On September 23, 2018, the IRS made changes to its tax transcript format. These changes were previously announced by the IRS on August 22, 2018 and have been made to provide better protection of taxpayer data from cybercriminals and identity theft. The new tax transcript format is for individual transcripts only. As of September 23, 2018 the new transcript format is the default transcript issued by the IRS through all available platforms. The new transcript displays the following information:
- Last four digits of any SSN listed on the transcript: XXX-XX-1234
- Last four digits of any EIN listed on the transcript: XX-XXX1234
- Last four digits of any account or telephone number
- First four characters of the last name for any individual (first three characters if the last name has only four letters)
- First four characters of a business name
- First six characters of the street address, including spaces
- All money amounts, including wage and income, balance due, interest and penalties
In conjunction with the tax transcript format changes, the IRS also released a revised Form 4506-T Request for Transcript of Tax Return (rev. September 2018) on September 23, 2018. The new 4506-T contains a new optional Customer File Number field which has been added as number 5b. A user may enter a unique identification number (such as a loan number) in this field, but a value is not required for this field. The new Customer File Number field will accept up to 10 numeric characters; the full number entered in this field will print on the tax transcript.