What is a gross income redacted tax return for job interview? How to provide one?

Thanks for the explanation, that makes sense. But I'm still confused about exactly which numbers I should be redacting. Should I only black out the AGI and total income lines, or also things like my withholding amounts? And what about deductions and credits - should those be visible or covered? Sorry for all the questions, I just want to make sure I'm doing this right!

You should redact all dollar amounts related to your actual income - this includes your wages/salary (Box 1 on W-2), any business income, investment income, etc. You should also redact your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) and taxable income lines since these would reveal your earnings. Regarding withholdings and tax paid, opinions vary, but many employers only care about verifying your employment history, so those could be left visible. The same goes for deductions and credits - these don't directly reveal your income level, so they can typically remain visible unless you're uncomfortable sharing that information.

How does that work exactly? Do you upload your tax documents to their website? I'm always a bit nervous about uploading financial docs to online services I'm not familiar with.

Does it actually detect what needs to be redacted automatically? My tax return is pretty complicated with multiple sources of income, and I'm concerned I might miss something important if I do it manually.

The way it works is you upload your tax document through their secure portal. Their system uses encryption and follows financial-grade security practices, which was important to me too since I was initially hesitant about uploading tax docs. Yes, it automatically identifies sensitive financial information that should typically be redacted for employment verification purposes. It's especially helpful for complex returns with multiple income sources, investments, and deductions because it recognizes patterns across the entire document rather than just obvious line items. You get to review everything before finalizing, so you maintain complete control over what gets redacted.

How much does this service cost? I've been trying to get through to the IRS about a different issue for weeks now.

This sounds like BS to me. There's no way to "skip the line" with the IRS - everyone has to wait. And why would the IRS even care about helping with a job application document? That's not their job.

The service doesn't help you skip the line - it uses an algorithm to continuously dial the IRS and secure a place in the callback queue as soon as one becomes available, which is why it works faster than calling yourself repeatedly. They don't disclose the exact cost on their website, but for me it was worth it to get an answer quickly. The IRS actually does answer these types of questions regularly. While they don't provide an official "redacted return" service, they can clarify what's acceptable when third parties request tax documentation and what taxpayers should consider when sharing tax information. They deal with questions about proper handling of tax documents all the time since it's within their domain of expertise.

Thanks so much for sharing the HR perspective! That makes me feel better about the whole thing. Do you know if they'll accept digital versions with digital redactions (like using the highlight tool in Adobe and changing the color to black), or do they typically want to see it printed, manually redacted, and rescanned?

Digital redactions are completely fine and actually preferred by most companies now, especially with remote hiring being so common. Using the black highlight/redaction tool in Adobe is perfect - just make sure it's properly flattened when you save the PDF so the redactions can't be removed. Some applicants get fancy with white boxes or other editing techniques, but a simple black redaction is clearest and shows you haven't altered anything else on the document.

I actually did this! You can get your tax transcript free from the IRS website and it worked perfectly for my job application. It's more compact than the full return but still shows filing status and employment info. Just used a PDF editor to black out the income amounts. My new employer had no issues with it and actually preferred it because it was more standardized and clearly came from the IRS.

This is such a helpful breakdown, thank you! I love the idea of making a checklist - that would definitely help me feel more confident about what I'm doing. Quick question though: when you say you kept employer EINs visible, where exactly do those show up on the tax return? I'm looking at my 1040 right now and I'm not immediately seeing them. Are they on the W-2s that get attached, or somewhere else on the main form?

Great question! The EINs (Employer Identification Numbers) are actually on your W-2 forms, not on the main 1040 form itself. They're in Box b on each W-2 - it's a 9-digit number that identifies your employer to the IRS. When employers ask for redacted tax returns, they usually want to see the W-2s attached since that's where the employment verification info actually lives. The main 1040 just summarizes the income totals. So when you're redacting, you'd black out the dollar amounts on both the W-2s (boxes 1, 2, etc.) and the corresponding lines on your 1040, but leave the employer names and EINs visible on the W-2s. Hope that helps clarify!