Have You Heard About Tax Transcripts

Did you know that you can request a tax transcript, similar to those transcripts you needed throughout school, pretty easily from the IRS?

Now, you may be wondering, “Why would I need a tax transcript? It’s getting toward the end of the summer and tax season is way over and school has been over. Why bring up transcripts now? We don’t need no stinking transcripts!”

True, you may not need a tax transcript. But these little guys come packed with some pretty useful information if you want to work on your upcoming tax returns or if you need to amend a prior one. Additionally, a lot of this information is necessary if you want to apply for a home or business loan or for financial aid. So it might be good to know how to get a hold of your tax transcript. You know, for future reference.

You can get a tax transcript for the current tax year and one for each of the past three years, which is usually enough to cover any info you’ll need. Tax return transcripts are going to have most of what was on your reported tax return from that year, as well as what was on any accompanying forms or schedules. Tax account transcripts have your marital status, return type, adjusted gross income, and taxable income. It’ll also include any changes you or the IRS made to your return after you filed it.

There are a few different ways you can get your tax transcript for your individual return:

• Online - You can view and print your transcripts online by going to the IRS’s website and using their tax transcript tool. You will need to create an online account with the IRS for this option if you don’t already have one.
• Phone - To order your tax transcript over the phone, call (800) 908-9946 and follow the prompts. If you have the IRS2Go mobile app, you can use this to request a transcript as well.
• Fax - You can request a tax transcript by completing Form 4506T-EZ and faxing it to:
• (512) 460-2272, if you filed a return in AL, KY, LA, MS, TN, TX, a foreign country, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands, or have an APO or FPO address.
• (559) 456-7227, if you filed a return in AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, UT, WA, WI, or WY.
• (855) 821-0094, if you filed a return in CT, DE, D.C., FL, GA, ME, MD, MS, MO, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, or WV.
• Mail - Lastly, you can snail mail you request for a tax transcript by mailing Form 4506T-EZ to one of the following locations:
• Filers and residents of AL, KY, LA, MS, TN, TX, a foreign country, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands, or have an APO or FPO address, mail your form to RAIVS Team, Stop 6716 AUSC, Austin, TX 73301.
• Filers and residents of AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, UT, WA, WI, or WY, mail your form to RAIVS Team, Stop 37106, Fresno, CA 93888.
• Filers and residents of CT, DE, D.C., FL, GA, ME, MD, MA, MO, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, RI, SC, VT, VA, or WV, mail your forms to RAIVS Team, Stop 6705 P-6, Kansas City, MO 64999.

Businesses! Heads up, because your fax and mailing options are a little different. To request a tax transcript for your business, you’ll need to complete Form 4506-T. And, again, depending on where you are depends on where you’ll send it.

• If your business was in AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, FL, HI, ID, IA, KS, LA, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY, a foreign country, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the US Virgin Islands, or APO or FPO address
• fax your form to (801) 620-6922 or
• mail it to Internal Revenue Service, RAIVS Team, P.O. Box 9941, Mail Stop 6734, Ogden, UT 84409.
• If your business was in CT, DE, D.C., GA, IL, IN, KY, ME, MD, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, NC, OH, PA, RI, SC, TN, VT, VA, WV, or WI
• fax your form to (859) 669-3592 or
• mail it to Internal Revenue Service, RAIVS Team, P.O. Box 145500, Stop 2800 F, Cincinnati, OH 45250.

Stay tuned with ExpressIRSForms for more tax tips as we get ready for the next filing season! If you have any questions about e-filing with us in the meantime, we’re happy to answer. Just give us a call at (704) 684-4751 or send us an email to support@ExpressIRSForms.com.

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2015 Tax Filing Deadlines

Welcome back, folks!

We hope you had a great holiday weekend and are looking forward to jumping right into your 2015 tax filings this Monday morning! Oh, who are we kidding? Any one of us would hit a snooze button to delay thinking about filing for at least another week in a heartbeat if we could.

Although, that’s not to say that you can’t: in the spirit of the holidays, we’ll let it slide if you want to put off looking at your filings until next year/week. But before you go popping the champagne early, keep in mind that you’ve got some deadlines coming up. So take a look at the dates below, think about the amount of forms you’ll need to file, and determine if it’s time to own up to the responsibility or if it’s time for a glass of bubbly:

March 31, 2016
March 31st is the date by which copies of the ACA forms you’re filing will need to be sent out to your recipients. Normally, this due date is scheduled for January 31st of the year following the year for which you’re reporting but the IRS has extended this deadline for the 2015 tax year.

May 31, 2016
If you’re paper filing your ACA forms, you’ll need to have them sent to the IRS by May 31st. The official wording of the rule is “the last day of February following the year for which you’re filing,” so in future years, this due date will be February 28th or 29th.

June 30, 2016
And for the e-filers: your ACA forms 1095 and 1094 will need to be transmitted to the IRS by 11:59 p.m. (your time zone) on June 30th. But even though you can literally wait until the last minute to e-file, we recommend giving yourself a few days (or hours at least) to file before the deadline so you can avoid any issues with heavy site traffic or computer errors. And remember: after 2016, this due date will be March 31st of each year.

So be sure to keep these dates in mind as the new year approaches. If you miss one you're required to meet, you could face some serious penalties. You know better than we do how long it’ll take you to complete those  Form 1099s, Form W-2s, or ACA forms (although you might want to knock some of your estimated time off - our name is ExpressIRSForms, after all), so we won’t tell you that you have to start now. But it couldn’t hurt, either.

And if you need any help along the way, give us a call at (704) 839-2270, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST, or send us an email anytime at support@expressirsforms.com!

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