Contact UsWhat is the best way to calculate and create backup for tax returns filed in arrears when the original records are lost?
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Tax Professional Answers
Judd Conway
I am assuming this question means you no longer have the records from which your would be expected to calculate your tax returns.
Go to former employers and ask them for copies of W-2s and similar documents. Go to the bank / mortgage company which handled your mortgage if you have one. Go back to every original issuer of such documents and see who can give you copies.
File a Form 4506-T with the IRS, asking for a transcript of all informational returns filed with the IRS 9The will include W-2s, 1099s, 1098 - you hope - and the like. But the IRS transcript will not have your state withholding, for example, so it's not as complete as getting the original issuer to give you a copy. Get as many bank records as you can. (My state of Oregon has a procedure to estimate the state withholding- which until this year it doesn't have on record - but I don't know what happens in other states)
Try to figure out what deductions your might have had and note down whatever information you can. (I think you get the idea - put down everything you can think of, what you remember about it and think about what records might exist.)
Once you have gone through these steps you can do the returns. How to keep copies? Photocopy what you have and store in in a safe-deposit box. Scan them and keep a copy on both your computer and a remote site (make sure you keep details records of ID and password). If you have the taxes done by a professional, check on that firm's record retention policies. (for example, as long as you are a client, I'll keep records indefinitely, but if I am not longer working on your material I only hold the files for 4 years.
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617 weeks ago
Go to former employers and ask them for copies of W-2s and similar documents. Go to the bank / mortgage company which handled your mortgage if you have one. Go back to every original issuer of such documents and see who can give you copies.
File a Form 4506-T with the IRS, asking for a transcript of all informational returns filed with the IRS 9The will include W-2s, 1099s, 1098 - you hope - and the like. But the IRS transcript will not have your state withholding, for example, so it's not as complete as getting the original issuer to give you a copy. Get as many bank records as you can. (My state of Oregon has a procedure to estimate the state withholding- which until this year it doesn't have on record - but I don't know what happens in other states)
Try to figure out what deductions your might have had and note down whatever information you can. (I think you get the idea - put down everything you can think of, what you remember about it and think about what records might exist.)
Once you have gone through these steps you can do the returns. How to keep copies? Photocopy what you have and store in in a safe-deposit box. Scan them and keep a copy on both your computer and a remote site (make sure you keep details records of ID and password). If you have the taxes done by a professional, check on that firm's record retention policies. (for example, as long as you are a client, I'll keep records indefinitely, but if I am not longer working on your material I only hold the files for 4 years.