Business tax document checklist

Publication 583 (12/2024) lists documents showing gross receipts: cash register tapes, bank deposit slips, receipt books, invoices, credit card charge slips and Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC. For expenses it lists canceled checks, account statements, credit card sales slips, invoices and petty cash slips.

For assets, records should show when and how the asset was acquired, the purchase price and the cost of improvements, supported by documents such as invoices, closing statements and canceled checks.

Ask for every W-9 and the contractor payment totals. For payments made in 2026, the 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC threshold rises to $2,000; $600 still applies to 2025 payments. Employment tax records should be kept at least 4 years, per the IRS.

When the business runs its books in HelloBooks, most of this list is already there: bank feeds for receipts and deposits, captured bills and receipts for expenses, and contractor totals for 1099s. The year-end request becomes a review of the ledger plus the items it cannot hold.