To help improve turn times and streamline the tax transcripts request process, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has recently released its new 4506-C form. This new form meets the standards of their anticipated OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software.
The new 4506-C form can be found here.
You can begin using this new form as soon as today. Both versions of the Form 4506-C will be accepted through February 28, 2023. Effective March 1, 2023, the newly published Form 4506-C will be the only form the IRS and Certified Credit will be accepting.
We encourage you to review the form in its entirety. On page 2 you will find several new requirements on how the IRS will process these new forms. Your forms will need to only include those items you need. The IRS will pull all requested items on the form as they will no longer abide by any “markings” made.
If you are in need of any assistance during your transition, please reach out to our Tech Support Team at ts@certifiedcredit.com or 800-769-7615 (Option 2).
Download New 4506-C Form
Major Changes to the Next 4506-C Form
1. Signatures are required for any taxpayer listed. Only list a spouse if their own transcripts will be requested and they will be signing the request. Forms with missing signatures will be rejected.
2. Client information for line 5.d. is required. This section should be completed with your company information. Please make sure this information is completed, in its entity, on all 4506-C forms. Forms with missing client information will be rejected.
3. Please make sure you fill out the form as you intend it to be processed. Lines 5 through 8 must be complete before the taxpayer signs. The following exception lines should be left blank:
- Line 5aii, IVES participant ID number
- Line 5aiii, SOR Mailbox ID
- Line 5b, Customer File Number
- Line 5c Unique Identifier (if included)
4. Line 6, “Transcript requested,” is only for ordering tax return transcripts and should only list the one tax form number that was filed. Forms with multiple tax forms listed will be rejected.
5. Line 7, “Wage and Income transcripts,” only require the checkbox to be marked and all forms will be provided for all listed taxpayers. This request can be limited to specific form types and taxpayers by filling in line 7a for up to three forms and marking the appropriate check box in line 7b.
- Any entries in line 7a such as NA or Not Applicable, will be read as an entry by the OCR software. If you wish to receive all forms, leave this section blank.
- Wage and Income transcripts are charged based off the form type and number of taxpayers per year requested. Listing three Wage and Income forms on line 7a and listing two taxpayers will incur six charges per year requested.
6. Taxpayers listed on lines 1a and 2a are required to complete their assigned signature section. Forms with missing signatures or required signature information will be rejected.
7. Authorized Representatives signing for the taxpayer(s) listed on lines 1a and/or 2a are required to check the “Form 4506-C was signed by an Authorized Representative” box. See instructions for more information on an Authorized Representative. Forms signed by an Authorized Representative without this box marked will be rejected.
8. Taxpayers that sign electronically are required to check the “Signatory confirms document was electronically signed” box. Forms signed with an electronic signature without this box marked will be rejected.
Note: Please make sure the e-sign information stays within the intended box. Any markings outside of the intended box may result in a rejection from the IRS for ‘altered forms’.
Additional IRS Updates
Below includes additional updated date estimates for the IRS’s plans of implementation for their OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software:
Early December 2022
- The IRS may be requiring the separation of “handwritten” forms and “typed” forms when sending batches of requests.
- All handwritten forms will have a longer turnaround time, due to manual processing.
- All typed forms will be processed quicker, as they follow the IRS’ OCR process.
- Forms with typed information, but a wet-signature, still qualify as a “typed” form.
Mid-December 2022
- IRS plans to conduct a “soft launch” of their OCR software to automatically read the 4506-C form and pull tax transcripts. The expectation is this will improve overall turn times.
Early March 2023
- ONLY the new form will be accepted (estimated for March 1, 2023).
To ensure all forms are accepted and processed in a timely manner, it is critical that all participants conform to submitting clean forms that follow the guidelines for the IRS’ OCR software. To help ease the transition for you and your teams, we encourage you to begin the transition of submitting a clean version of the Form 4506-C as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary delays in obtaining tax transcripts.
