What tax preparers collect from clients
By Arthur Teboul, DokuTrak · Published
In short
Tax preparers collect income forms from each client every season: W-2s, 1099s, 1098s, SSA-1099s and K-1s, plus last year’s return, ID and records for deductions. Most forms are due to clients by January 31, so requests go out in early February. The friction repeats each year: a form still missing in March, last year’s copy, or a photo with a box cut off.
Tax preparers
An individual return is built from documents the client gathers from employers, banks, brokers and the IRS. Each one arrives on its own schedule, and K-1s or corrected 1099s can come weeks after the rest. A request in early February catches the January forms; a second pass in March catches the late ones.
Files stall in the same places: the client sends what is on the kitchen table and forgets the envelope never opened, a spouse’s W-2 is missing on a joint return, or a phone photo cuts off the box you need. The guides below say what to ask for, document by document, with an email ready to send.
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