Wealth Insights

Tax checklist: A guide to your tax preparation

The important information and documents you’ll need.

As you prepare for the upcoming tax season, now is a good time to gather essential details and documents about your financial life from the last calendar year.

The list below provides a rundown of what you’ll need when you file your taxes, according to Jacqueline Parks, Private Wealth Strategist at Regions Private Wealth Management.

Once you have gathered all your documents, you should also take the opportunity to talk to your Private Wealth Advisor. Parks recommends taking a proactive approach to taxes, meaning you should think not just about last year’s taxes but also next year’s and how the coming year will affect your financial goals.

“When you’re sitting with your advisor or CPA, now is the time to talk about the current tax year and planning ahead for the next. If you’re considering any asset sales, involve your advisor sooner rather than later. While filing often takes center stage, this is also an opportunity to evaluate changes you may want to implement now or in the year ahead,” she says.

Parks notes that many taxpayers will find that they are impacted by changes enacted by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act which will make proactive planning even more important.

“I want to emphasize the importance of thinking not just about getting that tax return filed for 2025 but positioning yourself to better navigate the new law.”

Now, let’s take a look at a non-exhaustive checklist of commonly needed items to help file this year.

The basics

• Previous year’s tax returns
• Social Security numbers and dates of birth for you, your spouse and your dependents
• W-2 forms (you’ll have a W-2 from any employers you’ve had this year)
• Estimated tax paid
• Child care records, including any child support payments
• Information pertaining to irrevocable trusts, if you’ve established one in the past year

Investment information

• Capital gains, interest and dividend income from investment accounts. These will come as 1099 statements, which you generally won’t receive until mid-February.
• Savings accounts information
• Contribution to retirement accounts such as a 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA or SEP (Simplified Employee Pension Plan)
• Cryptocurrency and digital asset transactions
• Closing statement and cost-basis information from any real estate you’ve sold in the past year

Additional income

• Self-employment income/deductions
• Any taxable inheritances or trust distributions
• Rental income
• Income from royalties
• Disability income
• Jury duty records
• Gambling and lottery winnings or losses
• Distributions from Social Security, IRAs or other retirement accounts
• Alimony

Itemized deductions

• Mortgage statement from your lending institution
• Records of medical expenses
• Total amount of state/local income and, in some states, sales taxes
• Real estate taxes
• Records of cash and non-cash charitable donations to schools, hospitals, houses of faith or other charitable organizations
• Health savings account expenditures

Education payments

• Tuition statements from educational institutions that you or a dependent attended
• Records of student loan payments

Talk to your Regions Wealth Advisor about:

1. Which medical expenses from last year might qualify as tax deductions.
2. How to adjust your current wealth plan to potentially minimize next year’s tax burden.

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