Is it acceptable to sign form 1040 on the computer and print it with the signature?

I have a PDF of my federal tax form 1040. I want to sign it by adding an image to the PDF, then print it with the signature. It will look like my signature, but it won't produce an indentation on the page. Is this likely to cause a problem with the IRS?

If you are going to print it out and mail it in, why would you rather insert the signature via an image instead of just signing it with a pen after it is printed?

legal documents that are submitted in physical form must often bear "true" signature which is loosely defined as you signing it by hand and not using a digital signature because it serves to authenticate the document, so yes they can and often will reject it. When submitting electronically, they use your federal pin and other information to authenticate you, so the "actual" signature is not required per se. This is also not just limited to the IRS and applies to many legal documents.

I submitted my 2019 Form 1040 as a printed .pdf with an image of my signature. A few months later, after checking on status by phone and via online transcript, I received Form 3531 from the IRS requesting a "valid original signature" within 20 days. Looking over Form 1040 and also the 108-page instructions, I didn't find anything that addresses this--but hey.

2 Answers 2

The Giant Book of How To Do Your Individual Taxes, actually known as Publication 17, has a little bit of guidance in the Signatures section:

Signatures

You must sign and date your return.

…

Unable to sign. If the taxpayer is mentally competent but physically unable to sign the return or POA, a valid “signature” is defined under state law. It can be anything that clearly indicates the taxpayer's intent to sign. For example, the taxpayer's “X” with the signatures of two witnesses might be considered a valid signature under a state's law.

That gives us something to go on, in that in some circumstances at least what counts as a signature may depend on your state. I'm not sure why you're asking this question, but if you're asking because signing after printing would be physically challenging for some reason, this indicates that you may want to check your state law (or tell us your state) for some more specific direction.

In general, I would expect that in practice the person processing the return at the IRS just glances quickly to see that there's something reasonable there, and doesn't do much with it other than probably mark in their data processing system that it was signed, and I assume that they either take digital scans of submitted forms and/or store the originals in case there's a question on it. I wouldn't expect it to matter legally whether the signature is with a ballpoint pen, fountain pen, printed, or even in crayon, just that it was a signature the taxpayer produced via his or her own direction with the intent of signing and attesting that your return is complete and accurate to the best of one's knowledge. As long as there's not some sort of fraud involved, it shouldn't be a problem.

The other way to have a digital signature, of course, is to skip the paper entirely and file electronically.