Can I safely shred my W-2 paper copies after filing taxes if I have digital versions?

What about situations where you might need to prove employment history for something like a mortgage application? Would digital copies from ADP be acceptable or do lenders typically want to see the original hard copies?

Most mortgage lenders and financial institutions now accept digital copies of tax documents as long as they're complete and legible. The important information they're verifying is your income history and employment stability, not whether you have the original paper copy. If you're applying for a mortgage in the near future, you might want to keep both digital and physical copies just to be extra prepared. Sometimes having quick access to physical documents can speed up the application process, but it's becoming less necessary as more institutions move toward digital verification systems.

Does it actually tell you which papers you can safely shred? Like will it say "hey this W-2 is safe to dispose of" or is it more just for keeping digital copies organized?

I'm a bit hesitant about uploading financial docs to yet another online service. How's their security? Do they have 2FA and encryption? I've had my identity stolen before so I'm paranoid about this stuff.

It does actually have a feature that analyzes your documents and gives recommendations about retention periods. For W-2s specifically, it flags them with the standard 3-year minimum retention guideline but also notes if there's anything unusual that might warrant keeping them longer. They take security pretty seriously with bank-level encryption and multi-factor authentication. I was skeptical at first too, but after researching their security protocols I felt comfortable. Everything is encrypted both in transit and at rest, and you can even set up additional verification steps for accessing sensitive documents.

Wait, how does this even work? The IRS phone system is notorious for being impossible. Are you saying this somehow bypasses the wait times? Sounds too good to be true tbh.

Suuuuure, another "service" that promises to solve government inefficiency. I bet they just auto-dial and then charge you when they get lucky. No way this actually works consistently. Probably just exploiting desperate people during tax season.

It works by using an automated system that navigates the IRS phone tree and waits in the queue for you. When they reach a live agent, they call you and connect you directly to that agent. It's not bypassing anything - you're still in the official queue, but their system waits instead of you having to sit on hold for hours. It's actually surprisingly effective. The technology isn't particularly complicated - just automating something that would be incredibly tedious to do manually. They don't guarantee specific wait times since that depends on IRS staffing, but in my experience it saved me hours of frustration.

Do you know if the IRS has any specific format requirements for digital copies? Like do they need to be PDFs or can they be any image format? My ADP downloads are PDFs but I've scanned some other documents as JPGs.

There's no specific format requirement from the IRS for personal recordkeeping. They just need to be legible and complete if you're ever asked to produce them. PDFs are generally better than JPGs because they maintain document formatting and are more printer-friendly, but either is acceptable. I'd recommend converting everything to PDF for consistency though. There are tons of free tools online that can convert image files to PDFs. Makes it easier to organize and find things later on. Also, make sure your scanned images capture ALL information from the document including the fine print - sometimes that becomes important during an audit.

Tax transcripts don't show everything. They show the summary info that was reported to the IRS but not all the supporting details. For example, you might see the total W-2 amount but not the breakdown of federal vs state withholding or retirement contributions. Also, getting transcripts can be a hassle sometimes with the IRS verification process.