Every filing season, the single biggest thing standing between a client and a finished return is paperwork that shows up in pieces over six weeks.
The returns that go smoothly are the ones where everything arrives at once. So here's the actual list, organized by situation, not by form number, because most people don't know what a 1098-E is until someone tells them it's their student loan interest.
Start with last year's return
If you take one thing from this post: send your prior-year return first.
It tells your CPA more than any checklist can. It shows what income sources you had, what deductions you claimed, whether you have carryforwards sitting there (capital losses, passive losses, charitable contributions that exceeded the limit), and what state or states you filed in. It also gives us a baseline. When this year's return looks materially different from last year's, that's a flag worth investigating before anything gets filed, not after.
If you switched preparers or used software, you can usually download a PDF of the full return, not just the summary page. Send the full one.
Income documents
These are the forms that get mailed or posted to an online portal between late January and mid-March.
- W-2 from every employer you worked for during the year, including jobs you left.
- 1099-NEC for freelance or contract work.
- 1099-MISC for rents, royalties, prizes, and other miscellaneous income.
- 1099-INT and 1099-DIV for interest and dividends from banks and brokerages.
- 1099-B for sales of stock, funds, or other securities.
- 1099-R for retirement plan distributions, rollovers, and pensions.
- SSA-1099 for Social Security benefits.
- 1099-G for unemployment compensation or state tax refunds.
- 1099-K if you were paid through a payment app or online platform.
- K-1 from any partnership, S corporation, estate, or trust you have an interest in.
One note on K-1s: they're notoriously late. If you have one coming, tell your CPA early so we can plan around it rather than discover it in April.
If you're self-employed or run a business
This is where returns get real, and where good records pay for themselves. If you want the fuller picture on self-employment tax, quarterly payments, and what actually moves the needle on a Schedule C, we cover that in our guide for self-employed filers in Georgia.
- Total gross receipts or sales for the year.
- A categorized expense summary, ideally straight out of your bookkeeping software rather than a shoebox.
- Mileage log or total business miles driven.
- Home office details: total square footage of the home and square footage used exclusively for business.
- Records of any equipment or assets purchased, with dates and amounts.
- Health insurance premiums you paid yourself.
- Retirement plan contributions (SEP, solo 401(k), SIMPLE).
- Records of estimated tax payments you made during the year, with dates.
That last one matters more than people expect. Every year, someone forgets a quarterly payment they actually made, and the return shows a balance due that shouldn't exist.
If you own rental property
- Rental income received per property.
- Expenses by category: repairs, maintenance, insurance, property management, HOA fees, utilities, advertising.
- Mortgage interest and property taxes for each property.
- Any capital improvements made during the year, with dates and amounts. These are depreciated, not expensed, and the distinction matters.
- Purchase documents if you acquired a property this year.
- Closing statement if you sold one.
If you're renting the property short-term rather than to a long-term tenant, the tax treatment is different in a few important ways. Worth a look: the short-term rental rule most owners don't know about.
Deduction and credit documentation
- 1098 for mortgage interest.
- Property tax statements.
- 1098-T for tuition paid, plus records of books and required fees.
- 1098-E for student loan interest.
- Charitable contribution receipts. Cash gifts need a receipt or bank record; anything of $250 or more needs a written acknowledgment from the organization; non-cash gifts over $500 need more detail, and over $5,000 generally needs an appraisal.
- Medical expenses, if they were substantial relative to your income.
- Childcare provider name, address, tax ID, and amounts paid.
- HSA contributions and distributions (Form 5498-SA and 1099-SA).
- Energy-efficient home improvement records, if you made any.
Personal information we need if it's your first year with us
- Full legal names, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth for you, your spouse, and any dependents.
- Bank routing and account numbers for direct deposit or payment.
- Your driver's license or state ID, which some states request for e-filing.
- Any IRS or state notices you received during the year, even ones you think were resolved.
The things people forget every single year
After enough filing seasons, patterns emerge. These are the items that most often surface late:
Estimated tax payments. Especially the January payment, which falls in a different calendar year than the rest.
A second brokerage account. People remember the big one and forget the small one they opened for a specific trade.
Crypto activity. Every sale, swap, or conversion is a taxable event, even if you never moved money to a bank. "I didn't cash out" is not the standard.
A side income stream that didn't generate a 1099. If a client paid you under the reporting threshold, the income is still reportable.
Marketplace health insurance (Form 1095-A). Returns can't be filed accurately without it if you had a marketplace plan, and if advance premium credits were paid, the IRS will reject or adjust returns that omit it.
Life changes. Marriage, divorce, a new baby, a move to another state, a death in the family. These aren't documents, but they change the return more than most documents do. Mention them.
Why the checklist matters
None of this is about bureaucracy. The completeness of what you hand over determines how much of your CPA's time goes toward chasing paper versus actually looking at your situation.
When everything arrives at once, we can spend the time on the part that has value: whether your withholding is set correctly, whether your retirement contributions fit your situation, whether that side business has outgrown a Schedule C. When documents trickle in, the return gets prepared three times and nobody gets to the strategy.
Getting started
If you're pulling together documents for an upcoming return, or you're behind and not sure where to start, we're happy to talk it through. We'll send you a list built around your actual situation rather than a generic form. Here's more on how our individual tax preparation works if you'd like the fuller picture first.
This post is general information, not specific tax, accounting, or legal advice. Your situation may differ, so talk to us before acting on anything here.