My Tax Prep Checklist

To avoid the pain and nuisance of filing your tax return, My Financial Snapshot has compiled a checklist to help you! The forms and documents you use to file taxes can look like a foreign language. Individual taxes are also only filed once a year, and because of that, it is easy to forget what happened a year ago.

Two things we highly recommend:

1. Keeping a copy of your tax return readily available
2. Keeping a checklist of documents/information/forms that go into your tax return.

Whether you self-prepare your tax return or pay a tax preparer/CPA, keeping a copy of your tax return and having a checklist on hand of the documents you know you will need will help you save time in preparing your taxes.

Our tax prep checklist covers the following:

1. Questions to ask yourself?
2. Questions to ask your tax preparer?
3. Tax To-Do List
4. Popular Tax Documents

Popular Tax Documents Defined

• W-2: This is a tax form provided by an employer to an employee that reports the total amount of money the employee earned for the year and the amount of federal, state, and city taxes withheld from their paychecks.
• 1099-MISC: This form reports miscellaneous income received by an individual during the year that is not considered regular employment income.
• 1099-NEC: This form reports non-employee compensation, such as freelance or contract work, received by an individual.
• 1099-K: This form reports income received through payment card transactions, such as credit or debit card payments.
• 1099-INT: This form reports interest income received by an individual during the year, such as from a bank account or investment.
• 1099-DIV: This form reports dividend income received by an individual during the year from investments.
• 1099-B: This form reports the sale of securities, such as stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, and is used to calculate capital gains or losses for tax purposes.
• 1098-T: This form is used to report tuition and related expenses paid by a student during the year and is used to calculate the education tax credit.
• 1098-E: This form reports student loan interest paid during the year and is used to calculate the student loan interest deduction.
• 1099-R: This form is used to report distributions from retirement accounts, such as IRAs or 401(k)s, and is used to calculate taxes owed on the distributions.
• SSA-1099: This form is a statement of the Social Security benefits received by an individual during the year. It shows the total amount of benefits received and the amount of taxes paid on the benefits.
• Itemized Deductions: This is a list of eligible expenses that an individual can deduct from their taxable income, including mortgage interest, state and local taxes, and charitable donations.
• 1099-SA: This form is used to report distributions from a health savings account (HSA) or a medical savings account (MSA) and is used to calculate taxes owed on the distributions.
• 5498-SA: This form reports contributions made to a health savings account (HSA) or a medical savings account (MSA) during the year. It shows the total amount of contributions made to the account and is used to calculate the tax benefits of the contributions.
• 1099-G: This form reports government payments received during the year, such as unemployment compensation or state tax refunds.