One of the first things I learned in my IRS Taxpayer Service training, back during the last millennium, was that “the form is your friend.” I can still picture the veteran Taxpayer Service Representative from Quincy, Illinois, drilling the class with that reminder.

It’s true, most of the time. If you’re unsure of the results, just complete the form and it will lead you to the correct answer. Even with the 4797, which is much more difficult if you try to use the Intuit worksheets instead of completing the form, where “line by line works fine.”

But on rare occasions, the form can be your enemy. You need to know the law so that you know what the result should be, and then plug the numbers into the form to arrive there. That’s the case when you have a complicated Section l031 exchange. As @George4Tacks  points out, then the instructions might be your friend. Just don’t be a square-peg slave to a round-hole master.