What Documents Should I Gather to Prepare My Income Tax Return?
Updated on November 10, 2024
Below is a list of the most common items you should gather for preparing your 2021 individual income tax return. Each individual's tax situation is different; not all items may apply to you. For a list of documents to gather for other tax years, click here.
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We highly recommend you Login to Your IRS Online Tax Account and download and provide us with your "2021 Account Transcript" and "2021 Wage and Income Transcript". These transcripts will provide us with vital information to help us prepare a more accurate tax return for you. The online IRS account will also give you access to lots of information such as account balances, payments made, payment options, IRS letters/notices, and various transcripts, and amounts received for stimulus payments and advance child tax credit payments. To view transcripts after logging in to your online IRS account, go to the "Records and Status" tab, select "Tax Records", click the blue button labeled, "View your transcripts"
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A non-expired government issued photo identification document for yourself AND your spouse (if married filing jointly). RECOMMENDED: state issued driver's license or state issued identification card. The following are acceptable if you do NOT have a state issued license or ID card: U.S. military identification card, U.S. passport, or U.S. resident alien identification card
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Social Security cards for yourself, spouse and dependents. We also need birth dates for everyone on your tax return. If the person does not have a Social Security number, then we will need an IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) for that person which would either appear on an ITIN Card or ITIN Authorization Letter. (Returning clients do NOT need to provide this information for anyone shown on last year’s tax return unless there is a change)
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Complete copies of three prior year's federal and state income tax returns (including all worksheets)
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The
EXACT amount of your
Third Economic Impact Payment - EIP3 (also known as a Stimulus Payment)
including any plus-up payment you may have received after filing
your 2020 income tax return. The IRS mailed
Notice 1444-C
to those who received EIP3. An additional IRS
letter was mailed for any plus-up payment. You should have received IRS
Letter 6475 in January 2022 showing the amount of your "2021
Economic Impact Payment 3". These amounts are
NOT taxable, but are used to calculate any additional amount
you may be entitled to claim as a "Recovery Rebate Credit (RRC)"
on your 2021 federal income tax return. If you do not know the
EXACT amount of your EIP3, you can
Login to Your IRS Online Tax Account and click on the "Tax Records" tab to
view the amount under the section labeled "Economic Impact
Payment Information - Year 2021." It is VERY IMPORTANT that you report
the EXACT amount otherwise there may be severe processing delays
of your tax return! -
The
EXACT amount of your
Advance Child Tax Credit Payments. This is shown on
IRS Letter
6419
which was mailed in January 2022 to all taxpayers who received
advance child tax payments. You can
Login to Your IRS Online Tax Account and click on the "Tax Records" tab to
view the amounts received
under the "2021 Advance Child Tax Credit Payments Information" section. From July
2021 through December 2021, the IRS issued Advance Child Tax Credits
up to $300 for each child under age 6 and up to $250 for each child
ages 6 through 17. These advance payments will need be reconciled
on your 2021 federal income tax return. It is VERY IMPORTANT
that you report the EXACT amount otherwise there may be severe processing
delays of your tax return!
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Information needed regarding
Paycheck Protection Program Loans (PPP)
and
Economic Income Disaster Loans (EIDL) and
EIDL Grants
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For direct deposit of your tax refund OR direct debit of your tax payment, please provide us with the ACH routing transit number AND account number for your financial institution checking or savings account
Sample Checks Showing Location of Routing Number and Account Number
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If you, your spouse and/or dependents were a victim of tax identity theft OR you voluntarily requested an IRS Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN), we will need the unique six-digit IP PIN assigned to the person. The IRS should have mailed Notice CP01A to the person showing the IP PIN. Each year the IRS mails a NEW Notice CP01A with a NEW IP PIN for tax returns filed during that year. This IP PIN is required to file a federal income tax return. Lost or misplaced your IP PIN? Retrieve IP PIN Online
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Copy of divorce decree or separation agreement (if applicable)
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If a spouse or dependent you are claiming on your tax return is deceased, please provide a copy of the death certificate. The cause of death is not required to be shown
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Records showing amounts and dates of any "estimated tax" payments you sent to the IRS and/or state tax agencies for tax year 2021 (The due dates of these estimated tax payments were April 15, 2021, June 15, 2021, September 15, 2021 and January 18, 2022). If you are not sure of the dates and amounts of your IRS estimated tax payments, access your IRS Account Online and go to the "Payments" tab, select “Payment Activity” and then scroll down to “Processed Payments”
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If you, your spouse and/or dependents had health coverage at any time during the year that was obtained through the federal government's Health Insurance Marketplace® (Healthcare.gov) - also known as ObamaCare OR a State Exchange, you MUST obtain Form(s) 1095-A
.
You CANNOT file your income tax return without
this form if any premium tax credit subsidies were allowed!
(NOTE: If you are claiming a person on your tax return, such as
a child, and someone else obtained the health insurance through
the Marketplace® or State Exchange for that person, you will need
to obtain the Form 1095-A from that person in order to prepare your
tax return). If any of your dependents are filing a separate
tax return, you MUST provide a copy of their tax
return since their income MAY be needed for the
sole purpose of calculating your household income. For
information on how to obtain your Form 1095-A,
click here -
If you are claiming a qualifying child who lived with you in the United States for more than half the year (greater than 6 months - at least 183 nights for calendar year 2021) who was under age 19 as of December 31, 2021 OR under age 24 AND a full-time student for at least some part of any five calendar months of year 2021 OR any age and was totally and permanently disabled at any time during the year, we recommend you provide at least ONE of the following documents
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If you want to claim your child AND you are considered the noncustodial parent for tax purposes (the child spent LESS nights with you during the year than the other parent) and you were never married OR your divorce took place AFTER December 31, 2008, we will need a completed, signed and dated Form 8332
from the custodial parent -
If you adopted a child, please contact us for the exact documents that we will need. The required documents are different for domestic and foreign adoptions
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Last paystub for each job you and your spouse (if married filing jointly) had during the year. The paystub is optional but recommended to see certain items that may be in question such as federal withholding, pre-tax deductions, and post-tax deductions
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ALL W-2's, 1098's, 1099's, plus a list of any other gross income including nontaxable income for which you did NOT receive a tax document. For Social Security benefits received, we will need a Form SSA-1099
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Unemployment Compensation (Form 1099-G). For information on how to obtain your Florida Unemployment Form 1099-G, click here
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Schedule K-1's received from S-corporations, partnerships, estates, and/or trusts. Need a Schedule K-1 from a publicly traded partnership (PTP)? You may be able to access it by clicking here
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Winnings such as gambling, lottery, prizes, awards, etc. Gambling winnings may be shown on Form W-2G
and
prizes and awards may be shown on
Form 1099-MISC
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Information on any foreign income, foreign inheritance, foreign financial accounts, foreign trusts, or other foreign assets such as real estate you had at any time during the year
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Alimony amounts paid/received ONLY if divorce decree or separation agreement is dated BEFORE January 1, 2019. If alimony was PAID, we will need ex-spouse’s Social Security number. If you received and/or paid alimony, we will need the "original" date of the divorce or separation agreement
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If you are a sole proprietor / self-employed / independent contractor / subcontractor / Form 1099-NEC / Form 1099-MISC
,
we will need to know the gross amount of income and your expenses
separated into different expense categories. If you acquired any
assets that have a useful life of greater than one year, they may
need to be depreciated or amortized. We will need a description of the asset,
date placed in service for business purposes, cost, and business
use percentage. If you accept credit/debit cards and/or receive payments
from a third-party payment network such as Amazon®, eBay®,
PayPal® or Google Checkout®, you may receive a
Form 1099-K
showing amounts paid to you. You may
download a "2021 Business Income and Expense Worksheet" to assist
you in preparing this information -
Rental properties – we will need to know about your rental income and rental expenses separated into different expense categories, depreciation claimed on the property in prior years (if any) and property purchase information which may be shown on a HUD-1 Settlement Statement
,
ALTA Settlement Statement
OR
Closing Disclosure
.
You may
download a "Rental Income and Expense Worksheet" to assist you
in preparing this information -
If you purchased or refinanced any real estate, please provide us with the HUD-1 Settlement Statement
,
ALTA Settlement Statement
OR
Closing Disclosure
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If you sold any capital assets such as real estate, stocks, or mutual funds, we will need to know about your cost or other basis and date of purchase, inheritance, or gift. For stocks and mutual funds, we will need Form(s) 1099-B. For sale of real estate including land, you may receive Form 1099-S
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Digital Assets – Cryptocurrency / Virtual Currency / NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) – If you sold or exchanged digital assets or used digital assets to pay for goods or services, you are required to report the gain/loss on these transactions. Please provide us with dates of acquisition and dates of sale/use/exchange. We will also need the values of the digital assets at the time of the transactions. The difference in the values will result in a capital gain or capital loss. Digital assets that have been held greater than one year are considered to be a long-term capital gain/loss. Digital assets that are held one year or less are considered to be a short-term capital gain/loss. If you received digital assets as income in the ordinary course of your business, these amounts must be added to your gross business income. Some examples of these digital assets that have value are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Cardano, Ripple, Litecoin and Binance Coin. NFTs are one-of-a-kind non-fungible tokens which have a unique code that cannot be duplicated. They are digital certificates of authenticity or ownership rights built on blockchain. Investors who have gains or losses from the sales or trades of NFTs are subject to the capital gain/loss rules. Creators of NFTs that sell the NFTs on the marketplace are subject to ordinary income tax on the profits. Having problems generating tax reports? Many companies such as Coinbase, Binance, Kracken and Cash App will let you link to a third-party provider to generate tax reports. Here are links to some of those third-party providers: ZenLedger • CoinTracker • TaxBit • CoinLedger
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If you had any cancellation or forgiveness of debts such as credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, etc., please provide us with Form(s) 1099-C
from the lender. Most
forgiven student loans are now tax-free and a Form 1099-C
will NOT be issued -
If you had a foreclosure on your property, please provide us with Form 1099-A
from the lender. If you had a short sale on your property and the
lender has forgiven all or part of the debt, please provide us with
Form 1099-C
from the lender -
IRAs – Individual Retirement Accounts – Records showing CONTRIBUTIONS made to Traditional IRAs, and/or Roth IRAs. This information may be shown on Form 5498
.
If an early premature DISTRIBUTION was made from a Roth IRA, we
need to know about your contributions and distributions for ALL
prior years -
HSAs – Health Savings Accounts – Records showing CONTRIBUTIONS made to an HSA which may be shown on Form 5498-SA
.
If you used any funds in your HSA for medical or other purposes,
these are DISTRIBUTIONS and we will need
Form 1099-SA
.
If any DISTRIBUTIONS were made from an HSA that were NOT used
for qualified unreimbursed medical expenses, we will need to
know the amount -
Itemized deductions – Out of pocket medical and dental expenses such as health and dental insurance premiums (do not include pre-tax amounts through your employer), doctors, hospitals, labs, prescriptions, eye exams/glasses, medical/dental co-payments, home improvements done for medical purposes, number of miles driven for medical purposes, real estate taxes, sales tax, state and local income taxes, mortgage interest and points (Form 1098
),
mortgage insurance premiums - PMI (Form
1098
),
investment interest, charitable contributions, casualty losses in
a federally declared disaster area and gambling losses (only up
to the amount of your reportable gambling winnings) -
If you do not qualify to itemize deductions, you can deduct up to $300 ($600 if married filing jointly) of qualifying cash charitable contributions. Cash charitable contributions include those made by cash, check, credit card or debit card as well as amounts incurred by an individual for unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses in connection with the individual's volunteer services to a qualifying charitable organization
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For child and dependent care expenses, we will need the amount paid along with the name, complete address, and federal tax employer identification number (EIN) of the provider (Social Security number, if the provider is a person). You may use Form W-10
to obtain the provider's information -
Amounts paid for post-secondary education, such as college tuition, books, supplies and equipment for you, spouse and/or your dependents. Please provide us with the 2021 Form 1098-T
that is issued to the student by the educational institution. Sometimes
the student may have to login to their educational institution's
online student portal to view and print the Form 1098-T. (NOTE:
If the student was billed for tuition at the end of 2020 and it
was not paid to the institution until early 2021, please provide
us with a copy of the
2020 Form 1098-T
for that student). For information on how to access Form 1098-T
online at some educational institutions in Central Florida,
click here. We highly suggest you get a "Financial Transcript"
from the educational institution showing all payments (including
student loan) payments they received for tuition and fees during
year 2021 -
Receipts and other documentation for certain qualifying energy saving improvements such as exterior windows, exterior doors, skylights, insulation, certain asphalt and metal roofs, central air conditioners, gas, oil, and propane water heaters, electric heat pumps, biomass stoves, solar electric, solar water heating, wind energy systems, geothermal heat pumps and fuel cell property. For more details, click here to visit Energy Star’s website
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Moving expenses for active-duty members of the Armed Forces who move due to a military order because of a permanent change of station
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Please provide us with any other information and/or documentation you think we may need to accurately prepare your income tax return(s)
