should be substituted for the corresponding IRS value. The characters are as follows:

Each of the unformatted state records will provide 60 lines, each of which is 80 bytes in length. All 60 lines should be used before another unformatted state record is added. Any unused space within the 80-byte data line should be filled with blanks.

The federal data must be formatted using the IRS’s formatting requirements for variable length records. NCDOR requires that the following federal forms should be submitted in the unformatted state record(s): 1040, 1040A, 1040EZ, Schedule A, Schedule C, Schedule D, Schedule E, Schedule F, Form 2106, Form 4562, Form 8829, Form 8863, 1099-R and W-2. If other federal forms are submitted, they will not be edited or processed by the NCDOR. The *IRS Summary Record, Preparer Note Record, Election Explanation Record, Regulatory Explanation Record, Authentication Record, and Foreign Employer Compensation Record (FEC) do not have to be placed in the unformatted state record. If they are included, they will not be edited or processed by the NCDOR.

NOTE: Each software package must comply with the conditions listed below. Failure to do so will affect the proper processing of taxpayer information submitted via the software. It will also affect the approval of the software.

1. If the *above noted records or statement records are included in the unformatted state record, they must be placed at the end of this record, i.e. after all tax returns, schedules and forms.
2. The following characters should not be placed in any field values in the state unformatted record:
      
                                               $          !          #          {          }
   
   Note: THE ‘$’ AND ‘{ }’SHOULD NOT BE INCLUDED IN ANY OF THE
               COMMENT FIELDS  ON ANY OF THE FEDERAL FORMS.
3. Do not split federal forms between unformatted records. If two or more unformatted records are required for a return, individual federal forms should not be divided between the two records, i.e. part of the form in one record and the remainder in the other record.
4. In the unformatted state record, do not include pages from federal forms that contain no field values.

Record Layout