Professional Editions: Integrated E-Signatures – E-Signature Events
Table of contents
Overview
Beginning with Tax Year 2026, E-Signatures will be offered through TaxAct Professional’s new Client Portals software. While the e-signature experience may look a little different, the new solution is designed to give professional tax preparers more flexibility, lower-cost signature options, and a more integrated client collaboration experience.
Signature Options
As part of this change, you will have access to two signature options: Basic E-Signature Events and KBA E-Signature Events. This allows you to choose the appropriate level of authentication based on the document, client situation, and your firm’s compliance requirements.
- Basic E-Signature Events provide a lower-cost option when knowledge-based authentication is not needed.
- KBA E-Signature Events remain available when a higher level of signer verification is required.
NOTE: E-Signatures will continue to work the same way in the Tax Year 2025 software through the Tax Year 2025 filing and extension season. These changes take effect starting with the Tax Year 2026 filing season.
Client Portals Required
If you want to use E-Signatures within TaxAct Pro 2026, you will need to purchase a Client Portals subscription. Client Portals is an annual subscription. E-Signature Events are purchased separately from the Client Portals subscription.
TIP: While E-Signatures through Client Portals will not be available until Tax Year 2026, you can start using Client Portals now. See Professional Editions: Client Portals – Overview for more information. A free trial is also available.
For Tax Year 2025, you may continue using the legacy E-Signature workflow in TaxAct Pro 2025 until your purchased envelopes and KBAs expire on December 31, 2026. In 2027, plans include offering the new E-Signatures in the prior year, Tax Year 2025, software.
Basic and KBA E-Signature Events
Basic E-Signature Events are intended for situations where an electronic signature is needed but knowledge-based authentication is not required. This option gives your firm a cost-effective way to collect signatures securely through Client Portals.
KBA E-Signature Events are used for documents that require Knowledge-Based Authentication. With KBA, the signer must complete an identity verification step before signing. KBA is appropriate when your firm, the document type, or applicable compliance requirements require a higher level of signer authentication.
- Basic E-Signature Events can be used for PDFs that do not include Form 8878 or Form 8879.
- KBA E-Signature Events are required for PDFs that contain Form 8878 or Form 8879, according to IRS guidelines.
E-Signature Event Cost
Each Basic E-Signature Event costs $1.25.
Each KBA E-Signature Event costs $2.50.
NOTE: Volume discounts will be available for firms that purchase higher quantities of E-Signature Events. Additional details will be provided in Fall 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Each E-Signature Event allows for the capture of all signatures in a single PDF. This can include multiple pages with signature fields, and taxpayer/spouse signatures that occur in that PDF.
- An event is used when your firm sends a signature request through Client Portals. The cost per event depends on whether the request uses a Basic event or a KBA event.
- Every additional PDF that needs to be signed will use an additional E-Signature Event.
- If a document is not included in the original PDF, but later needs to be signed, that second signature document will require another E-Signature Event.
The event types are not interchangeable. If you exhaust one type, you must purchase additional events of that same type to continue using that option.
You may sign E-File Authorization forms for 1040, 1065, 1120S, and 1120 returns; states supported signature forms; and the bank application. In addition, you may upload PDF documents to sign.
The following states support E-Signature: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Beginning with tax year 2026, files must be a PDF and there is no size limit.
TaxAct supports KBA verification.
KBA stands for Knowledge Based Authentication, an authentication method in which the user provides answers to previously established “secret” questions to verify the user’s identity.
A taxpayer may only go through KBA three (3) times.
No.
Yes. When prompted, the signer selects which taxpayer is signing, and each signer can sign in multiple places on the document (a document currently supports up to two signees). On a Married Filing Jointly return, both the taxpayer and the spouse must each complete the signing (and KBA) steps. Note: the current version supports a single household address for both spouses — KBA must match both to that address, so avoid sending an event if you are unsure both have lived at the address on the return, since events are non-refundable.
Not necessarily. If you send the signature documents through the same portal used for that taxpayer in a prior year, they are recognized as having a multi-year business relationship with your firm and are not re-prompted for KBA — consistent with the IRS identity-verification rules (IRS Publication 1345). Each set of signature documents still uses one E-Signature Event, even when KBA is not required.
Yes. Remote e-signatures are captured using Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA), which fulfills the IRS identity-verification requirements for remotely signing e-file authorization forms such as Form 8879 (IRS Publication 1345). Established multi-year clients signing through the same portal may not be re-prompted for KBA, consistent with the IRS “multi-year business relationship” provision.