Collecting documents from new tax clients starts with two items: last year's return and a short intake form. The return shows which forms the client's situation produces, and the form catches what changed since. Together they turn into a first request the client can actually finish, instead of a generic checklist they have to interpret alone.
What to collect first from new tax clients?
The first things to collect from new tax clients are the prior-year return, identity details for everyone on the return, and the answers to an intake form. These set up everything else. Without them, the firm is guessing which W-2s, 1099s and statements to request, and the client is guessing what the firm means.
Ask for these three before any document request:
- Last year's return, complete, with every schedule and statement, as filed.
- Identity details for the taxpayer, spouse and dependents, including any Identity Protection PIN.
- A completed intake form, which the third section of this post lays out.
The order matters. A request sent before the return arrives tends to be too broad or too narrow. Too broad, and the client receives a list of forty possible documents and sends nothing. Too narrow, and the client sends their W-2 and believes they are done.
Identity details deserve care from the first contact. The IRS page on getting an Identity Protection PIN says an IP PIN is a six-digit number, valid for one calendar year, that a new one is generated each year, and that the correct PIN must be entered on electronic and paper returns. A new client may not mention theirs unless asked, so the intake form asks.
Some new clients also come to the firm for bookkeeping or payroll. In that case the first collection adds the business documents, and the follow-up questions on statements and payroll come from how to collect bank statements from clients and how to collect payroll reports from clients.
The prior-year return as a new tax client's baseline
The prior-year return is a new tax client's baseline because it records, line by line, what the client's situation produced last year. Each income line, deduction and schedule points to a document. A preparer who reads it before the first request knows which forms to expect, from which issuers, and which questions to ask about changes.
The last preparer's return is also the only record of choices that carry forward. Depreciation schedules, carryovers and elections made in earlier years show up there and nowhere else the client can easily find. Ask for the complete return, including every schedule and statement, not just the two-page Form 1040.
For a returning client, the firm already has this baseline, and the process in using last year's 1040 to plan document collection applies. For a new client, the baseline has to be collected before the list can be built.
Read the prior return for three things:
- Issuers: every employer, bank, broker, lender and partnership named or implied.
- Schedules: business, rental, partnership or farm activity, each with its own document needs.
- Carryovers: amounts from earlier years that this year's return will need.
Then compare it with the intake form. A brokerage account on last year's return that the client does not mention on the form is either closed or forgotten, and only asking will tell you which.
Once the prior return is in, Schema CPA uses it to set the client's checklist, so a form that came in last year and has not arrived this year is flagged.
Designing a client document intake form for new tax clients
A client document intake form for new tax clients collects the facts that decide which documents to request. Each question should map to one or more documents. A question whose answer does not change the request belongs in a later conversation, not on the form, because every extra question lowers the chance the form comes back complete.
Keep the form short and concrete. Ask "Did you have more than one employer this year?" rather than "Describe your employment situation." Yes-or-no questions with a follow-up line are easier to answer and easier to turn into a list.
A sample intake form, field by field
This sample form is an example for a fictional firm, Example Tax Partners. The trigger column shows which document request each answer produces. Adapt the fields to the firm's own clients.
| Field | Example answer | Triggers this document request |
|---|---|---|
| Full names of taxpayer and spouse | Jordan and Sam Example | One owner per document on the expected list |
| Filing status last year | Married filing jointly | Request from both spouses |
| Do you or your spouse use an IP PIN? | Yes, Jordan | This year's IP PIN for Jordan |
| Employers this year, one per line | Northgate Media Group; Fieldwork Collective | One W-2 per employer |
| Bank and credit union accounts that pay interest | Harbor Federal, XXXX-4821 | 1099-INT per institution |
| Brokerage or investment accounts | Ridgeline Brokerage | Consolidated 1099 per account |
| Self-employment or side income | Freelance design | 1099-NEC copies, income and expense records |
| Partnership, S corporation or trust interests | Canopy Partners LP | K-1 per entity |
| Did you buy, sell or refinance a home? | Bought in June | Form 1098 from each servicer and the closing statement |
| Did you pay for child or dependent care? | Yes | Provider name, address and TIN |
| Dependents and their ages | One child, age 3 | Identity details for the child |
| Can you provide last year's return? | Yes | Complete prior-year return |
Two of those triggers come straight from IRS form instructions. The child care line exists because the Instructions for Form 2441 require the provider's identifying details, which a client rarely has on hand. The home purchase line exists because a lender reports mortgage interest of $600 or more on Form 1098, according to the Instructions for Form 1098.
Every "yes" becomes a line on the expected list. Every "no" is worth keeping too, because it records that the firm asked.
Intake form mistakes to avoid
Asking for documents on the form itself. An intake form that says "attach all your W-2s" mixes two jobs. Keep the form to questions, and send the document request once the answers are in.
Leaving out the issuer. "Do you have investment accounts? Yes" tells you little. Ask for the name of each institution, so each one becomes its own line.
Asking only the person who fills it in. One spouse often completes the form for both. Add a line asking whether the other spouse has reviewed it.
Never updating the form. If the same follow-up question keeps coming up after intake, it belongs on the form next season.
Explaining your document process to new tax clients
Explaining your document process to new tax clients means telling them, in the first conversation, what they will receive, where to send documents and how the firm will tell them what is still missing. New clients do not know the firm's habits. Clear expectations at the start prevent the half-finished folder that arrives in March.
Cover four points in the first call or meeting:
- What comes next: a request listing their specific documents, built from last year's return and the intake form.
- Where to send: one place for every document, whether it is a PDF, a phone photo or a forwarded email.
- When: a target date, and a note that some forms, such as K-1s, arrive later than others.
- What happens after: the firm will send a short list of anything still missing.
Put the same points in writing after the call. The request itself can carry them; wording for a new client's first request is in document request email templates for returning and new clients.
Say who will send what. If the firm will email an upload link, tell the client which address it will come from, so they do not mistake it for something suspicious. If the firm will follow up by phone, say so.
New clients often send everything at once in one large file. Tell them that is fine, and that the firm will sort it. Then do sort it, page by page, because a single upload can hold several documents.
The rest of a new client's first weeks, such as engagement letters and setup tasks, belongs to the client onboarding checklist for accounting firms.
What if new tax clients cannot get last year's return?
When new tax clients cannot get last year's return, the firm can rebuild most of the baseline from IRS records and from the client's own documents. The prior preparer may be slow, unreachable or unwilling to send a copy. That delays the baseline but does not have to stop collection.
Start with the client. Many clients have a copy they forgot about: a PDF in an email from the old preparer, a paper copy in a file, or a download from their tax software. Ask them to look before asking anyone else.
Next, the IRS. The IRS Get Transcript page says individuals can view, print or download transcripts through their online account, or request tax return or tax account transcripts by mail or by phone. It notes that transcripts partially mask personal information but keep financial data visible for tax preparation. A transcript is not the full return, but it shows the figures.
For a full copy of the return as filed, the IRS page about Form 4506 says the form is used to request a copy of a tax return, or to have it sent to a third party. The page points to Get Transcript for clients who do not need the actual return.
The firm can also be authorized to receive the client's information. The IRS page about Form 8821 says it authorizes a designated individual or firm to inspect or receive the taxpayer's confidential information. It does not authorize representation.
While waiting, build a provisional list from the intake form alone. Request the documents the answers make certain, such as a W-2 for each named employer. Mark the list provisional, and revisit it when the return or transcript arrives. The client tracker demo on the homepage shows how an expected list looks once those first documents start coming in.