I have to present an official document from the IRS in another country (that is part of the Hague convention). They require the document to have an apostille.
However, from I found so far on the Internet, it seems that an apostille can only be put on a document that legalized by a public notary.
How can I get a public notary to legalize such a transcript (if I print it myself)? Or, do you know if IRS can provide such a legalized copy?
I just did this for South Korea.
The steps I followed were:
1) Order transcripts by mail from the IRS. Simply go here: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript or search "irs order transcript" - put in your SSN and they will mail you a transcript to the address they have on file. The first is called an “Account Transcript”. It shows the dates your particular returns were received by IRS. The second is called a “Return Transcript”. It shows the information on the returns. These together would prove THAT you filed and WHAT you filed. You want to select 'Return Transcript' rather than 'Account Transcript'.
2) After receiving it in the mail, I sent that 'Return Transcript' off to the Dept of State along with form DS-4194 and a check for $8 - you can find the info here: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/internl-judicial-asst/authentications-and-apostilles/apostille-requirements.html .
I received the apostille back from the Dept of State about 2 weeks after I sent out the form. They had no trouble giving me the apostille. This was in Dec 2018/Jan 2019. Total cost of less than $10 for something agencies charge $200 for. It worked for me, but I can't say that it will work for you, so if you do this, reply and let us know if it worked for you.
Good luck.
That's an interesting question.
The IRS doesn't have to certify anything. However, there's an option to request certification of a copy of your tax return, using Form 4506. You ask for the certification by checking the checkbox on line 6.
The IRS will then provide you with Form 2866, which certifies the correctness of the copy of the tax return you requested. You then need to submit the form to the US State Department to be apostilled. The IRS is a federal agency, states will not apostille signatures of federal officials - only the US State Department can do that.
I suggest to write a letter explaining what you need, and emphasizing that you'd need the State Department certification, and attach it to Form 4506 you'll be submitting. This is because generally Form 2866 is prepared in the IRS field office holding the records, but to be certified by the State Department, it has to be first certified by IRS headquarters. This is a special process for the certifications requiring apostilles and is not part of a regular process to issue Form 2866.
You can see the IRS procedure on certifying documents here.
The best way is to order a certified copy of the transcripts from the IRS. You can also ask your accountant to do this for you. Once you receive it, you can mail it to the U.S. Department of State - Office of Authentications or hire a professional apostille company in Washington, D.C. I had one done about two months ago.
