While there does not appear to be any reference on Form 1040 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return nor in the IRS instructions requiring that a return contain taxable income, adjustments to income, tax liability, credits, other taxes, or tax payments, the IRS does have a rejection code that will reject any return e-filed that does not contain one of those items. Due to this rejection code, the only way to file a return without one of the items mentioned is to paper file.

If the mentioned amounts (at least one of them) are not completed on Form 1040, then the return will need to be filed on paper. For example, if a return only has a Schedule K-1 with an unallowed passive loss, causing the Form 1040 to remain blank, the return cannot be e-filed, per IRS e-File specifications.

Note that any link in the information above is updated each year automatically and will take you to the most recent version of the document at the time it is accessed.