The following information will be useful in completing your return:

Birth dates and Social Security numbers for yourself, your spouse, your children, and/or other dependants. If one of the above died during the year, please bring a copy of the death certificate. The area of "who gets the kids" had become very complex. In an effort to make it easier, the IRS has made it even more confusing. We will need to know all of the details of your family life, who lives with whom, who stayed where, and for how much of the year, and more. If you write this down ahead of time you will help us avoid mistakes on your return. If you have an agreement with an ex-spouse regarding child-sharing arrangements, such as "every other year" make sure the wording and understanding is clear and that agreement has been reached whether a "year" refers to the year in which the return is prepared or the tax year.

W-2 and W-2Gs - Statements of wages earned from your employer or earnings from gambling.

1099s - Statements of income from other sources such as investments, self-employment, pensions, government payments, and other less common sources. Common forms are 1099 MISC, 1099 DIV, 1099 INT and 1099T. The latter is a relatively new form which provides information that is helpful when calculating your Education Credits.

1098s - Statements of mortgage interest paid. If you've refinanced we'll need your settlement statement. Also be aware that now all mortgage interest is deductible. We may need information on past mortgages. New this year is a deduction for Mortgage Insurance paid during 2007 on loans taken out in 2007.

Closing statements on houses bought or sold.

Proceeds from the sale of assets. We'll need to know when the asset was acquired and how much you paid for it. Please be very careful. If you bought a stock that has split [maybe more than once] since you've owned it, make sure you're providing an accurate basis. If you're unsure, bring us all the details and we'll calculate your basis for you.

CT Residents: Tax bills for Real Estate and Personal Property taxes paid - even if you do not itemize. We'll need it to get you the property tax credit against your CT income tax.

Donations and contributions: Be specific as to how much you gave and who you gave it to. Mileage is also deductible if driven for charity. Bring in the details and we'll sort it all out.

Medical Expenses: All of the typical medical, dental, and medical insurance not taken elsewhere in your return, are deductible once you've exceeded 7½% of you AGI, and providing, of course, that the entire Schedule A amount exceeds your standard deduction. If you think you're even close, dig. Remember, only the part you paid out of your pocket, or VISA, as the case may be, counts. If insurance covered it, do not include it! The co-pay is, of course, deductible since it came from your pocket. A newer expense to be added to this category are expenses related to weight loss. Expenses in this category must exceed 7.5% of AGI before you realize a tax savings.

Educational Expenses and Interest on Educational Loans : Bring us all the details. Specifically, itemize the expenses you incurred, the dates of the semesters for which you incurred expenses, the date you paid the bill, how much you paid, and exactly which expenses each payment was for. Only expenses directly related to classes are deductible, room, board, and transportation are not.

Employee business expenses: If you use your own car or tools, or incur any other expenses as the result of your job, bring us all the details. You may be entitled to a deduction for those expenses. They have to have been incurred out of necessity or for your employers benefit. Just because you think something would be helpful isn't necessarily enough to make it deductible. The total in this category does have to exceed 2% of your AGI before you'll enjoy a benefit.

Rental Property and Businesses: Ask yourself this question: "Would I have spent this money if I didn't have this business?" If the answer is no, it's probably deductible. There is an almost limitless list of things that "might" be deductible. For that reason we just use common sense as a starting point and we'll dig out the details during our discussion.

Current clients, please feel free to e-mail us with your specific tax questions. If you haven't used our services and would like to, please feel free to email us as well but we will only provide tax guidance to clients of record. We'd be happy to set up a "get to know us" appointment for you.

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LEGAL: Material presented on these pages should be viewed as a starting point only. We accept no liability for information, misinformation, typos, or errors presented on these pages. We accept no liability for the ways in which you may choose to use material presented on this web site. If you are a client of The Inner Office, Inc., we'll be signing your tax returns, preparing your records, or performing other services for which we'll be paid. At that time we'll have full and adequate information. This information will allow us to deal competently with your specific situation. There are no simple, finite, right or wrong answers when it comes to taxes or most other business issues. Each individual, business, and set of circumstances is unique. If you wish to"do it yourself" use this site only as a brief introduction to the issues. Keeping up with tax changes and interpretations, however, is a full-time job. We strongly suggest that you seek advice from a competent tax professional.