Have you ever considered how you prepare and bring your documents to your tax preparer or CPA could make both your life and theirs easier? Having everything all together and prepped to go when you drop it off or send it in can both make things easy and ensure that things are processed in a timely manner. Read on to learn more about how you can prepare your documents – both now for tax season and during the year as things come up.

Why Bother Preparing?

Simply put, if you put a bit of effort preparing your documents now – gathering everything you’ll need and putting it in one location – this will take some of the stress away from filing your return. Keep a record of your donations throughout the year and any changes of income as they pop up, that way you aren’t spending lots of time searching for things you need for your return come January. The time you take now can help you avoid delays in filing your return and helps your CPA have all the information at hand they may need when working on your return.

Things to Consider

There are lots of guides out there on what documents you need to file your return, but some key things to have gathered up include:

  • Your personal information – your CPA, if you are a current client, may have this already. But if something has changed since the last tax season, such as a move, make sure they are aware of address changes.
  • Any dependent information (if applicable)
  • Sources of income. This is one of the key items to ensure you have when gathering your documents. You’ll need all W-2s from your workplace(s), applicable 1099 documents, Schedule K-1 (if applicable), records of cryptocurrency transactions, documentation of other income such as from tips, jury duty pay, gambling winnings, etc. If you’re unsure if it counts as income, reach out to your tax preparer to find out if they need documentation of it before turning in your documents.
  • Charitable donations – keep track of donations made throughout the year and have that proof ready to go with the rest of your tax documents. This includes cash donations and donations of goods – such as clothes, household items, vehicles, etc.
  • Other deductions documents – this includes state and local income taxes, Form 1098, student loan interest payments (Form 1098-E), out-of-pocket medical expenses and more.

What Helps Our Team:

Like some of the things we’ve already mentioned, having it all gathered and uploaded to our client portal or dropped off at our office in one file is going ensure that nothing is forgotten or we need to track down later. A few other notes from our tax staff:

  • Let us know if you’ve made tax payments (estimates) throughout the year. We don’t have access to that information and can’t include that in your return if we don’t know.
  • Summaries or year-end statements are just as good as monthly statements. For rentals or Schedule Cs, year-end documents showing the balance or a summary of them will give us the information we need without sending additional files that we don’t need.
  • With charitable donations, we don’t need individual receipts. Take photos and upload them into a document and send that file in. You should keep the receipts in case you need them for a future audit – for us a file containing images of the recipes OR a spreadsheet with donation records will work.
  • Try your best to drop all items need for your return(s) at one time. Gather all or the majority of what you need and upload it or drop it off. Rather than dropping it off in bits and pieces – that way we aren’t trying to track down important missing information from you during our busy season. We know some investment statements come in late. If you have everything else, get your documents to us so we can get you in the queue. Then, once you receive your additional documents we can add in that information.

More Information

When in doubt – talk with your tax preparer or CPA! Reach out and chat with your tax preparer or CPA to make sure you have all your documents in order, and to ensure you didn’t forget to provide them with anything they may need when compiling your return. The IRS also has a helpful guide for preparing for tax season on their website that can be another good resource.

You can reach out to our team by emailing your specific tax preparer, or for general questions completed out contact us form, call us at (703) 912-7862 or schedule an appointment with one of our team members. While this is our busy season, we’re here to help you navigate both individual and business tax returns.