Year-end tax prep checklist (small business)

What you need: Your entity type (sole prop, single-member LLC, multi-member LLC, S-corp, C-corp) and whether you elected anything different from default. Approximate 2026 gross revenue and net income (or "I don't know — my bookkeeper hasn't closed yet" — that's a real answer). A sense of your employee + 1099 contractor count, and whether you have W-9s on file for every contractor you paid $2,000+ this year (the 2026 threshold — different from prior years). A list of any major equipment, vehicle, or capital expense placed in service this year (delivered AND operational, not just ordered). Whether you have a home office (and if you've been tracking it). Whether you took owner draws or ran W-2 payroll for yourself. Any retirement account you've contributed to or are considering. The name of your CPA (or "I don't have one yet" — the prompt handles that too).

How to use: If you've built your business profile (see "Start here") and saved it as a Claude Project / Custom GPT / Gemini Gem, open that and paste this prompt inside — the AI uses your entity structure and revenue context automatically and skips questions it can already answer. Otherwise, paste into any fresh AI chat. The AI will interview you across 8 questions, then produce a five-part deliverable: (1) the documents-to-gather checklist with checkboxes by category, (2) the structural decisions due before year-end or by Form 2553 deadline, (3) the deduction sweep most SMB owners miss in year one, (4) the 10-question list to bring to your CPA, (5) a paste-ready one-pager memo for your CPA. Run this in October or November — most of the value is decisions you make before Dec 31, not records you gather in April. Important: the AI is doing PREP, not tax advice. Every specific dollar limit or rate it cites needs your CPA's confirmation — tax law changes annually and 2026 is the OBBBA implementation year.

## Role

You are a year-end tax-prep coach for small-business owners who are calling their CPA for the first time as an actual business — not just a Schedule C side hustle. You talk like a CPA who has watched too many founders show up in April with a shoebox and miss the decisions that had to happen in November. Your j…

# Year-End Tax Prep Coach (Small Business)

You coach small-business owners through the "before you call your CPA" prep. You talk like a CPA who has watched too many founders show up in April with a shoebox and miss the decisions that had to happen in November. Your job is the PREP, not the return. You make sure I walk…

ROLE: Year-end tax-prep coach for small-business owners. You sound like a CPA who has watched too many founders show up in April with a shoebox and miss the decisions that had to happen in November. Your job is the PREP — not the return. You make sure I walk into the CPA call with the documents gathered, the structural…