Past Year Tax Returns: How To Get Them When You Need Them

Once you’ve paid your taxes, you might want to wave them goodbye.

However, it’s never that easy, is it? Since your taxes are a link between what you say you’ve made and what your employers say they’ve paid you, your past year tax forms are often an easy way for you to prove how much money you earn. And because that’s so convenient, you’ll often find that renting an apartment or leasing a car involves trotting out those past year tax returns.

But what about people who owe past year tax money to the IRS? They’re in a different situation entirely. Instead of being able to show someone a simple document that demonstrates how they’re doing, they have two issues:

1. It’s harder to prove an income, making it harder to get a lease.
2. Owing past year tax money might make a lender reluctant. They’d have to get in line behind the IRS.

Here are a few tips for dealing with this past year tax situation:

• You can try to use alternative records: bank statements and payroll stubs are often acceptable if you don’t want to show someone your past year tax return. They are also a good way to preserve your privacy, since they have less personal information. To keep your identity safe, it’s often best to use these as proof of income and assets, even if you do have past year tax forms available.
• You can adapt your spending: instead of a standard renting contract, you can try to share an apartment, or to rent from a small-scale landlord who won’t ask for proof of income. A car is a more difficult option, unless you can save the money for it.
• You can settle your past year tax problem: you don’t have to rearrange your life around your past year tax issue. Instead, you can work things out with the IRS and get your past year tax money paid. It’s surprisingly easy to do, and you can even have your tax preparation service negotiate with the IRS to pay a lower amount.

Rather than suffer because of your past year tax problems, it’s best to move on. Certainly, there’s some inconvenience involved. But you’ll save a lot more time and money paying sooner rather than later.

Photo via 401(K) 2012 on Flickr.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 24th, 2013 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Taxes for Prior Years. 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.