Requesting Copies of Prior Year Tax Information from IRS

You can request a transcript of your prior year tax information from the IRS by either going online to the IRS website at www.irs.gov , by calling the IRS, or by mailing in IRS Form 4506-T.

This is available to you free of charge from the IRS.

If you paid someone to prepare your tax return, you can also request a photocopy of the return from your paid preparer. Usually you will be charged for the photocopy based on the number of pages.

There are two choices when ordering prior year information from the IRS:

1.  A Tax Return Transcript :  This is not a photocopy of your tax return but it is a transcript listing of the information on your tax return as it was originally filed.

2.  A Tax Account Transcript :  This is similar to the tax return transcript, but will also include additional information such as filing status, marital status, taxable income and and later adjustments to the return made by the IRS or by you.

If you are going to order you might want to go ahead and order the more complete Tax Account Transcript.  If you are not sure if any adjustments were made to your return in prior years, this Tax Account Transcript would give you that information.

Consider: Consider ordering the current year and 3 prior years for your Tax Account Transcript records to give you a more complete history of your records and protection.

How To:   www.IRS.gov  to download IRS Form 4506-T