In one from the “I can't believe they were even still doing that in the first place” file, the Internal Revenue Service recently announced it would stop its tax transcript faxing service as of Feb. 4, 2019 and offer a more secure alternative to taxpayers and tax professionals.
In the wake of repeated data breaches and with tax season becoming more and more synonymous with scams, this is yet another in a long line of steps (with many more sure to come) taken by the IRS to better secure taxpayer data.
In September 2018, the IRS began to mask any personal identification information for every individual or entity listed on any transcript, but in the interim, has apparently decided that simply nuking the program from orbit was the best course of action.
This discontinuation applies to the faxing of business transcripts as well.
For more information about alternative ways taxpayers and preparers who still used this service can obtain copies of their tax transcripts, see the IRS’s initial announcement or call 800-908-9946.
