5320.20: who files a lot of them?

**BigWaylon** · 08-02-16, 13:37

**BigWaylon** · 09-19-16, 21:40

As info...

Mailed 9/1
Delivered 9/6 (they were closed on Sat per USPS tracking, and then Labor Day)
Approved 9/10 (yes, on Sat)
Postmarked 9/16
Received 9/19

Not too bad.

They accepted my homemade forms again, and also accepted "all lawful purposes" as the reason, or at least that's what I think I put.

**Jwknutson17** · 09-20-16, 16:50

BigWaylon, They signed off on all of mine also. Thank you again for sending me the template.

**BigWaylon** · 09-20-16, 19:39

Originally Posted by Jwknutson17

BigWaylon, They signed off on all of mine also. Thank you again for sending me the template.

Glad to hear it. Assume you found it fairly easy to use? Much more convenient than doing multiple forms for multiple states? I'll take any positive or negative feedback to make it better if possible, but I think it's pretty slick in its current version.

**BSAGCA** · 03-06-17, 09:31

BigWaylon - many thanks for the form. Your template (updated to include the changes you referenced above) a several hour exercise into 15-20 minutes mostly spent gathering and typing in the Serial Numbers etc. Now that I have the template filled out with all the data, next year won't take 5 minutes to get the email out.

Using the email method to submit the forms, I got them back in just under 2 weeks. I was afraid the scanned file would be too large and get bounced back since I had 12 states' sheets included.

**BigWaylon** · 03-06-17, 10:53

Glad to hear it. As info, I've updated them all again. Very minor changes based on a 5320.20 that came out last year I must've missed.

The list of changes I noticed:
1. Now says "county" for both From and To locations (used to say "country" on From and "county" on To
2. Both From and To say "zip code" instead of "zip"
3. The note above #12 was reformatted to be 3 lines (instead of 4)
4. The note above #14 was reformatted to be 1 line (instead of 2)
5. The NFAFax@atf.gov email address was added to Instruction "b"
6. The "a facsimile signature is not acceptable" sentence was removed from Instruction "c"
7. A couple other very minor formatting changes, which didn't change the content

**BigWaylon** · 03-18-17, 12:54

One little tip for anybody that is using my form...

In an effort to save a little more time, I figured out how to add my signature to the form. No more printing, signing and then scanning. It now means my filing process each year is simply:
1. Open file.
2. Change the year for the travel dates (the date next to my signature autopopulates).
3. Print to PDF (I have something called "AT&T PDF Writer" on my work laptop. When I print, I simply have that selected as my printer, and I end up with a PDF instead of a paper copy.
4. Attach PDF to email and send.

Can't imagine it taking more than 60 seconds.

For anybody that wants to give it a shot, here's the how-to I found: http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2007/...ting_a_tran_1/ (I used the part under "An easier way...")
Pretty much:
1. Sign a blank piece of paper (signature basically the size you'll need on the form)
2. Scan as a TIFF file (luckily my all-in-one at home does this)
3. Open TIFF in Word and change background color to transparent
4. Copy/paste TIFF onto each form

Took a couple times to get it right, or at least close enough for me. It actually looks better in Excel. It almost looks real in this format:

But when I print to PDF, you can see a rectangular shape around the signature, kinda like you're looking through a glass or water. This is zoomed in, so at full size it's really nothing I'm concerned about...especially since they removed the wording about all signatures must be in ink, with facsimiles not accepted. (The actually include the fax number and email address in the Instructions)

I may mess around with it again sometime before I file my 2018 forms in the fall, but I can't imagine it being an issue.