What to Bring When You Meet With Your CPA to File Taxes

If you have never hired a CPA before to handle your taxes you may be a little overwhelmed during your first meeting. You can be overloaded with a great amount of information and terminology which may be unfamiliar to you. While this meeting can be overwhelming, it can be one of the best decisions you ever make as a business owner.

If you’ve ever wondered what exactly you should bring when you first meet with your CPA to file taxes, here are a few items to get you started:

Notebook

Bring a pen and paper with you and get ready to take notes when you go meet with your CPA. Every piece of information they provide you with is designed to help you as a business owner. If you don’t write it down, statistics show that you are almost guaranteed to forget it. Take copious notes during your meeting.

Pay Stubs

Your CPA needs to know exactly how much money you are bringing in each and every year, and the only way to demonstrate this is with a pay stub. Make sure you bring in the pay stubs from the last year of both you and your spouse (if you’re married) to help your CPA better calculate your potential refund.

Childcare Bills (if you have children)

Childcare bills (specifically for daycare and doctor’s visits) are important to include when you’re meeting with your CPA. CPAs can work with you to use these items as potential tax write-offs for you and your family.

Dependent Care Information

Do you have a parent or spouse or someone who is a dependent of yours who needs special care? There’s also a tax write off for you, but only a CPA can help you through that process as they’ll know more information about how to adequately navigate that situation than anyone else.

Business Related Travel Documents

As a business owner, it’s important that you always track your mileage when traveling. This will not only show you how much you’re traveling each month, but it will also be used as a business travel expense that you may be rewarded for at the end of the year by the IRS.

Image credit: Horia Varlan