What's the difference?

[Mrstate 1]

when you get an RFE regarding tax returns and asked you to submit a complete federal Income tax return submitted to the IRS what should you send ? and what is the difference between Tax Return and Tax Account Transcript

[CQ & CS 2]

Tax return is what you file each year. Tax transcript is a report for your previous tax return.

Say they want to see the previous three years. If you send Tax return then you need to send 2007, 2008, and 2009 (if you have not filed 2010 tax return). You need to write to IRS to request a tax transcript. It takes about 2 weeks to arrive.

[Ning 619]

when you get an RFE regarding tax returns and asked you to submit a complete federal Income tax return submitted to the IRS what should you send ? and what is the difference between Tax Return and Tax Account Transcript

A tax return proves you filled out a return. A transcript proves you filed it with the IRS. You can get transcripts faxed to you quickly if you need them.

[Darnell 8,479]

i like the IRS definitions, myself..

(put in CODEd form, link sometimes barfs)

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=110571,00.html

[CQ & CS 2]

Not really sure if they fax it to you. Link below is from IRS

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=110571,00.html

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

You do not need a tax transcript, if you can provide a complete tax return. For the purpose of the OP's question, they are the same thing. He seems to be asking what complete is. OP - a complete tax return is different for every person, so if you are not sure what is complete, then you may need to get a transcript, which will have all the parts needed. A complete tax return includes a 1040 or similar, W2s or 1099s, and possibly schedules and extraneous forms. Your cosponsor should have a complete return in their records, but commonly, people don't have all the parts, or know what all the parts are. W2 is not a tax return by itself. Good luck.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

when you get an RFE regarding tax returns and asked you to submit a complete federal Income tax return submitted to the IRS what should you send ? and what is the difference between Tax Return and Tax Account Transcript

A complete tax return is a copy of every form and supporting document, exactly as it was sent to the IRS when the return was filed, or exactly as it WOULD have been sent if a paper return was submitted (many people use eFile rather than sending a paper return).

A Tax Account Transcript is a summary of your tax account status with the IRS. This is usually NOT what they want with an affidavit of support. Rather, they prefer a Tax Return Transcript, which is a line-by-line summary of the figures which were submitted to the IRS in a tax return filing.

[tokyolotus 2]

Tax transcript is from IRS and it will be an official document in USCIS's eyes. You can either ask them to mail the transcript to you, or fax the transcript to you.

To get the transcripts from IRS, please call them at 800-829-1040

IRS actually has an option to order the transcript online. However, I tried but the website repeats that the information does not match. So the online option does not work for me. But you can try it:

https://sa2.www4.irs.gov/irfof-tra/start.do

Good luck!