Host: What do I need to start the process of preparing my tax return?

Aurthur Auerbach: To begin preparing your tax return you need to gather all of your papers. The thing to remember is that your tax return is a non-fiction representation of your financial affairs for the prior year. Things that you need to report is income or any increments that you have had in your wealth or any money that you have taken in unless they are specifically excluded by the Internal Revenue Code and then to accumulate the documents you need regarding deductions. So the most common documents are your forms 1099, interest that you may get from places where you have your savings accounts or your investments.

If you have investments in the stock market it would be 1099-DIV for the dividends, if you have a brokerage house and you had any sales or securities or transactions, it would be 1099-B. If the taxpayer or the individual owns a home, then you would have a 1098 form showing the amount of your mortgage interest and real property tax that you paid. If you have given any contributions during the year then you would need a receipt from the charitable organization and we will discuss that somewhat later because the rules for substantiating charitable contributions have changed. So there is more documentation that you would need, that the individual would need to have. If you filed a tax return, the taxpayer filed the return for the prior year 2006, it would be a good idea to have a copy of that return in front of you, when you start your tax return preparation, but the biggest problem is that most people face is they don't have any patience.

We are a part of the computer society where we like everything done in two clicks of a mouse. This is not going to happen in two clicks of a mouse. You are going have to as an individual have patience and I emphasize patience with a capital 'P'.