Request a tax return transcript programmatically via the IRS Transcript Delivery System (TDS) through e-Services

Steps

1. Enroll as a tax professional or reporting agent in IRS e-Services at irs.gov/e-services; registration requires identity proofing via ID.me and takes several days to complete.
2. Obtain a valid Centralized Authorization File (CAF) number and ensure the taxpayer has filed a valid Form 2848 (Power of Attorney) or Form 8821 (Tax Information Authorization) authorizing your access.
3. Log in to TDS via the e-Services portal; select the transcript type (Return Transcript, Account Transcript, Record of Account, Wage and Income Transcript, or Verification of Non-Filing) and the tax year.
4. For programmatic/bulk access, use the IVES Application-to-Application (A2A) interface rather than the web UI — submit XML requests to the IVES secure mailbox and poll for transcript delivery to your designated secure mailbox.
5. Parse the returned transcript PDF or structured data for the requested tax year fields; the modernized TDS (deployed in 2024-2025) supports additional form types including 1041 and select 990-series returns.
6. Retain access logs and CAF authorization records for audit purposes; TDS access without valid taxpayer authorization is a federal offense.