What Most Real Estate Sellers Get Wrong About Their Tax Bill (And How to Fix It Before You Sell)

When real estate sells, the IRS does­n’t tax the sale price — it tax­es the gain. And the gain is what­ev­er the IRS believes it to be based on what you can doc­u­ment. That sec­ond part trips up more prop­er­ty own­ers than any oth­er sin­gle issue I see in prac­tice.

The math itself is sim­ple:

Tax­able Gain = (Sale Price − Sell­ing Expens­es) − (Pur­chase Price + Acqui­si­tion Costs + Cap­i­tal Improve­ments − Depreciation/Credits/Exclusions)

The first par­en­thet­i­cal is your amount real­ized. The sec­ond is your adjust­ed basis. Every dol­lar you legit­i­mate­ly push into either side of the equa­tion is a dol­lar that does­n’t get taxed. And under-doc­u­ment­ing basis is, in my expe­ri­ence, the sin­gle most expen­sive record­keep­ing fail­ure in real estate — eas­i­ly worth more per hour than the ren­o­va­tion labor itself when you back into the hourly rate of the tax sav­ings.

Before get­ting to the check­lists, one warn­ing that costs investors more mon­ey than almost any­thing else on this page.

The dealer-vs-investor trap (read this first if you “flip”)

There is a stub­born myth — held by investors and by tax pre­par­ers who should know bet­ter — that buy­ing a prop­er­ty, fix­ing it up, hold­ing it past one year, and sell­ing it con­verts the prof­it into a long-term cap­i­tal gain. It usu­al­ly does­n’t. If your intent going in is to ren­o­vate and resell, you’re a deal­er in real estate, not an investor. The prof­it is ordi­nary busi­ness income, sub­ject to ordi­nary rates and self-employ­ment tax. The one-year clock is irrel­e­vant to that char­ac­ter­i­za­tion.

This is also one of the rare sit­u­a­tions in real estate where hold­ing the activ­i­ty inside an S‑corporation can gen­uine­ly make sense — direct­ly oppo­site to the more com­mon (and cor­rect) advice that real estate invest­ments don’t belong in S‑corps. The dealer/investor dis­tinc­tion mat­ters enough that it deserves its own con­ver­sa­tion; if you have flips in your past, present, or future, get that clas­si­fi­ca­tion nailed down before fil­ing sea­son, not dur­ing.

With that out of the way:

Phase 1 — What goes into basis when you buy

Your set­tle­ment state­ment at clos­ing is the sin­gle most valu­able tax doc­u­ment you’ll receive on a prop­er­ty, and most own­ers file it and for­get it. Pull it back out. Here’s what you’re look­ing for.

Costs that ADD to basis

On the clos­ing dis­clo­sure / set­tle­ment state­ment:

• Pur­chase price — includ­ing cash paid, mort­gages assumed, notes giv­en to the sell­er, and the val­ue of any prop­er­ty giv­en in exchange
• Own­er’s title insur­ance pol­i­cy (the lender’s pol­i­cy is a loan cost, not basis — see below)
• Title search, title abstract, title exam­i­na­tion
• Record­ing fees for the deed and mort­gage
• Trans­fer tax­es, deed stamps, doc­u­men­tary stamps — at the state, coun­ty, or munic­i­pal lev­el, regard­less of which side of the table paid
• Set­tle­ment, clos­ing, and escrow fees
• Attor­ney fees con­nect­ed to the pur­chase
• Notary, couri­er, e‑recording, and wire trans­fer charges
• Sur­vey fees — bound­ary, ALTA, or plot
• Ele­va­tion cer­tifi­cates in flood zones
• Tax ser­vice fees
• HOA cap­i­tal con­tri­bu­tions, ini­ti­a­tion fees, and buy­er-side trans­fer fees
• Liens, judg­ments, mechan­ic’s liens, and back HOA dues you assumed at clos­ing
• Back prop­er­ty tax­es you agreed to pay (this is dif­fer­ent from cur­rent-year pro­ra­tions)
• Spe­cial assess­ments you took over — side­walks, sew­er, light­ing dis­tricts, PACE bal­ances

Pre-pur­chase due dili­gence (whether or not it appears on the set­tle­ment state­ment):

• Gen­er­al home inspec­tion
• Ter­mite and wood-destroy­ing-organ­ism reports
• Radon, mold, asbestos, and lead-based paint test­ing
• Sep­tic inspec­tion and pump-out at inspec­tion
• Sew­er scope and cam­era inspec­tions
• Well water test­ing
• Spe­cial­ty inspec­tions — roof, chim­ney, pool/spa, foun­da­tion, HVAC, elec­tri­cal, plumb­ing
• Struc­tur­al engi­neer reports
• Phase I or Phase II envi­ron­men­tal site assess­ments
• Pre-pur­chase appraisal when paid by the buy­er
• Earnest mon­ey or option fees that did not reduce the pur­chase price
• Due-dili­gence peri­od fees

Costs on the closing statement that DON’T add to basis

This is where mis­takes get made in the oth­er direc­tion. The fol­low­ing are loan costs, pre­paid expens­es, or cur­rent-year items — not basis:

• Loan orig­i­na­tion, under­writ­ing, pro­cess­ing, appli­ca­tion, and cred­it report fees
• Dis­count points (though points on a pri­ma­ry-res­i­dence pur­chase mort­gage may be cur­rent­ly deductible as mort­gage inter­est)
• Mort­gage bro­ker fees, lender’s appraisal, lender’s title insur­ance, flood cer­ti­fi­ca­tion
• VA fund­ing fees, USDA guar­an­tee fees, FHA upfront MIP — all financed loan charges
• Pre­paid mort­gage inter­est, pre­paid prop­er­ty tax, pre­paid insur­ance, escrow reserves
• Buy­er’s pro­rat­ed prop­er­ty tax­es and pre­paid HOA dues — Sched­ule A items at most, not basis

Items that REDUCE basis at purchase

• Sell­er-paid con­ces­sions and clos­ing-cost cred­its
• Sell­er-paid points
• Buy­er rebates from the agent
• Gov­ern­ment grants or sub­si­dized financ­ing received

Phase 2 — Improvements during ownership

This is where the dol­lars are. A mean­ing­ful ren­o­va­tion can add tens or hun­dreds of thou­sands to basis, and it’s also where receipts go miss­ing fastest. Track every­thing in a project fold­er — phys­i­cal or dig­i­tal — from day one.

Capital improvements by category

Struc­tur­al and enve­lope work: Room and sec­ond-sto­ry addi­tions, dorm­ers, bump-outs. Detached or attached garages, car­ports. Per­ma­nent decks, porch­es, screened rooms, sun­rooms, and patios. Foun­da­tion under­pin­ning, pier replace­ment, lev­el­ing. Earth­quake and hur­ri­cane retro­fitting. Base­ment water­proof­ing, French drains, sump sys­tems, egress win­dows. Retain­ing walls. Full reme­di­a­tion sys­tems for ter­mites, asbestos, lead, mold, or radon (peri­od­ic treat­ment does­n’t count — full mit­i­ga­tion does).

Roof and exte­ri­or: Full roof replace­ment with new gut­ters and down­spouts. New sid­ing, stuc­co, brick, or stone veneer. Full exte­ri­or repaint. Full win­dow and exte­ri­or door replace­ment. New garage doors and open­ers. Fas­cia, sof­fit, and trim replace­ment. Sky­lights and solar tubes.

Kitchen: Full or par­tial remod­els and lay­out changes. Cab­i­nets, coun­ter­tops, back­splash. Built-in appli­ances — cook­tops, wall ovens, ranges, dish­wash­ers, microwaves, built-in refrig­er­a­tors. Range hoods and the duct­work that goes with them. Sinks, faucets, garbage dis­pos­als, instant hot water units. Built-in and under-cab­i­net light­ing.

Bath­rooms: Full remod­els or new bath­room addi­tions. Tubs, show­ers, tile sur­rounds, glass doors. Built-in van­i­ties, sinks, faucets, mir­rors, med­i­cine cab­i­nets. Toi­lets and bidets. Heat­ed floors, tow­el warm­ers, steam sys­tems. Whirlpool and soak­ing tubs. Exhaust fans and vent stacks.

HVAC and major sys­tems: Fur­naces, AC con­densers, heat pumps, mini-splits. New or ful­ly replaced duct­work. Boil­ers, radi­a­tors, base­board heat­ing. Tan­k­less or replace­ment water heaters. Geot­her­mal sys­tems. Solar PV (basis is reduced by any cred­it claimed — see Phase 4). Solar water heat­ing. Whole-house humid­i­fiers, dehu­mid­i­fiers, air puri­fiers, HEPA sys­tems. Inte­grat­ed smart ther­mostats and zone con­trols. Whole-house gen­er­a­tors and trans­fer switch­es.

Elec­tri­cal: Ser­vice pan­el upgrades — 100A to 200A is the clas­sic exam­ple. Whole-house rewiring or knob-and-tube replace­ment. New cir­cuits, out­lets, switch­es, GFCIs, AFCIs. Hard­wired light­ing, recessed light­ing, attached chan­de­liers. Whole-house surge pro­tec­tion. EV charg­er instal­la­tion (basis after cred­it). Hard­wired secu­ri­ty and fire alarms. Cat6, Eth­er­net, coax, or fiber wiring. Hard­wired smoke and CO detec­tors.

Plumb­ing: Full repipes — PEX, cop­per, or PVC. Sew­er-line replace­ment and cleanouts. Water main replace­ment. Whole-house water fil­tra­tion and soft­en­ers. New wells, well pumps, pres­sure tanks. Sep­tic sys­tem instal­la­tion, drain fields, sep­tic tank replace­ment. Hot water recir­cu­la­tion pumps. Back­flow pre­ven­ters.

Insu­la­tion and ener­gy effi­cien­cy: Attic, wall, base­ment, rim-joist, and crawl-space insu­la­tion. Spray foam, blown-in cel­lu­lose, batt. House wrap and vapor bar­ri­ers. Air seal­ing. Ener­gy-effi­cient win­dows and doors (basis after cred­it).

Floors, walls, and ceil­ings: New hard­wood, tile, stone, vinyl plank, lam­i­nate, or car­pet — full replace­ments. Sub­floor repair or replace­ment. Sub­stan­tial sand-and-refin­ish jobs. Dry­wall replace­ment and plas­ter repair. Crown mold­ing, base­boards, wain­scot­ing, shiplap, pan­el­ing. Acoustic treat­ments. Full repaints done as part of an improve­ment project.

Site and exte­ri­or: Dri­ve­ways and aprons in asphalt, con­crete, or pavers. Walk­ways, paths, and stairs. New or ful­ly replaced fenc­ing. Sig­nif­i­cant land­scap­ing — regrad­ing, mature trees, sod. Sprin­kler and irri­ga­tion sys­tems. Hard­wired out­door light­ing. In-ground pools with decks, fenc­ing, and equip­ment. Built-in hot tubs and spas. Out­door kitchens, per­ma­nent fire pits, per­go­las, gaze­bos, sheds, and out­build­ings (when per­ma­nent). Boat docks and sea walls. Exca­va­tion, grad­ing, drainage, and French drains. Tree removal as part of a project. Gen­er­al con­crete work.

Spe­cial­ty and acces­si­bil­i­ty: Wheel­chair ramps, widened door­ways, roll-in show­ers, grab bars — these may also qual­i­fy as a med­ical expense deduc­tion, so don’t dou­ble-count them. Stair lifts, res­i­den­tial ele­va­tors, dumb­wait­ers. Saunas, steam rooms, wine cel­lars, built-in home the­aters. Built-in smart-home sys­tems. Tor­na­do shel­ters and safe rooms.

Soft costs — capitalize these alongside the hard costs

• Archi­tects, design­ers, engi­neers, drafts­peo­ple
• Plans, blue­prints, 3D ren­der­ings
• Per­mits across the board — build­ing, elec­tri­cal, plumb­ing, mechan­i­cal, demo­li­tion, exca­va­tion, spe­cial-use, vari­ance
• Plan-check and plan-review fees
• Impact, tap, con­nec­tion, and capac­i­ty fees
• Sur­vey­or fees dur­ing the project
• Code-com­pli­ance work
• Gen­er­al con­trac­tor fees and markups
• All sub­con­trac­tor invoic­es — elec­tri­cal, plumb­ing, HVAC, fram­ing, dry­wall, paint, fin­ish car­pen­try, tile, floor­ing, roof­ing, mason­ry, con­crete, exca­va­tion, demo, land­scape
• Labor on con­trac­tor receipts (your own labor nev­er cap­i­tal­izes)
• Mate­ri­als at retail — Lowe’s, Home Depot, Menards, ProBuild, lum­ber yards, tile shops, plumb­ing and elec­tri­cal sup­ply hous­es, paint stores
• Equip­ment and tool rental — exca­va­tors, scaf­fold­ing, lifts, com­pactors
• Dump­sters, haul­ing, dump fees
• Demo­li­tion
• Site cleanup and tem­po­rary con­struc­tion fenc­ing
• Builder’s risk and vacant-home insur­ance dur­ing con­struc­tion
• Work­ers’ comp on direct-hire labor

Carrying costs and the §266 election — this is the underused one

For invest­ment prop­er­ty that isn’t cur­rent­ly pro­duc­ing income — a vacant lot, a ren­o­va­tion in progress, a prop­er­ty between ten­ants — IRC §266 lets you elect to cap­i­tal­ize car­ry­ing costs into basis instead of let­ting the deduc­tions evap­o­rate. The elec­tion is annu­al, made by attach­ing a state­ment to the return. Eli­gi­ble items include:

• Prop­er­ty tax­es
• Mort­gage inter­est
• Insur­ance pre­mi­ums (home­own­ers, vacant-home, builder’s risk, lia­bil­i­ty)
• HOA dues
• Util­i­ties kept on at the prop­er­ty
• Lawn care, snow removal, basic main­te­nance to pre­serve the prop­er­ty
• Prop­er­ty man­age­ment fees
• Secu­ri­ty and mon­i­tor­ing dur­ing vacan­cy

For a flip that nev­er gen­er­ates rental income, every month of hold­ing costs can be added to basis under §266 with the right state­ment filed. It’s a small bit of paper­work that can move the nee­dle mean­ing­ful­ly on the gain cal­cu­la­tion at sale.

Casualty and restoration

After a casu­al­ty event, costs to restore the prop­er­ty — net of insur­ance pro­ceeds — can be added to basis. If the restora­tion goes beyond the orig­i­nal con­di­tion (bet­ter roof, bet­ter sys­tems), that excess is itself a cap­i­tal improve­ment.

The repair-vs-improvement line, in plain terms

For a per­son­al res­i­dence, repairs are noth­ing — not deductible, not added to basis. Only true cap­i­tal improve­ments increase basis.

For a rental, repairs are cur­rent­ly deductible against rent; improve­ments get depre­ci­at­ed.

For a flip held pure­ly as inven­to­ry — nev­er rent­ed, nev­er lived in — the dis­tinc­tion col­laps­es, because there’s nowhere else to put the cost except basis. (Caveat: if you do rent the prop­er­ty, expens­es gen­er­al­ly won’t add to basis to the extent they exceed rental income, and your abil­i­ty to deduct loss­es depends on income lev­el and real-estate-pro­fes­sion­al sta­tus.)

The IRS’s own frame­work — Treas. Reg. §1.263(a)-3 — uses the BRA test: a cost is a cap­i­tal improve­ment if it’s a Better­ment, a Restora­tion, or an Adap­ta­tion to a new use. As a work­ing rule of thumb, any project that touch­es mul­ti­ple com­po­nents, replaces a major com­po­nent, fix­es a pre-exist­ing defect, or extends the prop­er­ty’s use­ful life is going to land on the improve­ment side of the line.

Phase 3 — Selling expenses (these don’t capitalize — they reduce amount realized)

Sell­ing expens­es come off the sale price direct­ly. They aren’t added to basis; they reduce what the IRS treats as the amount you real­ized on the sale. Same eco­nom­ic effect, dif­fer­ent mechan­ics.

Com­mis­sions and mar­ket­ing: List­ing-side com­mis­sion (typ­i­cal­ly 2.5–3%). Buy­er-side com­mis­sion (typ­i­cal­ly 2.5–3%). Co-broke and refer­ral fees. iBuy­er ser­vice fees from Open­door, Offer­pad, and sim­i­lar. MLS fees and flat-fee MLS ser­vices. Pro­fes­sion­al pho­tog­ra­phy, drone work, 3D Mat­ter­port tours, video. Floor plan illus­tra­tions. Pre­mi­um online place­ments. Yard signs, open-house signs. Print, mail, and mag­a­zine adver­tis­ing. Open-house cater­ing and pro­mo­tion­al spend.

On the sell­er’s set­tle­ment state­ment: Own­er’s title insur­ance where sell­er-paid by local cus­tom. Set­tle­ment, clos­ing, and escrow fees on the sell­er’s side. Record­ing fees for the release or recon­veyance. Trans­fer tax­es and deed stamps on the sell­er side. Man­sion or lux­u­ry trans­fer tax­es in high­er-val­ue mar­kets. Clos­ing attor­ney fees. Notary, couri­er, wire, and e‑recording charges. HOA estop­pel, trans­fer, pay­off, and cap­i­tal reserve trans­fer fees. Tax ser­vice and doc­u­ment prep fees. Recon­veyance and release-of-lien record­ings. 1099‑S fil­ing charges. FIRPTA admin­is­tra­tion costs on for­eign-sell­er trans­ac­tions.

Pre-list­ing prep: Pre-list­ing inspec­tions and appraisals. Ter­mite, radon, sep­tic, roof, sew­er-scope, and pool inspec­tions required for the sale. Roof, chim­ney, sep­tic, and well cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. Stag­ing con­sults, pro­fes­sion­al stag­ing, and rent­ed fur­ni­ture. Move-out and move-in for stag­ing. Stor­age rentals dur­ing the list­ing peri­od. Deep clean­ing, car­pet clean­ing, win­dow clean­ing. Pres­sure wash­ing and gut­ter clean­ing. Yard cleanup, mulch, sod, and sea­son­al flow­ers for curb appeal. Touch-up paint specif­i­cal­ly for the sale. Minor repairs at the agen­t’s or buy­er’s request, includ­ing post-inspec­tion nego­ti­at­ed repairs.

Con­ces­sions and cred­its to the buy­er: Clos­ing-cost cred­its. Repair cred­its. Car­pet, dec­o­rat­ing, or floor­ing allowances. Sell­er-paid rate buy-down points. Home war­ranties paid by the sell­er for the buy­er. Move-in allowances. HOA dues pre­paid for the buy­er.

Mort­gage and lien pay­off costs: Pay­off state­ment and demand fees. Record­ing for release of mort­gage. Recon­veyance and trustee fees. Sub­or­di­na­tion fees. Wire fees on the pay­off. Mort­gage pre­pay­ment penal­ties (often deductible as inter­est instead — ver­i­fy). Lien releas­es for judg­ments, mechan­ic’s, or tax liens.

Own­er-financ­ing and 1031: Install­ment-sale escrow set­up and ser­vic­ing. Qual­i­fied Inter­me­di­ary fees. 1031 exchange doc­u­men­ta­tion. Replace­ment-prop­er­ty iden­ti­fi­ca­tion fees.

Phase 4 — Items that REDUCE basis (don’t miss these going the other way)

Miss­ing these does­n’t help you — over-claim­ing basis is what cre­ates audit expo­sure and adjust­ments after the fact. The IRS will catch them if you don’t.

• Depre­ci­a­tion tak­en dur­ing any rental or busi­ness-use peri­od — and under the “allowed or allow­able” rule, basis is reduced by depre­ci­a­tion that could have been tak­en even if you nev­er claimed it
• Casu­al­ty loss deduc­tions pre­vi­ous­ly tak­en
• Insur­ance pro­ceeds received and not used to restore the prop­er­ty
• Pri­or §121 exclu­sions claimed against the same prop­er­ty (rare but pos­si­ble)
• §1031 car­ry­over basis from a relin­quished prop­er­ty
• Tax cred­its — basis is reduced by the cred­it amount:
  • Res­i­den­tial Clean Ener­gy Cred­it (solar, geot­her­mal, wind, fuel cell — 30%)
  • Ener­gy Effi­cient Home Improve­ment Cred­it
  • His­tor­i­cal first-time home­buy­er cred­it
  • State-lev­el ener­gy and effi­cien­cy cred­its
  • PACE financ­ing for­give­ness
  • Sub­si­dized ener­gy financ­ing (lim­it­ed reduc­tion)
• Ease­ments grant­ed for com­pen­sa­tion
• Emi­nent domain pro­ceeds retained and not rein­vest­ed

Special-situation basis rules worth knowing

• Inher­it­ed prop­er­ty — basis steps up (or down) to FMV at the dece­den­t’s date of death, or the alter­nate val­u­a­tion date six months lat­er if elect­ed. Improve­ments the dece­dent made are absorbed into the new FMV.
• Gift­ed prop­er­ty — car­ry­over basis from the donor, with adjust­ments for gift tax paid attrib­ut­able to appre­ci­a­tion; FMV at gift date is used instead if com­put­ing a loss.
• Prop­er­ty received in divorce — car­ry­over basis under §1041, no step-up.
• Prop­er­ty received in a like-kind exchange — car­ry­over basis with adjust­ments.
• Per­son­al-to-rental con­ver­sions — depre­cia­ble basis is the low­er of cost or FMV at con­ver­sion; basis for gain on even­tu­al sale is reg­u­lar adjust­ed basis.
• Rental-to-per­son­al con­ver­sions — accu­mu­lat­ed depre­ci­a­tion still reduces basis at sale.
• Mixed-use prop­er­ty (home office, par­tial rental) — basis must be allo­cat­ed.

The documentation that backs all of this up

The IRS responds well to paper. Treat your file like you’ll be defend­ing it in three to sev­en years, because that’s rough­ly the win­dow:

• Pur­chase and sale set­tle­ment state­ments / clos­ing dis­clo­sures
• Record­ed deed and title insur­ance pol­i­cy
• All loan doc­u­ments (rel­e­vant for pro­ra­tion analy­sis even though loan costs aren’t basis)
• Every con­trac­tor invoice — date, scope, address, amount, pay­ment method
• Every mate­ri­als receipt, anno­tat­ed by project
• Every per­mit and inspec­tion card
• Archi­tect, engi­neer, and design­er invoic­es
• Bank and cred­it-card state­ments show­ing project spend­ing — your back­up if a receipt walks off
• Can­celled checks
• Date-stamped before, dur­ing, and after pho­tos for each project
• Prop­er­ty tax bills through­out own­er­ship
• Insur­ance poli­cies through­out own­er­ship
• Any §266 elec­tion state­ments filed
• Casu­al­ty insur­ance claim records
• Depre­ci­a­tion sched­ules from any rental peri­od
• Form 1099‑S from the sale
• Records of every tax cred­it claimed against the prop­er­ty

The IRS allows you to deduct the fol­low­ing expens­es for rental real estate:

• Adver­tis­ing
• Auto and trav­el
• Clean­ing and main­te­nance
• Com­mis­sions
• Insur­ance
• Legal and oth­er pro­fes­sion­al fees
• Man­age­ment fees
• Mort­gage inter­est paid to finan­cial insti­tu­tions
• Oth­er inter­est
• Repairs
• Sup­plies
• Tax­es
• Util­i­ties
• Depre­ci­a­tion expense or deple­tion
• Oth­er expens­es (item­ized by type and amount)

If you own mul­ti­ple rental prop­er­ties, each prop­er­ty is report­ed sep­a­rate­ly on Sched­ule E. Retain all receipts and sup­port­ing doc­u­men­ta­tion for each cat­e­go­ry.

A closing thought on the difference between a tax preparer and a tax advisor

Most real estate investors think their tax pre­par­er is their tax advi­sor. They are usu­al­ly not the same per­son, and the gap between the two is where mon­ey dis­ap­pears.

A pre­par­er takes your num­bers and puts them on the right lines. An advi­sor tells you what num­bers should be there in the first place — what to cap­i­tal­ize, what to elect, what to struc­ture dif­fer­ent­ly, what to doc­u­ment now so you can deduct it lat­er. If you have mean­ing­ful real estate hold­ings or an active busi­ness and you’ve nev­er had some­one review pri­or returns through that sec­ond lens, the odds are uncom­fort­ably good that there’s over­paid tax sit­ting in your past three years of fil­ings. I open more first meet­ings than I’d like with some ver­sion of “you over­paid by enough to fund your next down pay­ment.” It is not a punch­line. It is a recur­ring obser­va­tion.

You don’t have to hire me. You should, how­ev­er, expect that who­ev­er advis­es you on the tax side of a real estate port­fo­lio earns a mul­ti­ple of their fee in tax saved — and if they don’t, you may have the wrong per­son.

This arti­cle is edu­ca­tion­al and gen­er­al in nature. It is not legal or tax advice for any par­tic­u­lar tax­pay­er, and read­ing it does not cre­ate an attor­ney-client rela­tion­ship. If we already work togeth­er under an engage­ment agree­ment, you’ll receive a ver­sion of this check­list tai­lored to your facts. If we don’t, please use this as a start­ing point for a con­ver­sa­tion with your own tax pro­fes­sion­al.