New IRS Tax Compliance Report: What Does Your Tax History Show?
The IRS has introduced a new way for taxpayers to demonstrate their federal tax compliance in the United States.
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The Tax Compliance Report is a digital report that can be obtained directly through an IRS online account. It provides a concise overview of whether a taxpayer is current with their federal tax filing and payment obligations.
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In practice, the document works similarly to a tax compliance certificate. It can be used when banks, employers, government agencies, or other institutions need to verify whether an individual is meeting federal tax obligations without requiring the taxpayer to provide a complete tax return or other documents containing unnecessary financial information.
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For individuals and sole proprietors, the document is issued as Letter 6201, Tax Compliance Report. Businesses have a separate version, Letter 6574.
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What Does the Tax Compliance Report Show?
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One of the main features of the new report is that it limits the amount of personal information that needs to be shared.
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The Tax Compliance Report does not disclose income, dependents, or filing status. Its purpose is to provide only the information necessary to assess a taxpayer’s history of compliance with federal tax obligations.
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The report provides the taxpayer’s compliance status and information about their tax filing history. It also indicates whether there are outstanding federal taxes and may identify:
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• unfiled tax returns;
• tax returns filed after the applicable deadline;
• payments made after the applicable deadline;
• certain tax penalties.
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For sole proprietors, the history may also include obligations related to employment tax or excise tax, when applicable.
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Based on this information, the IRS may assign one of three different results: Compliant, Noncompliant, or Compliance issue.
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Compliant
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A Compliant status indicates that, for purposes of the report, the taxpayer has filed the required tax returns, made payments within the applicable deadlines, and has no overdue return or outstanding federal tax debt.
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Noncompliant
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A Noncompliant result indicates an outstanding matter that needs to be resolved. This may occur when a required tax return is past due and has not yet been filed or when a federal tax liability remains unpaid.
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Compliance issue
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A Compliance issue status requires a somewhat different analysis. It does not necessarily mean that the taxpayer is simply delinquent.
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This result may appear, for example, when there is:
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• a history of late tax return filings;
• a history of late tax payments;
• an installment agreement;
• a civil fraud penalty;
• a balance that is being disputed through administrative or judicial proceedings.
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How Many Years of Tax History Are Included?
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The Tax Compliance Report may cover a broader period than a traditional tax transcript.
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For tax return filing history, the report generally considers the four most recent tax years. However, when the IRS identifies returns that should have been filed but are not recorded as filed, the history may extend up to two additional years, for a total of six years.
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The report may also show:
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• outstanding tax liabilities as of the date the report is issued;
• late payments made during the four most recent tax years;
• civil fraud penalties assessed during the previous five years.
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This means that resolving a current tax issue does not necessarily cause previous compliance problems to immediately disappear from the report.
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Depending on the circumstances, a history of late filings or payments may continue to appear for the period covered by the document.
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The Report Includes Digital Authentication
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Another important feature of the Tax Compliance Report is that it includes a digital certificate issued by the IRS. This authentication allows the institution receiving the document to verify that the PDF is genuine and has not been altered.
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For this reason, it is important to share the original PDF downloaded directly from the IRS account.
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A screenshot, scanned document, or even a new file created using the “Print to PDF” option will not preserve the original digital authentication.
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How to Obtain the Tax Compliance Report
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Individuals can access the report through their IRS Individual Online Account.
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Once logged in, taxpayers should navigate to:
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Records and status → Tax records → Tax compliance report
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For businesses, the document is available through the Business Tax Account, also under Tax records.
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It is important to keep in mind that the report reflects the information available in the IRS system at the time it is generated. Therefore, if a tax return was recently filed or a payment was recently made, the update may not yet appear.
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According to IRS information, payments may take approximately two weeks to be reflected, while tax returns may take four to six weeks to appear in the account.
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Why Is This New Report Relevant?
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Until now, demonstrating certain aspects of a taxpayer’s federal tax history often required providing transcripts or other documents containing more information than the requesting institution actually needed.
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The Tax Compliance Report provides a more focused alternative.
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Instead of disclosing information such as income, dependents, or filing status, taxpayers can provide a document specifically designed to demonstrate their federal tax compliance history.
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For individuals who need to demonstrate tax compliance for credit applications, employment, benefits, government reviews, or other purposes, the new report provides a simpler, more standardized, and secure way to show that their federal tax obligations are in order.
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