The Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, doesn’t have a very good way for taxpayers to check in on the status of their accounts. This is because, in general, taxpayers are expected to basically keep track of their own tax accounting. If you have a salaried job, your withholdings are printed on your paystub. If you own own business, you are expected to keep track of your own quarterly payments. And, if there is another situation, you are supposed to have records anyway, to use for filing your taxes, if nothing else.
But, what if your account situation isn’t so simple?
Tax Return Transcript
The first reason you might want a tax return transcript is that you don’t have a proper record of what information you filed on your tax return. You are supposed to keep a copy of your return for your own records, but even if you do, it can get lost or destroyed in any number of ways. Fortunately, you can order a Tax Return Transcript directly from the IRS.
A Tax Return Transcript shows most of the line items from your original tax return including important information like your total wages,adjusted gross income and taxable income. The transcript also includes the various forms you filed with your income taxes. For example, a Schedule C for your business would have its various line items reported as well.
Using the adjusted gross income from your transcript allows you to determine what tax bracket you are in, or maybe what tax bracket you’ll be in if you get married, without having to guess what your gross income turns into on your tax returns.
For some lenders, a tax transcript is good enough if you don’t have a copy of your taxes. If it isn’t, download the proper year IRS Form 1040 and recreate it with your tax transcript’s information. Just fill in the blanks. Where it says to sign and date it, just write, “Copy for File,” or something similar. Then, make a copy and give it to the lender.
Tax Account Transcript
A Tax Account Transcript is a little bit different. Rather than showing you what the lines of your tax return were, this transcript shows you what happened to your account when. For example, you may know what date you mailed your quarterly tax payment, but you wonder when the IRS actually got it, this will show.
Also, if you didn’t pay your taxes on time and had to setup a payment plan or otherwise make tax payments, the account transcript will show you when each of those occurred. A tax account transcript is also useful to verify that payments have been made by a third-party. For example, if you file bankruptcy your bankruptcy estate might make a payment toward any back taxes you owed when you filed. This is one way to find out how much that payment was, and when it occurred.
To order a tax transcript, go online directly to the IRS. Choose click the link to order your tax transcript and then choose whether you want an account transcript (payments, interest, penalties, credits) or a return transcript (what was on your 1040). Enter your Social Security number, name, date of birth and address. The automated system will send your transcript automatically in 5 to 10 days.
Keep in mind that you can only use the online system if you don’t need the transcript sent to another address, as the system will send it automatically to the address the IRS has on file for you.
Tags: IRS, irs account, tax payments, tax returns, tax transcript
Happy Easter to all. My your holiday be cheerful and merry.
Taxes for 2011 are almost due. As always, the IRS tax filing deadline for 2012 is April 15th, only it isn’t. April 15th is a Sunday and taxes are not due on weekends, especially Sundays. You don’t expect government bureaucrats to work on the weekend, do you? Not to mention, you can’t get a postmark [...]
BillGuard is an online financial services company that monitors your credit cards for fraudulent charges. On the surface, this sounds like something you don’t need. After all, if you see credit fraud on your bill you are going to do something about it. However, in this fast-paced world, it is all too common for people [...]
I’ve gotten several request lately to review Quizzle. Quizzle is an online financial service that offers, according to the bold face type, a free credit report, free credit score and various financial tools. Whenever someone points me in the direction of a personal finance company like this the first thing I check is if I [...]
There has been a lot of good news about the economy in 2012. With each passing month, it seems that unemployment drops further, the stock market goes higher, and the housing market… well, that’s why there is still a pretty big question mark out there. Economy 2012 Outlook Typically, after an economic downturn, the stock [...]
Apple (AAPL) announced that after years of building up a massive pile of cash with its record earnings that it will begin to return some of that money to shareholders. Apple will pay a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share starting in July. It will also repurchase up to $10 billion in stock over the [...]
Doing income taxes can be a trying time for many taxpayers. There are numerous forms to fill out, cumbersome calculations to perform, not to mention, the rules change every year. When you finally finish, you might end up owing a lot of taxes to the government. The IRS isn’t know for being forgiving, but that [...]
After a review of Credit Kama here on FinanceGourmet, a reader asked if I would look into another service he had found called Credit Check Total at creditchecktotal.com. Credit Check Total Review With many financial services, the reality of the offering differs significantly from what the bold, large-type headline suggests. The Credit Check Total website [...]
