Tax season 2026 — preparing your documents

Document categories

Income documents: W-2 (US wages), 1099-NEC (US non-employee compensation), 1099-MISC (US miscellaneous), 1099-INT (US interest), 1099-DIV (US dividends), 1099-B (US securities sales), 1099-R (US retirement distributions), 1099-K (US payment-card and third-party-network), 1099-G (US government payments), Schedule K-1 (US partnership / S-corp / trust). For non-US jurisdictions: P60/P45 (UK), T4 / T5 / T3 (Canada), PAYG payment summaries (Australia), Lohnsteuerbescheinigung (Germany), bulletin de salaire and équivalents elsewhere.

Deduction documents: mortgage-interest statements (Form 1098 in US), property-tax statements, charitable-contribution receipts, medical-expense records above the relevant threshold, business-expense logs, vehicle-mileage logs, home-office worksheets where claiming home-office deduction.

Foreign-asset documents (US-citizen-abroad and expats): foreign-bank account year-end balances and account numbers (for FBAR and Form 8938), foreign-trust beneficiary statements (Form 3520), foreign-corporation ownership documentation (Form 5471), foreign-partnership documentation (Form 8865), passive-foreign-investment-company statements (Form 8621).

Investment documents: brokerage 1099-Composite (US), cost-basis statements, foreign-broker year-end statements (where the broker doesn't issue a 1099-equivalent), cryptoasset transaction histories from each exchange and DeFi protocol used.

Business documents (self-employed and small business): bank statements for the business account, accounting software exports (QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, FreshBooks), payroll reports if employing staff, depreciation schedules for capital assets, inventory year-end counts.

Real estate documents (rental property, property sales): rental-income summary by property, expense logs by property (repairs, maintenance, utilities if landlord-paid, property management fees, insurance, property tax, mortgage interest, depreciation), Form 1099-S for property sales (US).

Document organisation

Store digital copies in a single folder structure organised by year and category. Many tax professionals provide a secure client portal for document upload; using the portal avoids email-attachment limits and creates an audit trail.

A useful folder structure for a moderately complex US filer:

2025-Tax-Documents/
├── 01-Income/
│   ├── W2-EmployerName.pdf
│   ├── 1099-NEC-ClientName.pdf
│   ├── 1099-INT-BankName.pdf
│   └── ...
├── 02-Deductions/
│   ├── 1098-Mortgage.pdf
│   ├── PropertyTax.pdf
│   ├── CharitableContributions/
│   └── ...
├── 03-Foreign-Assets/
│   ├── ForeignBankBalances.xlsx
│   ├── Form-3520-Trust-Statement.pdf
│   └── ...
├── 04-Investments/
│   ├── 1099-Composite-BrokerageName.pdf
│   ├── Crypto-Exchange-2025.csv
│   └── ...
└── 05-Business-or-Real-Estate/
    └── ...

Adjust the folder structure to your situation; the principle is consistent organisation that the preparer can navigate quickly.

Reconciliation workflow

Before sending documents to a preparer, perform a reconciliation: confirm that totals on the year-end income summary match the sum of individual income documents, that brokerage cost-basis statements include the buy-and-sell history for the year, that foreign-bank balances are reported in the original currency and converted to home currency at year-end exchange rate.

Reconciliation discrepancies (1099 totals not matching what your records show) need to be resolved before filing — either by amending the 1099 with the issuer (request a corrected 1099) or by attaching a reconciliation statement to the return.

Cryptoasset records

Cryptoasset records are typically the highest-effort document-prep category for filers with non-trivial crypto activity. Required information per disposal: acquisition date, acquisition cost (in home currency), disposal date, disposal proceeds (in home currency), gain or loss.

For filers with multi-exchange or DeFi activity, dedicated cryptoasset tax software (Koinly, CoinTracker, ZenLedger — see the affiliate-disclosure for the directory's commercial relationship with these providers) can ingest exchange APIs and transaction histories and produce the required disposal records.

Typical engagement-letter document list

Most preparers send a document-request list as part of the engagement letter or initial onboarding. The list typically asks for:

• Prior-year tax return (for continuity and amortisation tracking).
• Current-year income documents.
• Current-year deduction documents.
• Prior-year and current-year bank statements (for self-employed filers).
• Cryptoasset transaction history (where applicable).
• Foreign-asset disclosure information (where applicable).
• Engagement-specific items the preparer flags based on your situation.

Send documents through the preparer's secure portal rather than email where possible. Email is not a secure channel for tax documents containing identifying information.

Document retention after filing

Retain tax-document copies for at least the relevant statute-of-limitations period:

• US: 3 years from filing date for routine returns; 6 years if substantial under-reporting; indefinitely for fraud or non-filing; 7 years for bad-debt deduction substantiation.
• UK: 5 years from 31 January following the tax year-end.
• Canada: 6 years from end of the tax year.
• Australia: 5 years from the date of lodgement.
• Other jurisdictions: see the country deep page.

Retain in a format that will be readable in the future (PDF or PDF/A; not proprietary software-specific formats that may not open later).