Online account frequently asked questions

Through the Profile Page within your online account, you can update your email address and opt-out/in for paper notice preferences. To change/update your mailing address, you can submit Form 8822PDF by mail or get more information on address changes.

IRS Customer Service Representatives can't access your online account. They also don't have the same view as what is shown in online account.

For additional information about filing, see Tax Information for Individuals. For tax law questions specific to your individual circumstances, see the Interactive Tax Assistant (ITA).

Currently not but we’ll provide updates if there are any plans to develop this in the future.

Yes. Learn more or sign in to business tax account.

Yes. This service can be used by individual taxpayers who have international addresses.

Other ways to find your account information

• You can request an Account Transcript. Please note that each Account Transcript only covers a single tax year, and may not show the most recent penalties, interest, changes or pending actions.
• If you're a business, or an individual who filed a form other than 1040, you can obtain a transcript by submitting Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return.
• Find more assistance.

No. Only the taxpayer should log into their account. Credentials should never be shared with others.

You may get a message saying the service in unavailable because of a system failure with our application or an error in retrieving your data. You may still see other options available even if you encounter this situation, such as the Get Transcript button or the Payment Activity tab. The Payment Activity tab currently links to sites, like Direct Pay, Pay by Card and Online Payment Agreement (OPA) which aren't affected by our unavailability.

We send you a statement when each tax period is paid. We also send an annual statement of installment agreement activity. You can review your account for any current balance and payment history.

Online account shows details for any federal tax liability associated with your individual account, such as:

• Income tax owed on your Form 1040
• Additional tax owed on your Form 5329, Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans (Including IRAs) and Other Tax-Favored Accounts
• Shared Responsibility Payment (for tax years 2014 to 2018), which applies if an applicable individual in a tax household lacked minimum essential coverage for any month
• Trust Fund Recovery Penalty

If you filed your tax return or paid your taxes late, the IRS may have assessed one or more penalties on your account.  In some cases, the IRS will waive the penalties for filing and paying late. However, you’ll need to ask the IRS to do this.

Be prepared to explain to the IRS what issues you faced and why they caused you to file your tax return or pay your taxes late. You should also be prepared to show the IRS you’ve corrected the situation and you won’t have problems filing and paying on time in the future.

Learn more about Penalty Relief. 

You are considered an injured spouse if you filed a joint tax return and your share of the refund was (or will be) applied against a separate past due debt that belongs just to your spouse. The past due amount can be a federal debt, state income tax debt, state unemployment compensation debt, or child or spousal support payments.

Learn more about Injured Spouse.

When you file a joint tax return, you and your spouse are each individually responsible for the tax, penalties, and interest that arise even if you later divorce.

If your spouse or former spouse improperly reported deductions or did not report income that you were unaware of, you may be an innocent spouse and may be able to request relief from the liability.

Learn more about Innocent Spouse. 

You can see your payment plan details on the home page of your account and also on the payment options page. Information displayed includes the type of plan you have, due date(s) and payment amount(s).

It depends. The information we provide is based on the data we have at the time you log into your online account. If the amount shown is zero, then this is correct as of the time you logged in but it can change later if the data changes, such as if there's an adjustment made to your account or your tax return has not yet posted showing the amount owed on that return.

You can make a payment toward an amount you owe, a quarterly estimated tax payment, a payment on a recently filed Amended Return (Form 1040-X), a proposed tax assessment (e.g., CP2000, Notice of Deficiency), or a payment for an extension to file your income tax return (available January – April).

Yes, you can make payments up to 3 times a day and each payment is limited to $9,999,999.99. You will need to return after midnight ET to make additional payments (up to 3 for the day).

Yes, if you make a payment using your online account you can opt to receive an email confirmation. You can also view your pending payment(s) in your online account under Payment Activity.

Joint filers can see their balance, payment and tax records information for any tax returns they filed jointly. For tax years that have not yet been filed, each spouse will see their own information in their  account.

• Estimated tax payments can be made by either spouse but will only show under the spouse who made the payment until a joint return is filed.
• Economic impact payments were an advance payment, so taxpayers will see their portion of the payment only.

You may be able to:

• Change your monthly payment amount
• Change your monthly payment due date
• Convert a short-term plan to monthly payments
• Convert an existing agreement to a Direct Debit agreement
• Change the bank routing and account number on a Direct Debit agreement
• Reinstate after default

Currently, you can make these changes using the Online Payment Agreement tool.

Payments can be made through an ACH debit from your checking or savings account or using your debit/credit card. You can choose either of these methods when you log into your online account and select Make a Payment. If you select "Pay by Card" (on an external website) you will be redirected to a different website.

Your payments can be seen under the “Payment Activity" tab.

• Payments from your bank account made through your online account, IRS Direct Pay, your tax software, or your tax preparer show up immediately in your online account.
• Direct Debit Installment Agreement payments show up approximately four days before they will be withdrawn from your bank account.
• Debit/credit card payments will appear 1-2 days after your payment date.
• Check or money order payments may take up to three weeks to appear.

An Offer in Compromise (OIC) is an agreement between you and the IRS, where the IRS agrees to accept less than the full amount you owe.

Learn more about Offer in Compromise. 

There are two main reasons the IRS may agree to accept less than the full amount you owe:

• Doubt as to Collectability: This means you don’t have enough income or assets to pay your debt in full.
• Effective Tax Administration: You can pay your full debt, but it would create an economic hardship, or would be unfair or inequitable.

Another reason the IRS may accept payment of less than the full amount of tax owed is doubt as to liability (that is, you don’t believe you owe the tax, or you don’t believe the amount is correct).

Use the IRS’s Offer-in-Compromise Pre-Qualifier tool to see if you qualify for an OIC.

Yes, online account shows the amounts of your Economic Impact Payments along with help tips and a link to the EIP page on IRS.gov. For more information about these payments, see Economic Impact Payments.

No, fees will not be assessed when you download/print your transcripts.

If you filed your tax return and then realize you made a mistake, you may need to amend the return, which may change your tax liability.

Learn more and get help amending a return.

Your tax return can be incorrect or incomplete for many different reasons; from simply forgetting to sign a form to not reporting income or incorrectly calculating a credit. It can also happen because of various errors when filing electronically. Depending on the nature of the error you need to fix and when you realize you need to change your return, there are different ways to fix an incorrect or incomplete return.

Learn more about fixing an incorrect or incomplete return. 

No, at this time only a select number of notices are available to view or download in your online account.

Yes, taxpayers will still receive paper notices in the mail. However, we are working towards providing you the choice to only receive notices electronically.

The IRS sends notices to advise of outstanding balances and changes to your personal tax account. If you received a notice, it is important to read it very carefully and to keep a record of it to refer to when addressing your notice.  You’ll need to determine if you agree that you owe the balance.

Learn more about understanding your notice. 

If you agree with the balance on your notice or online account, you’ll want to pay the amount due. You can use the available payment options to pay your balance or to create a payment plan.

If you do not agree with the balance on your notice or online account, find more information on the Notices and Letters and if necessary you’ll need to respond to the notice and tell the IRS why you don’t owe the amount due.

Examples of incorrect information:

• Payment is missing
• Incorrect payment date is shown
• Payment applied to the incorrect tax year
• Balance is paid in full
• Incorrect balance is shown
• Incorrect installment agreement amount is shown
• Reflects a decimal point error (i.e. $225444442.44)

Check your online account for recent payments. 

• Check or money order payments may take up to three weeks to appear.
• Debit/credit card payments will appear 1-2 days after your payment date.

You can also find up-to-date account balance information in your online account.

If you need assistance, refer to your notice for the contact information to call and speak with an IRS representative.

Address information is generally based on your last return filed.  If your address is not listed correctly, please follow steps on your profile in your online account to request an address update.

If you need assistance, refer to your notice for the contact information to call and speak with an IRS representative.

Refer to your notice for the contact information to call and speak with an IRS representative.

Refer to the notice for the contact information to call and speak with an IRS representative.

Refer to your notice for the contact information to call and speak with an IRS representative. If you can’t open your PDF or the contact information is unreadable, please visit Let us help you.

Not all notices are available online, please continue to check your postal mail for IRS notices.  You can sign up to receive email notifications when new notices are available on your profile in your online account.

You can set your paperless preferences in your online account profile.

An IRS notice may alert you to a mistake on your tax return or that it’s being audited. You can verify the information that was processed by the IRS by viewing a transcript of the return to compare it to the return you may have signed or approved. You can access your tax records through account. If you are the victim of return preparer fraud or misconduct, you will need to demonstrate it to the IRS.

Learn more about preparer issues.

Tax-related identity theft occurs when someone uses your stolen Social Security number to file a tax return claiming a fraudulent refund.  You may be unaware that this has happened until you e-file your return and discover that a return already has been filed using your SSN. Or, the IRS may send you a letter saying we have identified a suspicious return using your SSN. Be advised that these situations may also occur for reasons other than identity theft.

There are several steps you may need to take as outlined in the Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft.

If the tax you owe is because of an audit you didn’t know about or were not able to provide any information for, you might be able to ask the IRS to take another look at your records through the audit reconsideration process.

Get help understanding audit reconsideration.

If you are having a tax problem that you haven’t been able to resolve on your own, the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) may be able to help.  As an independent organization within the IRS, TAS protects taxpayers’ rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, helps taxpayers resolve problems with the IRS, and recommends changes that will prevent the problems from happening in the future.

Review the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. 

You may be eligible for help if your IRS problem is causing financial difficulty or you believe an IRS procedure just isn't working as it should.

Read more about the kinds of cases TAS works.

TAS has offices in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. If you qualify for help, you will be assigned to one advocate who will be with you at every turn. TAS advocates work with the IRS to get your problems resolved and our services are always free.

To speak to an advocate, call 877-777-4778 or contact your local office.

Find your local TAS office. 

Low Income Taxpayer Clinics (LITC) can represent you before the IRS or in court on audits, appeals, tax collection matters, and other tax disputes. Services are provided for free or for a small fee. The LITC assists low income individuals who have a tax dispute with the IRS, and provides education and outreach to individuals who speak English as a second language (ESL). In order to qualify for assistance from an LITC, generally a taxpayer’s income must be below a certain threshold, and the amount in dispute with the IRS is usually less than $50,000.

Learn more about Low Income Tax Clinics.  

If you’ve been affected by a recent disaster, learn about the most recent tax relief provisions to know your options.

Call an IRS customer service representative. You should have your information ready, including your tax return information.

Let us help you – Telephone and Local assistance. 

You can also submit a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request to obtain the following:

• Your audit report form
• Your work papers
• Your notices

Submit a FOIA request.