Wage and Income Transcript
Shows what was reported to the IRS by employers and payers — W-2s, 1098s, 1099s, 5498s — for a given year. Not what you reported; what they did.
Full Definition
A wage and income transcript shows data from information returns the IRS receives about you. The IRS states it "shows data from information returns we receive such as Forms W-2, 1098, 1099, and 5498."
It is a record of third-party reporting, not of your return. Where a Substitute for Return or an unfiled-year question turns on what income the IRS knows about, this is the transcript that answers it — as distinct from a tax return transcript, which shows only what was actually filed.
The IRS states it is available for "the current and nine prior tax years." It has a size limit through the self-service route: the IRS states it is "limited to approximately 85 income documents" and will not generate through the online account above that threshold, in which case Form 4506-T is the fallback route.
What to do next
If you are checking what the IRS thinks you earned in a year you did not file — before a Substitute for Return question, for example — pull this transcript, not a tax return transcript.
Sources
- Transcript types and ways to order them — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-21
Last reviewed 2026-08-24 by Tax Resolution Clarity editorial.
Sourced to primary IRS materials and editorially reviewed. Not reviewed by a tax professional. Not tax advice.
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Related Terms
Where to go next
The IRS publishes the rules this page describes. Your own notice governs your dates.