April 15^th is the deadline for filing federal and state individual income tax returns. Many people often forget which documents are required in order prepare a timely and accurate return. The best way to ensure that you have everything is to look at your prior year's return. The following list summarizes the general items normally included on a Form 1040. We suggest you print this sheet out and use to help you gather your information.

We will need the original or copies of the following items in order to verify the accuracy and make sure all of the information is captured properly. Please do not list them out.

• W-2s.
• 1099s for interest, dividend, pension, and social security income.
• Year end brokerage statements showing the gains and losses of all stocks sold throughout the year. Many brokerage firms do not provide the gain/loss information without asking. They only provide the total proceeds.
• K-1s from any partnerships, trusts or corporations that you are involved with.
• 1098s from banks showing the mortgage interest you have paid.
• Real estate taxes paid on your primary residence as well as any other properties you own.
• As a rule, we always inquire of all clients about the non-existence of an item that existed in the prior year. This is to ensure that our clients provide us with everything to avoid them getting correspondence from a governmental agency later. Please review your prior year return and indicate to us if an item truly does not exist in the current year.
• For these items, we only need a listing. Please do not send originals or copies of any of the receipts.
• Summary of medical expenses by categories.
• Summary of cash charitable contributions in which you have either a receipt issued by the charity, a cancelled check, or credit card receipt to support the deduction ifaudited. Again, a list is sufficient. We do NOT need to see the actual receipt or letter.
• Listing of non-cash charitable contributions including a description of the item donated, donee's name and address and proposed value. For a guideline of values to use, go to the Salvation Army's website.
• Summary of unreimbursed business expenses by category.
• Listing of the dates and amounts you may have paid in estimated tax payments to the IRS and your state.
• If you had a small business or rental property, we will need a summary of the income collected and the expenses paid out .

If we prepared your return last year, a personalized "organizer" is available for you that lists out all of the items on your prior return. We would still however want you to incorporate all of the procedures above.  If you would like us to mail that to you, please contact Robin Campbell in our office and she will mail this out to you the same day you request it. Since it normally is more than 20 pages, in order to prevent the hassles of printing, we normally mail these instead of emailing them.

If we did not prepare your return last year, but you like the concept of an "organizer", please open and review this blank organizer. In this case, when submitting your documents (as listed above) to us, we will also need a copy of your prior year federal and state tax returns if you have not already given it to us.

When you have all of the above prepared, please either email/fax/mail/upload your documents to Robin Campbell by February 24th. This is the date by which you should have all documents from your banks, etc. If you feel you will be later than this date, please contact us to let us know.