Which tax transcripts to upload?

[M+K IL 102]

Hi!

My wife and I both filed for naturalization under the 5-year rule (she got her GC as my dependent, my employer filed under EB-2 and we got ours on the same day in 2018 - and getting interviewed on the same day too this time)

 

There are four types of tax transcripts that show up on my dashboard:

- Return Transcript (from 2019-2022)

- Record of Account Transcript (from 2019-2022)

- Account Transcript (from 2018-2022)

- Wage & Income Transcript (from 2013-2022)

 

Not sure why the discrepancy in years - also, I was not even in the country and a tax resident in 2013-2015.

The Get Transcript page recommends Return Transcript for immigration reasons, but that does not cover 5 years. And the Return Transcript actually has SSNs masked except for the last four digits. For comparison, for our mortgage our lender wanted the Wage & Income and Account transcripts instead.

 

Also, all transcript types except Wage & Income have my wife's redacted SSN and name also listed - so can she just use my transcripts or should she set up her own IRS online account and download hers? She only started working (part time) in 2023 - couldn't work as a dependent under H-4, then she went back to school and we had a kid.

 

Looking at 2022, the document lengths are

- Return Transcript: 9 pages

- Record of Account Transcript: 10 pages
- Account Transcript: 1 page (2 pages but the second is blank)

- Wage & Income Transcript: failed to be generated, file size too large -- need to submit 4506-T. I guess I'm not submitting this one

 

So... maybe return transcript (4 years) and record of account transcript (5 years) would suffice, and submit the same documents and print them out for my wife to bring? Our interviews are staggered by two hours so depending on how long it takes we are planning on bringing our own copies of documents just in case (luckily we have copies of our marriage certificate and our kid's birth certificate too, in case they are asked for)

 

Thanks!

[Mike E 11,725]

3 minutes ago, M+K IL said:

Return Transcript (from

This one

[M+K IL 102]

2 hours ago, Mike E said:

This one

Thanks. Since there's only four years for some reasons, should I upload the account transcript or wage/income from 2018 as well?

[Mike E 11,725]

37 minutes ago, M+K IL said:

Thanks. Since there's only four years

usually there is only 3.

 

Readers contemplating N-400 in 2024 or later show download all their return tax transcripts now, while they can. 

37 minutes ago, M+K IL said:

 

for

some reasons, should I upload the account transcript or wage/income from 2018 as well?

No.

 

You can order the missing transcript from the IRS, or take a chance USCIS will not care. When I naturalized I went the latter route and submitted my full tax return for the missing year. No RFE.

Edited July 3, 2023 by Mike E

[M+K IL 102]

1 hour ago, Mike E said:

usually there is only 3.

 

Readers contemplating N-400 in 2024 or later show download all their return tax transcripts now, while they can. 

No.

 

You can order the missing transcript from the IRS, or take a chance USCIS will not care. When I naturalized I went the latter route and submitted my full tax return for the missing year. No RFE.

Thanks! I'll dig around to find our tax returns. And yeah definitely going to download these each year now that I know they don't get retained

[TexasRafael 105]

In April 2023 when I uploaded my Affidavit of Support for my Spousal Visa to the NVC, I uploaded my 2021 Tax transcript and a copy of my 1040 for 2022 as the transcript was not yet available and they approved it without issue.

[M+K IL 102]

To close the loop:
 

If there are recent years in which you under-withheld, and owe IRS taxes, also upload the Account Transcript for the most recent year showing a balance of 0, *or* evidence of a payment plan.

We generally slightly over-withheld to avoid this but missed the mark in one or two years thanks to unexpected stock performances.