An IRS transcript shows a line-by-line summary of your federal tax information, and what appears depends on which of the five transcript types you pull. Between them, they cover the figures from your original Form 1040, the running record of adjustments and payments the IRS made afterward, the W-2s and 1099s third parties reported under your Social Security number, a combined view of return plus account activity, and a simple confirmation that no return was filed for a given year. What does an IRS transcript show in practice? That depends entirely on which one you request, so it helps to know what each contains before you order.
Tax Return Transcript
A tax return transcript reproduces the key line items from the Form 1040 you originally filed. You see your adjusted gross income, filing status, taxable income, deductions, and credits exactly as they appeared when the IRS first processed your return. If you filed schedules like Schedule C for business income or Schedule E for rental income, the figures from those forms show up as well.
The important limitation: this transcript is frozen at the moment of initial processing. If you later filed an amended return on Form 1040-X, those corrections will not appear here. To see post-filing changes, you need the tax account transcript or the record of account transcript.
Return transcripts are available for the current tax year and three prior years.1Internal Revenue Service. Transcript Services for Individuals – FAQs If you e-filed, the transcript typically becomes available about two to three weeks after submission.2Internal Revenue Service. Transcript Availability Paper-filed returns take longer. This is the transcript mortgage lenders most commonly request to verify that your reported income matches what the IRS has on file.
Tax Account Transcript
Where the return transcript is a snapshot, the account transcript is a running ledger. It tracks everything that happened on your account for a given tax year after the original return was processed: adjustments from IRS corrections, penalty assessments, interest charges, and every payment you made. If the IRS changed your return after a math error review or an audit, those changes appear here along with the resulting balance.
Penalties show up as distinct line items. The failure-to-file penalty runs 5% of unpaid tax for each month your return is late, up to a 25% maximum.3Internal Revenue Service. Failure to File Penalty The failure-to-pay penalty is smaller at 0.5% per month and also caps at 25%.4Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 653, IRS Notices and Bills, Penalties and Interest Charges Both appear with transaction codes, so you can see exactly what was assessed and when.
Account transcripts are available for the current year and nine prior years through your IRS online account, though requests by mail or phone are limited to the current year and three prior years.1Internal Revenue Service. Transcript Services for Individuals – FAQs Estimated tax payments, payroll withholding, and credits carried from a prior year each appear as separate entries, so this is the transcript to check when you want to confirm a balance has been paid in full.
Wage and Income Transcript
This transcript is built entirely from information reported to the IRS by third parties. Employers submit W-2 forms showing your salary and withholding. Banks and investment firms send various 1099 forms for interest, dividends, and other income. Mortgage servicers file Form 1098 for interest you paid, and retirement account custodians file Form 5498 for IRA and HSA contributions.5Internal Revenue Service. Transcript or Copy of Form W-2 The transcript compiles all of it under your Social Security number.
People reach for this transcript when they’ve lost a W-2 or 1099 and need to reconstruct a prior year’s income for filing. It’s available for the current tax year and nine prior years, though current-year data generally doesn’t populate until the first week of February, after employers finish their reporting.6Internal Revenue Service. Transcript Types for Individuals and Ways to Order Them One thing it doesn’t include: state or local tax information, even if that data appeared on the original W-2.5Internal Revenue Service. Transcript or Copy of Form W-2
Record of Account Transcript
The record of account transcript combines the return transcript and the account transcript into a single document. You get both the original line items from your filing and the full post-filing history of adjustments, payments, and penalties for that tax year. If you only want to pull one document and need the complete picture, this is it.
Like the return transcript, the record of account is available for the current year and three prior years.1Internal Revenue Service. Transcript Services for Individuals – FAQs It’s useful when you’re working with a tax professional to resolve a balance or dispute, since they can see what you originally claimed and what the IRS did with it afterward without needing two separate documents.
Verification of Non-Filing Letter
A verification of non-filing letter is the IRS confirming it has no record of a processed return for a specific year. This is not a data-rich transcript. It states only that you didn’t file, and it does not tell you whether you were legally required to. It confirms the absence of a return on record, nothing more.
Financial aid offices are the most common requesters. If you’re a student or parent completing the FAFSA and didn’t earn enough to require a tax return, the school may ask for this letter as proof. For the current tax year, the letter isn’t available until after June 15. For the three prior tax years, you can request it anytime. Older years require a Form 4506-T submission.6Internal Revenue Service. Transcript Types for Individuals and Ways to Order Them
Reading the Transaction Codes
Every entry on a tax account transcript or record of account transcript is tagged with a three-digit transaction code. These are the IRS’s internal shorthand. Hundreds exist, but a handful appear on almost every transcript, and knowing them keeps you from assuming the worst when a cryptic number shows up.
- Code 150: Your return has been filed and processed. The dollar amount next to it is your assessed tax liability for that year. This is typically the first substantive code on any transcript.
- Code 806: Federal tax withheld from your W-2 wages. The amount appears as a credit reducing what you owe.
- Code 766: A refundable tax credit has been applied to your account, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit or Child Tax Credit. Like withholding, this reduces your balance.
- Code 846: A refund has been issued. The date next to this code is when the IRS sent the money, and the amount is what you’ll receive.
- Code 570: A hold has been placed on your account, labeled “Additional Account Action Pending.” This freezes refund processing while the IRS verifies information.
- Code 971: A notice or letter has been sent to you. When it follows Code 570, it usually means the IRS is requesting additional information or verification of your identity.7Taxpayer Advocate Service. Identity Verification and Your Tax Return
- Code 571: Reversal of Code 570. The hold has been released and processing can continue.8Internal Revenue Service. 6209 Section 8 Master File Codes
- Code 420: Your return has been selected for examination. An unreversed Code 420 on your transcript indicates an open audit.9Internal Revenue Service. Examination Issues
What to Do If You See Code 570
Code 570 is where most people panic, but it’s usually routine. The IRS places this hold when something on your return needs a second look, whether that’s a mismatch between your reported income and third-party data, a credit that requires verification, or a potential identity theft flag. In most cases, the hold resolves on its own within two to four weeks without any action from you.
Watch your transcript for what follows. If Code 571 appears, the hold has been lifted and Code 846 (refund issued) should show up shortly after. If Code 971 appears instead, the IRS has mailed you a notice. That notice might ask you to verify your identity or explain a discrepancy on your return. Calling won’t speed up a Code 570 hold. The more productive step is checking your online account for digital copies of any notices the IRS has sent.
What Code 420 Means for You
Code 420 is less common and more consequential. It means the IRS has selected your return for an examination. This doesn’t always mean a full audit where an agent sits across a table from you. It can also mean a correspondence audit, where the IRS mails questions about specific items on your return. Either way, you should expect a formal notice explaining what the IRS wants to review and what documentation you need to provide.
What’s Redacted
The IRS partially masks Social Security numbers on transcripts, displaying only the last four digits in a format like XXX-XX-1234.10Internal Revenue Service. What Are We Doing to Protect Taxpayer Privacy Your full financial data still appears, but the most sensitive identifier is protected. If a lender pulls your transcript through the Income Verification Express Service, they receive it with the same masking applied.11Internal Revenue Service. Income Verification Express Service (IVES)
Transcripts are free to request through your IRS Individual Online Account or by mailing Form 4506-T; online access is immediate, mail delivery runs 5 to 10 calendar days.12Internal Revenue Service. Get Your Tax Records and Transcripts If you need an exact photocopy of the return you filed rather than a transcript summary, that’s a certified copy, ordered on Form 4506 for $30 per return.13Internal Revenue Service. Request for Copy of Tax Return – Form 4506 For most purposes, a transcript covers what you need.