You’re ready to buy a house and are working hard to line all of your financial ducks up in a row. As you pull together the paperwork, you may be wondering if you’ll be required to provide your tax returns to purchase a home.

The short answer is: . Some types of loans do require you to provide your tax returns. But in many other cases, tax returns are not required.

There are plenty of valid reasons why you may not want to provide your tax returns when purchasing a home. The first reason is privacy — you might not want your lending company to have access to all of your financial details, for example.

Another reason is convenience. You may not have any idea where your tax returns are, and you don’t feel like jumping through hoops to track them down.

No matter your situation, you have options. Here’s a step-by-step look at h