What Documents Do I Need to File My Individual Income Tax Returns?

Seems like I just barely put my holiday decorations away, and now it’s already time to start gathering documents for my 2024 income tax returns. Whether you are super-organized or the type who thinks about taxes only on April 14, this article is meant to help make the document gathering and filing process a little less painful. Before going on, we implore you not to wait until April 14th to think about taxes. Procrastination leads to stress, and we want you to be happy and rested. Ideally, you will give us your documents by mid-March. We give gold stars to people who get their documents to us before then.

If we filed your personal tax return last year, you have probably received a 2024 tax organizer from us. Tax organizers are meant to help you organize your tax documents and usually provide a list of the documents you provided for last years’ tax returns. If your tax organizer causes you to hope that an asteroid causes the extinction of all life on earth starting tomorrow, call your accountant and ask for help. Organizers are intended to make your life easier, not induce screaming panic. Call us! We like talking to you! If you didn’t get a tax organizer and want one, call us! We’ll send you one!

To start with, tax organizers ask a bunch of nosey questions. These questions are meant to help us determine your filing status and eligibility for any tax credits. The questions are also designed to remind you of any transactions made during the year that created a "taxable event." Taxable events include things like selling a home, purchasing or selling crypto, or selling stock. We also need to know about any changes that happened during the year that will affect your tax return, like new addresses, new dependents, or new spouses.

The documents you will need to gather fall into three general categories: income documents, documents for deductions or tax credits, and other miscellaneous documents.

Income documents include the following:

• Forms W-2 or a corrected W-2 show your wages from employers.
• Form W-2G for lottery and gambling winnings

Forms 1099 show other types of income. The most common are:

• Form 1099-INT from banks and brokers showing interest you received
• Form 1099-DIV for dividends and distributions paid to you
• Form 1099-NEC for freelance and independent contractor work in the gig economy
• Form 1099-R for retirement plan distributions, or pensions, or annuities
• Form SSA-1099 for Social Security benefits
• Form 1099-MISC for other miscellaneous income
• Form 1099-G for government payments such as unemployment benefits
• Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement, lets you reconcile advance payments or claims

Tips and pointers for gathering income documents:

• Designate a single place to gather documents as they are provided to you. You should have received copies of income documents by mid-February, and you want everything to be together when you are ready to start preparing your tax return.
• Keep an eye out for corrected 1099 forms, especially if you receive 1099s for investments or brokerage accounts. It is not unusual to receive a corrected 1099 form; if you have already given us your documents, send us a copy of the corrected version as soon as you receive it.
• If you changed employers or closed bank or brokerage accounts that provided 1099s in the previous year, let us know about the change. If there was a W-2 or a 1099 in your file last year, we expect to see it again this year. Letting us know about changes saves us time and you money.
• If you receive a 1099 from a brokerage account, please provide us with all the pages of the statement. We need to see the details buried deep in the statements.
• The organizer gives you a space to enter the amounts reported on each W-2 or 1099. If you want to skip writing in the amounts, that’s fine as long as you give us a full copy of the appropriate forms.

Documents for credits or deductions include the following:

• Childcare or dependent care expenses
• Home mortgage and property tax records
• Donations to charity
• Health savings account or flexible spending account contributions
• Healthcare expenses
• Retirement contributions
• If you're a student or teacher, receipts for books, tuition, and other education expenses

Tips and pointers for gathering documents for deductions or credits:

• If you itemize deductions, you can give us summaries of these expenses rather than copies of all the supporting documents. For example, you can give us a total of the charitable contributions you made during the year and not give us copies of all the acknowledgement letters you received. If you do this, keep copies of the acknowledgement letters in your personal tax records so you have them in the event of a return audit. We are happy to go through each document and add the totals for you, but this takes time so it will add to your total preparation fees.

Other miscellaneous documents can include the following:

• Estimated tax payments
• Statements from banks, payment apps, card processors, or online marketplaces
• Receipts and mileage logs for travel, gift, and car expenses
• Records of deductible office expenses
• Other business income and expense records such as K-1 forms from partnerships and S corporations.

Tips and pointers for gathering documents for deductions or credits:

• If you paid quarterly estimated tax payments, let us know the date and amount of each payment made. We especially love it if you give us copies of the cancelled checks and/or the payment vouchers. Errors in reporting correct estimated payments are quite common and easily preventable if we know exactly what was paid.
• We don’t generally need copies of bank statements, payment apps, or credit card receipts if you provide a summary of the amount and purpose of the expense. If you give us copies of these types of documents, we have to look at each one, which adds preparation time and cost. Do keep records of your deductible expenses in your personal tax files, however.
• While it is important to keep mileage logs for travel, you can give us summaries of these logs rather than copies of the logs themselves. Again, keep copies of these supporting documents in your personal tax files.
• If you receive K-1s from partnerships, S corporations, or trusts and estates, please give us a copy of all the pages of the form, not just the first page.

We look forward to working with you this year. Please feel free to call us if you have any questions or if we can help you in gathering your tax documents.