How tax preparers request a credit card statement from clients
By Arthur Teboul, DokuTrak · Published
In short
Ask self-employed clients for every monthly statement of each credit card used for business, covering all charges made during the tax year, or the card issuer’s year-end summary. You use them to find Schedule C expenses the client paid by card, then ask the client to mark which charges were business and which were personal.
Why tax preparers need a credit card statement
Many self-employed clients pay business costs on a personal card, so the card statement is where expenses hide: software subscriptions, advertising, supplies, travel. For a cash-basis filer, an expense charged to a card is generally deductible in the year of the charge, not the year the card is paid off, so the statements must cover charges dated January to December. Mixed cards need the client’s help to separate business from personal.
What exactly to ask for
All monthly statements whose charges fall in the tax year, which often means the January statement of the following year too, for each card that carried a business expense. A year-end summary by category from the issuer helps, but keep the monthly statements for the detail. PDFs from the card’s online account, all pages.
What to check when it arrives
- Charges dated January 1 to December 31 are all covered, including those on the statement that closes in January.
- Business charges are marked by the client, and personal ones are left out of Schedule C.
- Card payments and balance transfers are not counted as expenses, only the underlying charges.
Email to send your client
Replace the bracketed parts. The same text fits in the message of a DokuTrak request (up to 1,000 characters).
Subject: Credit card statements for your business expenses
Hi [Client name],
Many of your business costs were probably paid by card, so I would like the statements for each credit card you used for the business, covering every charge made during the year.
That usually means all twelve monthly statements plus the January one, since it often includes late December charges. The PDFs from the card’s website are ideal.
If a card mixes personal and business spending, could you highlight or list the business charges? That keeps your deductions accurate. Please send them by [date], and tell me if a card account is closed so we can find another way.
Thank you, [Your name]
Ask once. DokuTrak does the chasing.
- Your client uploads from one link, with no account and no password.
- Reminders go out on a schedule, by default 2, 5, 10 and 14 days after the request, until the file arrives.
- With AI review switched on in your workspace (it is off by default), each upload gets a first pass that flags a file that is not a credit card statement or an unreadable or blurry scan. It says so when it is not sure.
- You accept every file or mark it for re-upload, and your client gets the note by email. The AI never accepts a file.