@KJinNC wrote:
Without intending to derail the thread - yes, I would provide, and have provided, POI in the form of a paystub. It's a nuisance, but it makes sense.
With tax transcripts, I have several problems with it.
1. It can give a wildly inaccurate idea of somebody's income. At best, it is a year out of date. Things can change positively or negatively in a year (for example, I was unemployed part of 2016 so my income that year was very low, I got an $8K/year raise in 2019, I got a $13K/year raise in 2020, so I have multiple recent years in which the income I'd report at a given time would be at odds with what a tax transcript from the prior year would have shown), so, why would anybody use this method when you could simply ask for a paystub? I think this should be generally reserved for special cases. Also in the case of a CLI for an existing account, you have a payment history you can review, so how much need do you really have to verify income anyway?
2. I have serious privacy concerns about the information in a tax transcript ending up online, far moreso than I worry about a paystub ending up online. Mainly because there is far more information in taxes than on a paystub.
3. Knowing both of the above, I find it rude and offensive for a company to demand a tax transcript without a compelling reason. If push came to shove, I would close my Amex accounts rather than comply with such a demand.
I agree with the concerns. My guess is that some issuers don't trust pay stubs because they would be very easy to fake, whereas the 4506-T route gives them "official" information (which could also be deliberately false, but with much more serious penalties!) I guess things like TheWorkNumber would be somewhat similar, but not all employers participate and the breakdown isn't as detailed.
