FAQ: 4506-T

Sometimes you or a third party individual or company might need to retrieve past tax return transcripts from the Internal Revenue Service, including W-2 Wage and Tax Statement, 1099 Miscellaneous Income, 1040 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, 1120 U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return and 1065 U.S. Return of Partnership Income transcripts. IRS Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return, is the document you must use to make the request.

It is important that you understand that Form 4506-T is not the same as Form 4506. While Form 4506-T helps you retrieve transcripts, Form 4506 helps you retrieve literal photocopies of returns. Additionally, Form 4506-T only allows you to request transcripts for the last four years of returns.

If you send your request direct to the Internal Revenue Service, your signature remains on file for 120 days. The IRS can take up to 60 days to send you or a third party the transcripts, but requests are often fulfilled in 10 days or less. Keep in mind that if you filed an extension for last year’s taxes, then you need to wait to submit your request since it usually takes approximately six to eight weeks from the time you submitted your documents for the IRS to update your taxpayer data. To prevent a rejection, you must watch out for common Form 4506-T errors, such as missing information, difficult to read handwriting and mixed up current and previous addresses details.

You can also use a transcript retrieval service or “bulk vendor.” Because these companies make bulk requests, they can usually provide you or your designated third party with requested transcripts in two days or less. That said, because of IRS policies, no vendor can typically provide you with transcripts on the same day of your request, especially under eight hours. Transcript retrieval companies charge a fee for their services. The prices vary based on different factors