How to get ready for tax season: a document checklist before you meet your CPA

The 2027 filing season is the return for tax year 2026. The hour goes further when the folder exists before you sit down. Preparers are busiest from January through April. Book once you can describe the year, while there is still a time on the calendar that is not the week everything is due.

When to book

A return that is mostly wages can wait until the W-2s are in your hands. A small business, a rental, a new entity, or a Schedule K-1 should book earlier. Those years need books and a list of what is still out, not only envelopes.

You do not need every form to hold the date. Brokerage statements and K-1s often arrive after the first W-2s. A partnership, S corporation, or trust that extends its own return can send a K-1 later still. Tell the CPA which forms are missing and who issues them. Waiting for a complete folder is how people find that the week they wanted is gone.

Work that had to be finished before the year closed is a different conversation. Year-end tax questions to settle with a CPA before December 31 covers retirement contributions, gifts, and the estimated payment that falls in January. This note is the folder for the return itself. Ask, when you book, whether the appointment also covers the first estimated payment of the new year or only the 2026 return. Those are easy to mix.

If an IRS letter is already on the table, do not slide it under a routine filing appointment. What to bring a CPA when the IRS sends a notice is the separate stack. IRS representation is a different hire from preparation.

What a household should gather

Start with last year’s federal and state returns, including any amended return. That file is the map: filing status, dependents, accounts, and the states you already filed. If you cannot find it, say so at the start. The gap belongs in the scope.

Then the 2026 income forms:

• Form W-2 from every job, including a job you left during the year.
• Form 1099-INT and Form 1099-DIV.
• Form 1099-B, or the consolidated statement the broker sent instead. Keep a corrected statement with the original.
• Form 1099-R for retirement distributions, and Form SSA-1099 if you received Social Security.
• Form 1099-NEC or Form 1099-MISC for side work, rents, or other payments.
• Form 1099-K if a payment app, marketplace, or card processor sent one. The form reports payments processed. It is not your profit. Bring the records of what those payments were for.
• Form 1099-G for unemployment compensation or a state tax refund.
• Form 1099-S, plus the closing statements, if you sold real estate.
• Equity statements from an employer. The W-2 does not always show the whole story.
• Form 1099-DA, or any other digital-asset statement a platform sent. The return still asks whether you had digital-asset activity when no form arrives. If that activity is the year, start from crypto and digital assets.

Forms that support deductions and credits sit in the same folder. Bring Form 1098 for mortgage interest, Form 1098-E for student-loan interest, and Form 1098-T for tuition. If you bought health coverage through a marketplace, bring Form 1095-A. Employer coverage statements can stay in the folder if you received them. If you itemized last year, bring the same kinds of records that return used: charitable acknowledgments, property-tax bills, and medical bills. Which of those matter this year is a question for the preparer. The dollar rules change, and this list does not apply them.

Also bring:

• Estimated payments already made, with the date and the confirmation number.
• Childcare records: the provider’s name, address, taxpayer identification number, and the amount paid.
• Health-savings-account forms if you contributed or were reimbursed.
• An Identity Protection PIN, if the IRS issued one. The e-filed return needs the current PIN.
• The facts that are new: a marriage, a dependent, a move, or work in another state. Bring the documents, not a summary from memory.

A rental needs rent received, the expenses, and the closing statement if you bought or sold. Real estate tax questions to settle before you hire a CPA is that conversation in more detail. A Schedule K-1 from a partnership, an S corporation, or a trust or estate belongs in the household folder even when the business has its own preparer. Ask both people who is reporting the K-1 so it is not left off and not counted twice.

What a small business should add

The household folder is not the business folder. Bring a 2026 profit and loss and a balance sheet if one exists. If the books are not closed, say so, and bring the bank and card statements that would have been used to close them. A fee that assumes finished books is a different job from a cleanup.

Also bring:

• Payroll reports for the year, including the W-2s and Form W-3 you issued, and a record of payroll tax deposits.
• Copies of Forms 1099-NEC you filed for contractors, and a list of anyone you paid who did not receive one.
• Equipment bought or sold, and a mileage log if you kept one. If you did not keep a log, say that. A number rebuilt later should be labeled as rebuilt.
• Owner draws or shareholder distributions, and estimated payments made by the owner or the company.
• The IRS acceptance letter for an S election, if this is the first year it applies, and the entity’s prior return.

An LLC and an S corporation are not the same return. How to choose a CPA for an S corporation or LLC covers payroll, basis, and the books. Search small business or business tax preparation when the entity is the work. Ask which returns the fee includes: the entity, the owner’s individual return, and which states.

Notices, and what not to send yet

Put every IRS or state notice from the year in the folder, including letters you believe are finished. A letter about a form that did not match the return can change the year you are about to file. A balance or a levy is not a document to tuck behind a W-2. Keep those separate and say so on the first call.

Do not email Social Security numbers, a full prior return, or a stack of notices through a short form on a directory. Hire the person, then use the method they give you. How to check a CPA or tax preparer before you hire them is the check before you upload anything. CPA vs. enrolled agent vs. tax preparer matches the credential to a return, a notice, or a report.

Copies are enough for a first meeting. Keep originals you cannot replace. If you can group records the way last year’s return was grouped, do that. An unlabeled box spends the appointment on sorting.

Questions worth asking

• Who prepares the return, who signs it, and which PTIN will be on the copy filed with the IRS?
• Which states does the fee include, and what is billed separately?
• Which forms are still missing, and will you extend if a K-1 or a corrected brokerage statement is late?
• An extension changes when the return is filed. It does not, by itself, change when tax is due. What do you need from me to estimate the payment?
• When will I see the balance due or the refund, before anything is filed?
• How should documents be sent, and what will you not accept by email?

A useful answer names a person, a missing form, and a way to send files. A refund named before anyone has read the W-2s is not a result. Nobody can honestly promise one from a checklist.

Where to look

Find a CPA by city and by the service you actually need, then read the profile before you send a year of records. Individual tax preparation is the household return. Individual tax is the same work as a specialty filter. Business returns sit with business tax preparation.

What the fee is supposed to cover is a separate conversation, in how much a CPA costs for taxes. City lists include Miami and the Florida directory.

This is a gathering list for a meeting. It does not compute what you owe, and it is not a medical, legal, or tax determination. CPA Seek is a directory, not a CPA firm. A listing does not create a client relationship, and sending a question through the site does not hire the preparer.