Solomon Tax
Tax Form Checklist
Tax Form Checklist
What is the overall goal of a tax preparation checklist?
Simply put, it will help you get everything together before you begin to file your tax return or show up for your appointment with a tax professional.
As you move down the checklist, you will find items you may have missed as well as things that were accounted for in the past.
Listed below are some of the details that should be included on your tax preparation checklist.
Tax Preparation for Personal Information
The IRS needs to know who is filing the tax return, as well as how many people are covered on it. To make this easy, they require:
Your Social Security number and driver license
Your spouse’s Social Security number (if married) and driver license
Social Security numbers for any dependents
Birthday date for you, your spouse and dependents
Tax Preparation for Income Information
The following documents will help you prepare all the income information that you need to file a federal tax return:
W-2 Forms from all employers you (and your spouse, if filing a joint return) worked for during the past tax year or w-2 form from church if you are a minister
1099 Forms if you (or your spouse) completed contract work and earned more than $600.
If you are a minister, income from your congregations other than from church (visiting, wedding, funeral and other) and expenses other than church
travel, meal and entertainment, subscriptions and books etc.
Investment income information (including: interest income, dividend income, proceeds from the sale of bonds or stocks, and income from foreign investments).
Income from local and state tax refunds from the prior year.
Business income (accounting records for any business that you own)
Unemployment income
Rental property income
Social Security benefits
Miscellaneous income (including: jury duty, lottery and gambling winnings, Form 1099-MISC for prizes and awards, and Form 1099-MSA for distributions from medical savings accounts)
Tax Preparation for Income Adjustments
The following adjustments can help reduce how much you owe in taxes, and in turn, increase your chance of receiving a tax refund:
Homebuyer tax credit
Green energy credits
IRA contributions
Mortgage interest
Student loan interest
Medical Savings Account (MSA) contributions
Self-employed health insurance
Moving expenses
Tax Preparation for Credits and Deductions
There are many tax credits and tax deductions for various expenses, which are designed to help lower the amount of tax that an individual has to pay:
Education costs
Childcare costs
Adoption costs
Charitable contributions/donations
Casualty and theft losses
Qualified business expenses
Medical expenses
Job and moving expenses
Business (ministry) expenses: car mileage and starting date to use the car for ministry(year, month and day), office expense, religious materials, subscriptions, expendable books, seminar/conference registration dues, education expenses, travel(hotel, parking fee, car rent and air plane), meals or other.
Tax Preparation for Direct Deposit
Are you interested in having your tax refund directly deposited into your bank account so that it will be refunded faster? If so, you will need to provide two things:
Your bank account number
The bank’s routing number
*This tax forms / preparation checklist should help you get organized before filing your next income tax return.
**If you have all documents well prepared, you save my time and your money!