IRS Forms Being Sent Out to Taxpayers Today : Taxes: The new returns look very much like last year’s but must still be filed by April 16.

Taxpayers receive their annual holiday greetings from Uncle Sam starting today, as the Internal Revenue Service mails out more than 107 million tax forms and instruction packages.

The forms, which have been waiting at post offices across the nation for weeks, should be in most taxpayers’ hands before Jan. 1.

The IRS always times the mailing, which costs $26 million for postage and printing, to come right after the crush of Christmas mail but soon enough to give taxpayers as much time as possible to complete their returns before the filing deadline, which falls this year on April 16.

For taxpayers still reeling from the sweeping changes wrought by the 1986 Tax Reform Act, the IRS has reassuring words: The new forms look very much like last year’s forms.

But to the chagrin of IRS officials, one of the few changes should not have been made and it could confuse millions of elderly Americans.

The IRS is trying to get the word out to taxpayers eligible for Medicare that they should ignore the lines on the tax form covering the supplemental Medicare premium. Congress did away with the premium along with the catastrophic health program it was designed to fund.

But Congress did not vote to repeal the controversial program until late November, long after the IRS forms had gone to the printers.

The IRS hopes to keep confusion to a minimum through a publicity campaign to get word to the 12 million elderly taxpayers who could be affected. In addition, IRS officials note that the form taxpayers would need to compute their Medicare premium tax liability, Form 8808, does not exist.

“We believe that taxpayers will not want to pay taxes that they don’t have to pay,” said IRS official Arthur Altman.

But Altman said that if taxpayers still include an amount on the Medicare premium line, the IRS will refund the money.

This year’s returns are accompanied by a special pitch from new IRS Commissioner Fred T. Goldberg Jr., who urges taxpayers to consider filing their returns electronically to cut down on the time it takes to process their refund checks.

The IRS is providing a special toll-free telephone number, 1-800-424-1040, for people to call for a list of tax preparers in their area who can file returns electronically.

In 1988, two-thirds of all taxpayers qualified for a refund, with the average refund totaling $875.