In life, you never know what is waiting for you around the next corner. Threats like hurricanes, tornadoes,
floods, fires, or some other natural disasters, break-ins, vandalism, electronic hacking, and other malicious
events might be prowling around waiting to pounce on you anytime during the year. You never know when a
disaster will strike or what damage it will cause. There may be little or nothing you can do to prevent your home
or office from being destroyed or damaged, but you can at least ensure that no matter what happens, your tax,
financial, and other personal records will be safe.

Oliver, a doctor by profession, understood the importance of safe upkeep and maintenance of personal and
financial records, especially to cope with unforeseen circumstances. Everyone should have a plan in place for
disaster recovery of records to prove ownership or relationship. These are records that insurance companies
and federal, state, and local governments require to assist you in the recovery of a loss.

Your insurance company will need proof of what you lost to replace your items. The government will need
proof of ownership of real estate, cars, personal items, and birth certificates to prove who your dependents are
and to assist you in providing low-cost or no-interest loans. Some government programs as the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), even gives you free money after a disaster, depending on what
records you provide to prove what you owned and who your family is.

You can take a few simple steps to protect your tax and financial records in case of a disaster:

• Backup records electronically

Keep an extra set of electronic records in a safe place, away from where you store the originals. You
can use cloud storage, a flash drive, an external hard drive, a CD, or a DVD to store the most important
records. You can take these with you to keep your copies safe. You may want to store items such as
bank statements, tax returns, and insurance policies.

• Document valuables

Take pictures or videotape the contents of your home or place of business. These may help you prove
the value of your lost items for insurance claims and casualty loss deductions.

• Update emergency plans

Review your emergency plans every year. You may need to update them if your family’s or business
situation changes.

• Obtain a security plan checklist

IRS Publication 4524, “Security Awareness for Taxpayers”, is a great place to start for individual
taxpayers. It can help you take additional steps to protect your personal, financial, and tax data. Tax
professionals and preparers should also review IRS Publication 4557, “Safeguarding Taxpayer Data”,
which provides a step-by-step checklist for creating and maintaining a data security plan.

• Keep a GO BAG handy

A GO BAG is a suitcase, duffle bag, pillowcase, or anything to hold emergency items to take with you in
the event of an emergency evacuation. Things like money, a checkbook, credit cards, medications,
jewelry, coins, something to communicate with, or light a fire with, eye protection, solar chargers,
clothes for at least 5 days, water, food, just to name a few items, and anything you feel you can carry
around with you to use until help arrives. Be sure to keep your family jewels with you!

How to obtain copies of lost or destroyed tax returns?

We can provide you with a copy of your lost or destroyed tax returns, if we prepared the returns, at no cost for
current clients (see online portal below), or for non-current clients, we charge a small fee, and you do not have
to wait for a copy to be mailed to you from the IRS.
If you can’t find your copies, the IRS can give you a transcript of the information you need or a copy of your tax
return. Remember, though, a transcript is NOT a copy of your return, just a printout of your return information.
They are NOT the same thing.

Here’s how to get your federal tax return information from the IRS:

• Transcripts are free, and you can get them for the current year and the past three years by mail or
  phone. Through your IRS Individual Online Account at IRS.gov, you may access tax return transcripts
  for the current year and three prior years, and tax account transcripts for the current year and up to nine
  prior years – and download them immediately at no charge. In most cases, a transcript includes the tax
  information you need.
• A tax return transcript shows most line items from the tax return that you filed. It also includes items
  from any accompanying forms and schedules that you filed. It doesn’t reflect any change that you or the
  IRS made after you filed your original return.
• A tax account transcript includes your marital status, the type of return you filed, your adjusted gross
  income, and taxable income. It does include any changes that you or the IRS made to your tax return
  after you filed it.

You can get your free transcripts online immediately through your IRS Individual Online Account at
IRS.gov. You can also request transcripts by phone or by mail and receive them within five to 10 days
from the time the IRS receives your request.

○ To order by phone, call 800-908-9946 and follow the prompts.
○ To request an individual tax return transcript by mail or fax, complete Form 4506-T-EZ, Short
Form Request for Individual Tax Return Transcript. Businesses and individuals who need a tax
account transcript should use Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return.

• If you need a copy of your filed and processed tax return, the IRS will charge a fee of $30 for each tax
  year. You should complete Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return, to make the request. Mail it to
  the IRS address listed on the form for your area. Copies are generally available for the current year and
  the past six years. You should allow 75 days for delivery. If your state has an income tax, contact the
  Department of Revenue or Franchise Tax Board to obtain copies of current and past years’ state tax
  returns as well, for a fee.

The IRS has a Disaster Hotline to help people with tax issues after a disaster. Call the IRS at 1-866-562-5227
to speak with a specialist trained to handle disaster-related tax issues. There is no fee to request records for
disaster survivors.

Don’t forget about an online portal.

All taxpayers who have income reported or file tax returns now have an online portal at IRS.gov. This allows
you to go online and check your tax return’s refund status and be able to look at any past notices the IRS may
have sent to you. You can also download or print your IRS transcript or tax file. You can also send documents
to the IRS, including Powers of Attorney to represent taxpayers before the IRS. All federal government
agencies now use ID.me as a way to log in and check any government files on you. For instance, you can use
ID.me to log in to the IRS, Social Security Administration, Veterans Administration, and any other federal
agency you may have an account with.

Call today, don’t delay! See how this affects you. We can be reached at 602-264-9331 and on all social media under azmoneyguy.

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