What You Need To File Your Taxes, On One Sheet
February 21, 2018
It’s that time of year again: tax season! Whether you’re filing taxes yourself, or hiring a professional — getting your tax documents organized can help speed up the process.
At Northwestern Bank, we created a simple tax preparation checklist to help get you started:
Download Tax Checklist (PDF)
What Documents Do You Need to File Your Taxes?
1. PERSONAL INFORMATION
- Legal Information – This includes social security numbers (or tax ID numbers) and dates of birth for yourself, your spouse and any household dependents.
- A Copy of Last Year’s Tax Return
2. INCOME INFORMATION
- Personal Income Statements — You should have a W-2 Form for each job held over the previous year by you, your spouse or any dependents. If you are self-employed, you will need all financial records pertaining to your business. In this scenario, we recommend finding a professional tax advisor.
- Unemployment Income
- Investment or Interest Income — This includes money that financial institutions pay you for savings accounts, certificates of deposit, treasury bounds, or interest-yielding checking accounts.
- Retirement Plan Income — This includes money you collected from pensions, annuities and individual retirement accounts.
- Business/Farming Income — You’ll want to include a profit/loss statement, and any capital equipment purchases.
- Social Security/Medicare Benefits
- Income from Sale of a Home or Property
- Trust and Estate Beneficiary Earnings
- State or Local Tax Refunds — This would be tax refund money you received in the last calendar year, from your previous tax filing period (in this case, anything you received from Tax Year 2016).
- Medical Savings Account Reimbursements
- Cancelled Debt (if any)
- Other, Miscellaneous Income — This includes (but is not limited to) prizes, awards, royalty income, alimony received, jury duty, gambling/lottery winnings, scholarships, fellowships, rental income or independent contract work.
3. POSSIBLE CREDITS & DEDUCTIONS
- Homeowner Expenses — This includes mortgage interest and any private mortgage insurance (PMI) you paid, real estate taxes, energy-efficient home improvements (save your receipts!) or moving expenses. If you just bought a home this year, you might also qualify for various homebuyer tax credits.
- Education Expenses — This includes any post-high school tuition or any student loan interest that you paid.
- Child & Dependent Care Expenses — You’ll need a statement with your provider’s name, address, tax ID (SSN) and amount paid to watch one of your dependents. Also, if you adopted a child this year include any records of legal, medical and transportation costs.
- Health Care Expenses — These include receipts for any medical and dental expenses. Also, you’ll want to gather your proof of health insurance.
- Charitable Contributions — Put together a detailed list of donations and receipts for any charitable contributions you made, including any donated automobiles or property. Also include out-of-pocket expenses used for the benefit of charities.
- Retirement Contributions — Any contributions made to non-Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).
- Health Savings Account Contributions
- Alimony Paid — You’ll need to include your ex-spouse’s name and social security number.
- Casualty & Theft Losses
- Job Search & Job Education Expenses
- Classroom Expenses (for Teachers) — If you are a teacher, include receipts for any expenses paid for classroom supplies.
- Tax Payments — Include receipts for all local and state taxes paid during the previous year. If you own a vehicle, include receipts of your vehicle license fees, and a statement of the estimated value of your vehicle.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This article is for information purposes only, and Northwestern Bank is not a tax adviser company. There may be additional guidelines and information, regarding your personal tax situation, not included in this article. For more information, you should always contact your tax adviser or visit the IRS website.
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