Loan applications or any other request for financial assistance is likely to make you provide the previous copies of your tax return. These records are important and they might be needed at such a point when you are not able to locate where you placed them. In that case, you will have to face the IRS officials to process them for you. Keep on reading this document to learn how you can quickly request for copies or transcripts of your past tax returns.
Tax Return Copy against Transcript
Two ways of getting any information about your tax from IRS exists. You can either place a request for a transcript or a copy of your tax return. Many taxpayers resort to requesting a copy of tax return as opposed to the transcript. What they don’t know is that transcript may give the needed information much faster compared to a copy of tax information.
Transcript
This is generally a computer-generated tax information of your tax return. It may contain information such as the adjusted gross income, amount due, and many more. A transcript can also be accompanied by other forms and schedules. However, it is important to note that a transcript will not reflect any changes made to your tax record after it was already filed. Transcript show records of up to three years behind and the request for processing it takes a maximum of 10 days.
Copy
This document is a replica of the tax return you filed and it entails processed returns together with all its attachments including Form W-2. A copy of tax return is usually submitted to the IRS official for authentication. This copy can show record dating back to 6 years but for it takes a longer time than transcript to be processed. Usually, the IRS can take up to 75 days to give you a copy.
Apart from the advantage of time, a transcript has all the required tax records for you to get a loan from any financial institution. Many banks, if not all, will accept a transcript as the wait for a copy of tax return is still on. However, a transcript is not a valid document to present the record of your tax return in some legal matters such as child adoption. In the mentioned case, only a certified copy of your tax return from IRS is acceptable.
How to Place a Request for a Past Year Tax Return
You will need to inform the IRS official either by phone or by writing an email to them to place your request for your tax return. A tax transcript is provided for free in most cases whereas you will need to pay $50 per return for a copy of tax return.
Tax Transcript
To obtain your tax transcript, you are required to file Form 4506-T which indicates your request for a transcript of a tax return or Form 4506T-EZ when placing a request for a short form individual tax return. It is important to know that Form 4506T-EZ can only be used to place a request for Form 1040 series transcript which is preserved for taxpayers who are want to acquire, modify, or refinance a home mortgage.
Request a transcript over the telephone by directly calling the IRS at 1-800-908-9946, and then follow the prompts in the voice message that you will hear.
Tax Return Copy
You can obtain a replica of your tax return by filling out Form 4506. You can tick the checkbox on line six of this form if you want it verified by the IRS before delivered to you.
Before completing the process, or terminating it, remember that a copy of tax return costs $50 per tax return requested. Therefore, you are advised to submit this fee and also file a separate Form 4506 for each tax return that you request.
It is a good idea that many people ignore but keeping copies of your tax returns for a period not less than 3 years can save you a lot of headaches when you want to access emergency loans. There are some institutions which can help you store your tax return records for many years. Alternatively, you can keep them as a digital data in your personal computer and retrieve them later if needed for whatever reasons.
