How to get past w2 and 1099

After you file your 1099 form with the IRS each year, you may never need that information again. But there are numerous circumstances in which you may need to provide the income you reported for past years, such as when purchasing a new home, refinancing your existing home or applying for credit with a lending institution. If you have misplaced your tax records, and the paper trail (or digital trail) to some of your former tax records leads you to a dead end, you may still be able to retrieve the information you need.

Tips

• To get a copy of a previous year's 1099 form, you can contact the issuing company and request one or obtain a transcript or copy of your old tax return through the IRS for a fee.

How to Get a Copy of a 1099 from a Previous Year

First, contact the issuing company. Often, the easiest and quickest way to get a copy of a past-year’s 1099 is simply to contact the company that issued the 1099 to you. This form reflected your annual earnings. If your earnings were less than $600, the company was not required to issue you a 1099, even though you were required to report the amount to the IRS as taxable income. If your earnings were greater than $600, the company had to file a 1099. If the company is still in business and it still has your tax information in its files, ask for a copy. You may be charged a fee for this.

Next, contact your tax preparer. If you paid a tax preparer to file your taxes, that person or company should have retained a copy of your tax return. If the person or company is still in business, request a copy. You may have to pay a fee for this as well.

Lastly, contact the IRS. The IRS offers two options for obtaining your 1099 information from previous years: requesting a copy of your tax return or requesting a transcript of your 1099. The transcript is free, but the tax return copy carries a cost of $50. If you have been affected by a federally declared disaster, the IRS will waive the $50 fee.

1. Transcripts. A transcript is a summary of the 1099 data you sent to the IRS, which includes most of the line-item entries from your original tax return that third parties, such as lending institutions, need from you.
2. Copies. A copy of your tax return is an actual photocopy of the complete tax return, which includes the 1099 information. 

How to Request 1099 Information from the IRS

Requesting a Transcript

• Online. If you have an online IRS account, use the search on its website (IRS.gov) for "Get Transcript Online" and follow the instructions for accessing this information online. If you do not have an online IRS account, create one to get your 1099 from the IRS. 

  If you are unable to register online, or if you don't wish to create an online account, search for "Get Transcript By Mail." Follow the prompts to fill out the form to have a copy of your transcript mailed to you. 

  You'll receive your transcript typically within 10 days. * By phone. Call the IRS at 800-908-9946, which is its automated transcript order service, to request your copy of the 1099 transcript by mail.
  

Requesting a Copy of a Tax Return

• By mail. If you need a complete photocopy of a past-year tax return, which includes your 1099 information, complete Form 4506-T, "Request for Copy of Tax Return," attach payment and mail it to the IRS at the address listed on the form. Download this form from the IRS website.
  
• By phone. Call the IRS at 800-908-9946 to request a copy of the form to be mailed to you. After you submit your request, it takes up to 75 days to receive your tax form.

Ready to file your tax return but can’t find your W-2 form?

If you realized you lost a prior year W-2, there’s still hope. The process to get a copy of a W-2 can be fairly simple. In order to receive a copy of your prior year W-2, you have three options. After requesting the W-2 , create an account and start preparing your late tax return on Prior Tax.

Option #1: Get your W-2 from previous employer.

The easiest way to get a copy of a lost W-2, is to contact the employer who issued it.  The payroll department of your employer (or former employer) should be saving important tax information, such as W-2s. Ask for the W-2 to be sent to you.  This process is pretty simple and shouldn’t take much time.

Option #2: Get your W-2 from employer’s payroll provider.

Have you asked your employer for your W-2 and noticed that he mentally added the task to the very bottom of his To-Do list? If you know that your employer (or past employer) uses a payroll provider instead of calculating payroll in-office, skip the middleman and give the company a call yourself. When you call, be prepared to verify your SSN or employee number as they may ask for it. While speaking to the payroll provider, you may want to confirm the following:

• Specify the year of the W-2 form that you need sent to you.
• Verify the address they have on file for you. This is the address they will mail your W-2 to.
• Ask how long it will take for them to mail your W-2 form.

Option #3: Get your W-2 from the IRS.

If you only need the federal information that was reported on your W-2 (not an actual copy), then you’ll file form 4506-T to the IRS for free. For state withholding amounts, you will need to contact your state department of revenue.

The box you will need to make sure that is checked off is titled “Form W-2, Form 1099 series, Form 1098 series, or Form 5498 series transcript.” This alternative may be more time-consuming than reaching out to an employer. However, it requires NO hunting down of past employers to get them to spare a nano-second of their time.

What you should know when requesting previous year W-2 forms from the IRS:

• The IRS keeps copies of past W-2s (and all tax documents under your Social Security Number) from the last 7-10 years.
• The W-2s are not available from the IRS until one year after they were filed.
• You will need to fill out Form 4506-T, sign and mail, or fax it to the address/information listed on the form.
• To get a copy of the Form W-2 or Form 1099 already filed with your return, you must use Form 4506 and request a copy of your return, which includes all attachments. This requires a fee of $50.
• It may take up to 75 calendar days for the IRS to process your request.

Get started filing your prior year tax return today.

There are several roads available to you for tracking down a copy of your W-2. While contacting your employer is the quickest and cheapest way, the IRS route may be more reliable and less of a burden to you.

Once you receive the copy of the W-2, you can then use the information provided and start filing the prior year tax return. 

Tags: employer, form 4506, form 4506-T, payroll, W-2

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 18th, 2016 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Tax Tips and Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

How do I pull up an old 1099?

Can I pull up old w2?