Tax preparer checklist for clients

A tax preparer checklist for clients does one job: it turns "send me your tax stuff" into a list of named forms the client can find in a drawer or a portal. The shorter and more specific it is, the sooner the documents arrive — which is why the builder above starts from the client's situation instead of a three-page master list.

A master checklist that covers every form a 1040 can involve is useful to the preparer and useless to the client. Someone with one W-2 and a mortgage reads forty items, decides most of them must apply somehow, and calls. Switch on only the situations this client has; untick what you already hold from last year.

• Returning W-2 client: Every client and W-2 employee, minus last year's return and ID you already have.
• Freelancer or sole proprietor: add Self-employed / 1099. The 1099-K and the mileage log are the two most often missed.
• Investors: add Investments, and ask for the consolidated brokerage statement rather than each 1099 separately — one PDF instead of five.
• Landlords: add Rental property, one set of documents per property.

W-2s and most 1099s are due to taxpayers by 31 January; consolidated brokerage statements often arrive mid-February, and corrected ones later still. Sending the checklist in early January, with a note on which items will come later, lets the client upload what they have as it arrives instead of waiting to collect everything at once.

Most of a preparer's season is spent on the second half of this: chasing, downloading attachments, renaming scan_0042.pdf, and working out whether the 1099 that arrived in a reply on Tuesday is the corrected one. A list does not fix that. A single place to send everything does.

Drive File Request gives each client their own upload link. They open it on their phone or computer without creating an account, pick what the document is, and upload. Everything lands in your own Google Drive, in the folder for that client's link, and each document type can route to its own subfolder:

The link comes with a Tax documents preset: it asks for the client's name and email, offers the document types above, and files each into its own folder. Add the forms from your checklist to the dropdown and give each one a folder, and you get an email when something arrives. Phone photos of receipts go up at full resolution — no 25 MB attachment limit.

1. 01Copy the list from the builder and paste it into your engagement email, or into a spreadsheet if you track status per item.
2. 02Put the upload link in the same email, directly under the list.
3. 03Say which items will arrive later — brokerage statements, K-1s — so the client does not hold everything back for them.
4. 04Follow up with the items still missing, not the whole list again.

The document request email templates have a first request, a follow-up and a final reminder written for exactly this. For business clients and audits, the PBC list template does the same job by account area.