This story is part of Taxes 2023, CNET’s coverage of the best tax software, tax tips and everything else you need to file your return and track your refund.
Whether you’re doing your taxes on paper, using the best tax software available or hiring a tax professional, there’s one tax task that’s universal: gathering all of your official tax documents you’ll need to file.
To be clear, we’re talking about the tax documents you get before you file taxes — like your W-2 form for employee wages or 1099 forms for other income — not the IRS forms you complete to file your tax return.
There are hundreds of IRS forms you may need, and it’s easy for tax filers to get confused by the endless combination of numbers, letters and technical descriptions. However, most of us only need to worry about a handful of tax documents for our income, taxes withheld and popular tax credits and deductions.
Learn which tax forms you need to file your taxes in 2023 and what to do if you’re missing any. For more tax tips, see why you should file your taxes early and whether you need to pay taxes on your Social Security income.
First tax documents you need are your income forms
Whether or not you’re among the vast majority of Americans who file taxes using the standard deduction instead of itemizing deductions, you’ll need to account for your income with critical tax documents — primarily your W-2 form and additional income from 1099 forms.
For employees of companies, your Form W-2 includes your essential info about wages and salary you earned and the total amount of taxes that were withheld from your paycheck last year.
Additional 1099 forms you receive will document other income that you earned in 2022. These forms could include interest from savings (1099-INT), money from freelance work (1099-NEC), unemployment benefits (1099-G) or retirement distributions (1099-R). If you were paid via online payment services like Venmo and Cash App, you might get a 1099-K form, but it’s still not mandatory for those companies to send one unless you earned more than $20,000. (You need to report earnings over $600 from those services anyway.)
If you’re a full-time freelancer or work for yourself, your income may show up in various 1099 forms. Starting in 2020, 1099-NEC is now the standard form for “non-employee compensation,” while 1099-MISC is reserved for miscellaneous income like awards, prizes and rent.
Payments from state or local programs will be included in your 1099-G form, but most Americans won’t need to report last year’s state rebates. And if you received Social Security benefits, you should have received a SSA-1099 in January, though the taxability of that money is complicated.
Tax documents for income
Next, collect your documents for tax credits and tax deductions
Tax deductions decrease your taxable income, while tax credits take money directly off your tax bill. Getting the biggest possible tax refund requires making sure you’ve got all the necessary documentation to claim credits and deductions that reduce your tax liability.
Much of the info you’ll need for tax credits and deductions will come on 1098 forms — and there are seven of those.
The most important tax form for many homeowners is the standard Form 1098, which shows how much mortgage interest you paid last year. It also includes any mortgage points paid for a home purchase in 2022. Both amounts are tax deductible if you itemize.
Depending on your adjusted gross income, or AGI, you may be able to deduct up to $2,500 of student loan interest “above the line,” meaning you don’t need to itemize. However, interest on federal student loans has been paused since March 2020, so any money you claim here would need to come from private loans or older federal loans that are serviced by private lenders.
Student loan interest will show up on Line 1 of Form 1098-E.
Tuition costs for higher education are no longer tax deductible, but you might be able to get some of that money back with the American opportunity tax credit or the lifetime learning credit. The tuition you paid in 2022 will be included in Form 1098-T.
If you donated a car, boat or plane to a qualified charity in 2022 and it was worth more than $500, you’ll need a Form 1098-C from the organization that received it to claim it as an itemized tax deduction.
The other three 1098 forms likely won’t affect your taxes much. Form 1098-MA shows any mortgage assistance you received in 2022 and usually doesn’t need to be reported. Form 1098-F shows court-ordered fines and penalties, which are not tax deductible. And Form 1098-Q shows distributions from college savings programs like 529 plans, which aren’t taxable unless they’re greater than your total educational expenses.
One other non-1098 IRS form could give you a big tax credit. Form 1095-A can be used to claim the premium tax credit, which represents assistance for purchasing health insurance through the public marketplace as created by Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act).
If you bought health insurance through the public marketplace and didn’t receive advance assistance to lower your monthly premiums, you can get all that money back at tax time.
On the flip side, if you did receive the premium tax credit in advance to lower your monthly health care costs, you’ll need to use Form 1095-A to reconcile your premium tax credit.
Another health-related tax deduction comes for people with health savings accounts. If you made contributions to an HSA in 2022, you should receive Form 5498-SA from your plan provider. You can deduct HSA contributions from your taxable income, regardless of whether you itemize.
Tax documents for credits and deductions
What other tax forms and information do you need to file taxes?
While the essential info for your return will come directly from tax forms, you’ll also need to glean your own personal records for information you need to file.
First, you’ll need the full names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers (or Taxpayer Identification Numbers) for yourself, your spouse and all of your children and other dependents.
Next, if you’re filing taxes electronically, you’ll need your adjusted gross income from last year to verify your identity. If you don’t have a copy of your tax return from last year, you can look up your AGI with your online IRS account.
If you’ve enrolled in the program to prevent tax-based identity theft or have been issued an Identity Protection PIN by the IRS in a CPA01 Notice, you’ll need that six-digit number to file your taxes. If you’ve forgotten your PIN, lost your CPA01 Notice or both, you can use your online IRS account to find that information too.
If you’re a freelancer paying estimated taxes quarterly, you’ll need the 1040-ES forms you filed in 2022 to see how much you’ve already paid. (These forms aren’t sent to you.) Once again, you can also find that information in your online IRS account.
And if you’re itemizing deductions, you’ll need information such as receipts, paid bills and invoices to claim some deductions, including:
- Charitable donations
- Child care costs
- Expenses for educators
- Medical and dental expenses
- Retirement contributions
- Work expenses if you are self-employed
Lastly, you’ll need your banking account and routing numbers to set up direct deposit with the IRS. It’s the quickest way to get your tax refund — direct deposits come in three weeks or less, while paper checks in the mail take four to six weeks.
What should I do if I am missing tax documents like my W-2?
Important tax documents like your W-2 form and 1099 forms for income should have been mailed to you by now. Companies are required by law to send W-2 forms to employees by Jan. 31 each year, and freelancers should also get their 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC forms by then too. Brokerages must send 1099-B forms by Feb. 15.
If you’re missing a W-2 or 1099 form, you should contact your employer, the company you freelanced for or their payment service immediately. If that doesn’t work, you can also call the IRS at 800-829-1040 to have them contact your employer or payer for you.
Even if you don’t receive your tax documents from the responsible parties, you’re still required to file your taxes by April 18. To do so without a W-2 form, you can file Form 4852 to estimate your income and taxes withheld for 2022 — your paychecks or electronic receipts can help figure those numbers out. However, if you find out later that your W-2 or 1099 forms provide different information, you’ll need to file an amended return using Form 1040-X.
Filing your taxes is no easy feat — congratulations if you’ve finished, and strong encouragement if you haven’t! After you’ve filed your official tax return for 2022, you can easily track the progress of your tax refund from the IRS to your bank account (or mailbox).