Selector for IRS Transcript to receive Taxpayer Transcript Reports by the year

How and Why to Obtain Your IRS Taxpayer Transcripts

  • IRS tax transcripts are important documents that provide detailed information about a taxpayer’s tax return and account.

  • IRS tax transcripts allow a taxpayer, as well as a tax attorney representing a taxpayer to know what information the IRS has, as well as what tax filings are complete or missing

  • Obtaining your transcripts is the first step in catching up if you have back taxes to “catch up on” and file to become compliant.

If you’re read­ing this page, it’s like­ly you found it from an online search or a request by my office to obtain your IRS tran­scripts.

If we asked for your tran­scripts, and you would rather have us obtain them, we will have you sign an autho­riza­tion form and we can obtain your tax­pay­er infor­ma­tion. How­ev­er, in the inter­est of sav­ing clients’ mon­ey and time, it’s often bet­ter for the tax­pay­er to obtain them.

Hav­ing my office obtain the IRS tax tran­scripts takes longer because we have to go through the autho­riza­tion process to do so, and it does­n’t always work (~80% suc­cess rate), so it often saves the tax­pay­er mon­ey and time per­form­ing the task.

Nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex world of tax doc­u­men­ta­tion can be daunt­ing for many tax­pay­ers. One of the essen­tial doc­u­ments you might need as a tax­pay­er is an IRS tax tran­script.

There are sev­er­al key rea­sons why a tax­pay­er may want to obtain their IRS tax tran­scripts:

Ver­i­fy­ing Tax Return Accu­ra­cy: Tax tran­scripts can be used to dou­ble-check the infor­ma­tion on a tax return, ensur­ing it is com­plete and accu­rate. This can help avoid poten­tial issues or delays with the IRS. 

Apply­ing for Loans or Ben­e­fits: Tran­scripts may be required when apply­ing for a mort­gage, stu­dent loans, or gov­ern­ment ben­e­fits, as they pro­vide a con­sol­i­dat­ed sum­ma­ry of a tax­pay­er’s tax infor­ma­tion. 

Track­ing Tax Account Changes: Account tran­scripts show any changes made to a tax return after it was filed, such as addi­tion­al pay­ments or adjust­ments. This can be help­ful for tax­pay­ers to mon­i­tor their account. 

Obtain­ing Income Doc­u­men­ta­tion: Wage and income tran­scripts list the income forms (W‑2s, 1099s, etc.) report­ed to the IRS, which can be use­ful if a tax­pay­er is miss­ing these doc­u­ments. 

To obtain IRS tax tran­scripts, tax­pay­ers can request them online through their IRS account, by phone, or by mail using Form 4506‑T.  The fastest way gen­er­al­ly is right online at the IRS web­site https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript

IRS website button to get taxpayer transcripts

Once at https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript, you will click the blue but­ton “Get tran­script online.”

From there, you will be required to ver­i­fy your iden­ti­ty with “ID.me” Gen­er­al­ly the process is rel­a­tive­ly easy, as you’ll be asked ques­tions you are the only one who knows (Although, it would­n’t be a sur­prise if one spouse can answer the ques­tions for the oth­er if you’ve been mar­ried as long as I have).

IRS transcript ID green and white verification button

The next step once you’re set­up with ID.me is to receive a code by phone or text.

IRS transcript ID.Me username and password to log in

After hav­ing your iden­ti­fi­ca­tion con­firmed, you will reach a page that asks for the pur­pose of the tran­scripts. “Select a rea­son you need a tran­script:” any answer is fine and does­n’t impact your abil­i­ty to obtain tran­scripts (in the con­text you don’t require any rea­son beyond you want to obtain your infor­ma­tion). That said, your selec­tion does impact the options avail­able and for that rea­son, I sug­gest “Fed­er­al Tax” as that will pro­vide the most options avail­able. You don’t need to enter any­thing for Cus­tomer File Num­ber if you’re obtain­ing tran­scripts for your­self.

IRS transcript type selector button

Once you select Fed­er­al Tax and arrive at the next screen, you will see tran­script tax years under sev­er­al cat­e­gories.
Selector for IRS Transcript to receive Taxpayer Transcript Reports by the year
Return Tran­script includes the key infor­ma­tion on your pre­vi­ous tax returns.
Record of Account Tran­script will show amounts owed or refund for any giv­en year along with oth­er rel­e­vant infor­ma­tion, includ­ing penal­ties and inter­est, if any.
Account Tran­script is sim­i­lar to Record of Account Tran­script in so much as it pro­vides relat­ed infor­ma­tion.
And final­ly, you have Wage & Income Tran­script that informs the tax­pay­er what the IRS has for infor­ma­tion regard­ing the tax­pay­er, such as 1099s, W2s, etc…
You can select any year that is appro­pri­ate for your records and/or infor­ma­tion. If you have been asked by me to obtain tran­scripts, you will want to save all avail­able tran­scripts avail­able, and orga­nize them in fold­ers, using the nam­ing con­ven­tion of (for exam­ple) “Account Tran­script 2022” for each doc­u­ment.
Do NOT save them as is, with­out nam­ing each doc­u­ment as the type of doc­u­ment and the year, unless you want my office to so so (which increas­es the cost as an accoun­tant in my office will have to do so to keep it orga­nized as a ‘book­keep­ing’ expense).
Alter­na­tive­ly, you can have the IRS Tax Tran­scripts mailed to you. This is the slow method, albeit some­times, for what­ev­er rea­son, the only method avail­able. The tran­scripts are typ­i­cal­ly deliv­ered with­in 5–10 busi­ness days.
In sum­ma­ry, IRS tax tran­scripts pro­vide valu­able infor­ma­tion that can help tax­pay­ers ensure the accu­ra­cy of their returns, track their tax accounts, and obtain nec­es­sary doc­u­men­ta­tion — mak­ing them a use­ful tool for any tax­pay­er.