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Unfortunately, I can speak from personal experience on this subject. In November of 2014 I was notified by a Federal agency that an increase in the cost of one of my benefits had occurred, and that my new monthly net benefits had been significantly reduced. If I wished to file an appeal of this decision, the agency required that I provide documentary support for my prior years taxable income. Fortunately, the agency would accept a transcript (instead of a complete copy) of all of the tax returns from the Internal Revenue Service. As this article will state, transcripts are immediately available to you at no cost from the IRS website. You may obtain either a “Tax Return Transcript” or a “Tax Account Transcript”, or both. These documents are available for the most recent prior three year periods.
In most cases, either or both of these documents will provide the agency or entity with all of the information that is required. There are many different reasons for which you may need a copy of your tax return information from a prior year. You may need it when applying for a student loan, a home mortgage application, rental agreement or lease application, or for a VISA card or Master Card.  As the article below will state, obtaining a copy of your entire tax return, which can be requested for any of the six prior years, costs $50.00 per copy, and can take up to six or seven weeks to obtain from the IRS. (more…)