Tax Preparation Intake Form Template

A tax preparation intake form collects who your new client is, who is on the return, and what happened in their year, so you know which documents to ask for. The IRS publishes its own intake sheet, Form 13614-C, for its VITA and TCE volunteer sites. This template follows its order: you and your spouse, marital status, dependents, income, expenses and life events, then the refund. Questions come first, documents second. Send them together: the answers tell you which forms to expect.

For Tax preparers, CPAs, and Enrolled Agents taking on a new individual (Form 1040) client. Last updated September 2026.

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Questions to ask on your intake form

DokuTrak collects the documents below. Put these questions in your own intake form or engagement letter.

About you and your spouse

  • Full name, date of birth, and job title for you and your spouse
  • Mailing address, phone number, and email address
  • Did you live or work in two or more states during the year?
  • Can anyone else claim you or your spouse on their tax return?
  • During the year, were you or your spouse a U.S. citizen, in the U.S. on a visa, a full-time student, legally blind, or totally and permanently disabled?
  • Were you or your spouse issued an IRS Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN)?
  • Did you or your spouse own or hold any digital assets?

Marital status

  • What was your marital status on December 31: never married, married, divorced, legally separated, or widowed?
  • If married, did you and your spouse live apart for the last six months of the year?
  • If divorced, separated, or widowed: the date of the decree, or the year of your spouse’s death

Dependents and household

  • Who lived with you during the year (other than your spouse), and who did you support who did not live with you?
  • For each person: date of birth, relationship to you, and months lived in your home
  • Was each person a full-time student, totally and permanently disabled, or issued an IP PIN?

Income

  • Did you work as an employee? How many jobs, and did you receive tips?
  • Did you receive retirement, pension, annuity, or disability payments?
  • Did you receive Social Security, Railroad Retirement, or unemployment benefits?
  • Did you earn interest or dividends, or sell stocks, bonds, or real estate?
  • Were you paid for contract or self-employment work?
  • Did you rent out a house, a room, or personal property such as a vehicle?
  • Did you receive a state or local tax refund, alimony, gambling winnings, or any other money (cash payments, jury duty, awards, digital assets, royalties)?

Expenses and life events

  • Did you pay mortgage interest, state, local, or real estate taxes, medical expenses, or charitable contributions?
  • Did you pay student loan interest, child and dependent care, retirement contributions, classroom supplies as an educator, or alimony?
  • Did you or someone in your family take educational classes?
  • Did you buy health insurance through the Marketplace, or have a health savings account (HSA)?
  • Did you sell a home, install energy-efficient home items, or have a debt cancelled or forgiven?
  • Did you have a loss in a federally declared disaster area, or a tax credit disallowed in a previous year?
  • Did you receive a letter or bill from the IRS, or make estimated tax payments?

Refund and payment

  • If you get a refund: direct deposit, check by mail, or split between accounts?
  • If you owe: pay from a bank account, through IRS Direct Pay, by installment agreement, or by mail?
  • Would you like written communications from the IRS in a language other than English?
Listed on IRS Form 13614-C
Also collect at engagement

Frequently asked questions

What should a tax client intake form include?
A tax client intake form should cover five things: identity details for the client and spouse (name, date of birth, address, job), marital status on December 31, everyone who lived in the home or was supported, a yes-or-no line for each type of income, and the expenses and events that change a return, such as education, Marketplace coverage, a home sale, or an IRS letter. It ends with how the client wants a refund paid or a balance settled. IRS Form 13614-C asks these in that order.
Is there an official IRS intake form?
Yes. Form 13614-C, Intake/Interview and Quality Review Sheet (Rev. 10-2025), is the intake sheet the IRS uses at its Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) sites. It is written for those volunteer programs. For a paid practice it is a public, current model to build your own form from, which is what the template above does.
What documents should a new tax client send with the intake form?
Form 13614-C lists three things under “You will need”: tax information such as Forms W-2, 1099, 1098, and 1095; Social Security cards or ITIN letters for everyone on the return; and a picture ID for the taxpayer and spouse. For a new client, also ask for last year’s return, the current IP PIN if the IRS issued one, bank details for the refund, and your signed engagement letter. The full annual list, form by form, is in the individual tax preparation checklist.
Should the intake form and the documents go out together?
Yes. The answers tell you which documents to expect: a yes on contract work means a 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, or 1099-K; a yes on Marketplace coverage means a 1095-A. Sent together, the client answers and gathers in one sitting, and you see the gaps before the first appointment. With DokuTrak, the documents go out as one upload request and the questions stay in your own form or engagement letter: DokuTrak collects files, not answers. It follows up when the client goes quiet and can flag a wrong or unreadable file; you accept every file.
How do I keep a client’s tax documents secure when they send them?
IRS Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data, is the reference. It advises encrypting sensitive files and emails, and sending only password-protected, encrypted documents if you must share files by email, or using a secure file transfer instead. It also notes that under the FTC Safeguards Rule, tax return preparers must create and enact a security plan to protect client data. With DokuTrak, clients upload from one secure link with no account to create, and files are stored encrypted at rest instead of sitting in an email thread.

Sources

This is a general checklist. Confirm the exact documents for your client's specific situation.

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