The Internal Revenue Service provides free downloads of any of the federal income tax forms you could ever need, including many you will likely never need, at their website www.irs.gov. In addition to the free downloads people without internet access can easily pick up free forms at tax time at their local post office, library, or IRS center or office. You can receive your forms by mail every year at no charge simply by filling a mail in return or by requesting to receive the booklet and form when you e-file.

The most frequently requested federal income tax forms are form W-4, form W-9, form 1040, form SS4, and form 1040X.

Form W-4 is the form each person fills out when starting a new job on which the number of deductions and filing status is listed.

Form W-9 is a request for a taxpayer identification number which is required for work that a person does without withholding taxes such as contract and freelance work. This form will cause the employer to generate a form 1099 for the work done at the end of the year to be claimed as income.

Form 1040 is the form that most wage-earners will use to file their federal income taxes. From 1040X is for amendments to form 1040.

Form 1040EZ is designed for people with very simple tax lives who do not need to itemize their deductions.

Form SS4 is a form that requests an Employer Identification Number for people who intend to employ others in the course of running their businesses. All of these popular forms can be requested and/or downloaded right from the main landing page of the IRS website.

In addition to these basic federal income tax forms, a variety of other less common forms can be downloaded at the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html. Included on this page are hot links to state income tax sites and forms, instructions for filling out tax forms, and other websites that provide important federal tax forms such as www.fedforms.gov and www.business.gov.

From the forms page of the IRS website, users can also order a variety of forms and publication by US mail, tax packages, employer forms and instructions, specialty distribution program products, tax products on CD and DVD, or purchase certain popular commercial tax products. The IRS does not want you to have any trouble getting the form you need. Finding out which form you need might be another issue, but once you know, you can get the form in any of at least half a dozen ways if not more.

If you are one of those people who just has a passion for keeping up with all the latest changes to federal tax law and how those changes are reflected in the current and future IRS stable of forms, you can read up the latest at http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=97397,00.html.

The IRS also posts general news about forms and IRS changes and requirements at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/index.html and much of this news is interesting to just about anyone. For instance, the news page includes some good articles about how the Alternative Minimum Tax will affect 2008 tax returns and forms, and also an update on the forms and steps needed to take deductions for hybrid cars and alternative-fuel vehicles.

Finally, if you survived Hurricane Katrina and are still patiently waiting for all the great help the federal government promised during the aftermath of that disaster, you can read up on which forms and actions you might need as of right now to keep pursuing that help at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=148203,00.html.