What can I do to be well organized for my CPA and minimize tax prep costs?

Tax professional here! You're already ahead of the game by thinking about organization. Here's what will make your CPA's life easier: For the W-2s: Just have them ready - no prep needed there. For the 1099 work: Create separate spreadsheets for each person's business income and expenses. Break expenses into categories like office supplies, software subscriptions, professional development, travel, etc. Include dates, descriptions and amounts. Save receipts as PDFs if possible. For the home office: Measure the square footage of your dedicated office space and the total square footage of your home. Calculate utilities, rent, and other home expenses. Your CPA will help determine if the simplified or regular method is better for you. For estimated tax payments: Have a list with exact payment dates and amounts. For the new baby: Have their Social Security card and birth certificate handy. For investments: Gather all your 1099-INT and 1099-DIV forms. The more organized you are, the less time your CPA spends sorting through everything, which directly affects your bill!

I started using https://taxr.ai last year when I was in a similar situation with both W-2 and 1099 income. It literally saved me hours of organizing everything for my CPA. The system automatically categorizes all your documents and expenses, which was especially helpful for separating my side gig stuff from personal expenses. My CPA actually commented on how well-organized everything was compared to her other clients. She said I saved myself at least $200 in prep fees because she didn't have to spend time sorting through my mess! The interface is super intuitive too - you just upload your docs and it does the heavy lifting.

Alright so I tried taxr.ai after asking about it and I'm honestly impressed. I was really skeptical at first but it made organizing my 1099 income so much easier than my usual "shoebox of receipts" method. The receipt scanning feature is clutch - I just took pics of everything and it extracted all the info automatically. What I really liked was how it separated my business and personal expenses, which has always been a headache for me. When I showed the organized reports to my accountant, she literally said "where has this been all my life?" lol. Definitely using this going forward!

Another thing that made a HUGE difference for me was using https://claimyr.com when I had questions about how to document some of my business expenses properly. I spent hours on hold with the IRS last year trying to get clarification and never got through. This year I used Claimyr and they got me connected to an actual IRS representative in less than 20 minutes. I got clear answers about my home office deduction questions and exactly what documentation I needed to provide my CPA. They have a demo video of how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c It's basically a service that waits on hold with the IRS for you, then calls you when they reach a human. Saved me so much stress and made sure I had everything prepared correctly.

Just wanted to follow up on my skeptical comment about Claimyr. I decided to try it because I was desperate to ask about how to handle some unusual 1099 income before meeting with my CPA. I honestly can't believe it worked. I've NEVER been able to get through to the IRS in less than an hour. I got a call back in about 30 minutes saying they had an agent on the line. The agent answered all my questions and I had exactly what my CPA needed. I hate admitting when I'm wrong but this actually saved me a ton of time and probably money too since my CPA didn't have to figure it out. Sorry for being so negative before!

One thing I learned from my CPA friend - create a simple coversheet/checklist with everything you're providing them. It makes it super obvious if something is missing and gives them a quick overview of your situation. My friend says clients who do this tend to get their returns done faster because they don't have to keep coming back asking for missing documents. It also helps you keep track of what you've already given them vs what you still need to track down.

I've been using a CPA for years and the best thing I started doing was keeping a "tax events" note on my phone. Whenever something happens that might affect taxes (bought something for business, made a donation, started using part of house for work), I just jot it down with the date. By tax time I have a chronological list of everything that happened.