The IRS can't provide a copy of my past return for my small business??

Thanks for responding! I checked my Amazon/eBay accounts but they only have like the last 18 months of data available. And I didn't keep the tax software files from back then (stupid, I know). Do you think it would be acceptable to make reasonable estimates based on the total income the IRS has on file? Like if I know my total income was $27,450, could I work backwards to figure out what portion was likely from the business?

Yes, you can definitely work backwards from the total income figure the IRS provided. If you have W-2s or 1099s from that year for your regular employment, subtract those amounts from the total income figure to estimate your business revenue. For expenses, the IRS generally accepts reasonable reconstructions when original records aren't available. Create a spreadsheet estimating categories like inventory costs (typically 50-65% of sales for most resellers), shipping supplies, platform fees (about 13% for Amazon/eBay), and other business expenses. Document your methodology and keep notes on how you arrived at each estimate. This shows good faith effort if you're ever questioned about it.

Does taxr.ai work with just the account transcript or do you need the full return transcript? I've got the account one but not sure if that has enough info for the system to work with.

I'm skeptical about any service claiming they can recreate business expenses from a transcript. The IRS transcript doesn't show line-by-line Schedule C expenses, so how could it possibly know what you spent on inventory vs shipping vs fees? Sounds like wishful thinking to me.

It works with any type of transcript, including account transcripts, but obviously the more detailed the transcript, the better the results. The system is designed to extract whatever information is available and then help fill in the gaps logically. The service doesn't claim to know exactly what you spent on specific expenses - what it does is analyze the overall numbers and applicable tax rules to suggest reasonable ranges based on your business type and total reported income. It's not creating data from nothing, but rather helping you establish reasonable estimates based on standard industry percentages and the totals that the IRS does have on file. It's still your responsibility to review and adjust those suggestions based on what you know about your specific situation.

How does this even work? The IRS phone lines are impossible to get through - are they just using bots to keep calling or something? Seems fishy that they can get through when nobody else can.

Yeah right, as if anyone can get through to the IRS these days. I've been trying for MONTHS on the practitioner priority line and even that's useless. I'll believe it when I see it - there's no way they're getting through in 15 minutes when professionals can't even get through.

It's not bots - they use a proprietary system that navigates the IRS phone tree and waits on hold for you. When they reach a live agent, they call you and connect you directly to that agent who's already on the line. It's basically like having someone else wait on hold instead of you. They're completely legitimate and work within the IRS's own phone system rules. They just found a way to make the waiting efficient. The reason professionals struggle too is because everyone (including practitioners) is trying to call during the same peak hours. Their system can call during optimal times and stay on hold no matter how long it takes.

That's a really good suggestion. I do still have the same bank account I used back then, so I'll call them tomorrow and see if they can provide statements from that period. I think I used PayPal for most of my eBay transactions too so I'll definitely check there. Did you just manually go through each statement and categorize everything? How did you handle things like inventory where you might have purchased it in a different year than you sold it?

I did go through each statement manually and created a spreadsheet to categorize everything. It was time-consuming but gave me solid documentation. For inventory timing issues, I made my best estimate of which inventory was sold in which year based on my sales patterns. Since you're doing this retroactively, what worked for me was calculating my overall profit margin across all sales and then applying that same margin to each year's known revenue. For example, if I determined I generally made 40% profit after all costs, I would apply that to each year's total sales figure. The IRS is generally reasonable about reconstructed records as long as your approach is consistent and logical.

Not OP but sometimes people switch tax preparers or maybe they used software that year instead of a professional. I've been in a similar situation where I used TurboTax one year and then couldn't access the account years later because I had changed email addresses and couldn't verify my identity to recover the account.