Berks Connect
Money & Insurance

What to Bring to Your Tax Appointment in Berks County

What a Berks County resident brings to a tax appointment or a free VITA site, by situation, plus the Pennsylvania and Berks items most checklists skip.

Berks Connect Blog|Published October 22, 2026
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What to bring to your tax appointment comes down to two piles: the papers that prove who you are and where your refund goes, and every form that reports money you took in during the year. Those two piles are what the IRS asks of everyone. In Berks County the same papers also have to serve a state return, a local earned income tax return and, if you apply for it, the property tax and rent rebate, and each of those asks for a few papers of its own. Whether you've booked one of the accountants and tax preparers in Berks County or a free volunteer site, the intake sheet asks for the same things.

What everyone brings to a tax appointment.

Start with the pile that gets people sent home:

  • Original photo ID for you and your spouse: a driver's license, state ID, passport or military ID.
  • Social Security cards for you, your spouse and every dependent, plus everyone's birth dates.
  • Last year's federal and state returns. A new client brings two years.
  • A blank check or anything showing your bank's routing and account numbers, because the IRS began phasing out paper refund checks on September 30, 2025.
  • Any IRS or state letter, and your IP PIN if you have one: the six-digit number the IRS gives some people to lock their Social Security number against a fake return. Bring your spouse's and dependents' too.
  • Form 1095-A if anyone had Marketplace coverage through Pennie.
  • Your last pay stub of the year, which several Berks preparers ask for alongside the W-2.

The money pile starts with the W-2 from every employer. The state return uses the Pennsylvania wages in box 16, which can be a different number from the federal wages in box 1. The local boxes at the bottom hold the earned income tax withheld for your municipality. Keep the paper W-2 itself; the IRS's wage transcript, its copy of your W-2 data, doesn't show the local tax.

Most money forms are due to you by January 31 each year, or the next business day when that falls on a weekend. Filing before a form arrives slows the refund, so book for after your last form is in, and start the folder before the year closes with our year-end tax checklist.

Several Berks firms post their own checklists, and three of them (Goldcamp Tax Facts in Sinking Spring, Heintz Tax Service, and Main Street Tax and Accounting in Bernville) add one more item: school or medical records showing a child lives with you if you claim the earned income credit. Akins Accounting in Bechtelsville and Berks Lehigh Tax and Accounting post lists too.

What to bring for a side business or gig work.

Bring every 1099-NEC (sent by a client or company that paid you directly) and 1099-K (sent by a payment app or online marketplace), plus your own income records, because all income gets reported whether or not a form arrives. Apps and marketplaces must send a 1099-K once your goods or services payments exceed $20,000 across more than 200 transactions (both conditions together). Below that an app may still send one.

Expense records show the payee, amount, date and what was bought, totaled by category. A mileage deduction needs a log you keep as the miles happen. A home office needs the square footage of the business-only space and of the whole home. The free volunteer sites don't prepare a Schedule C (the federal business form) with a home office, a net loss, depreciation, inventory or employees, so a business with any of those either prepares its own return or engages a professional preparer.

What to bring if you own a house.

Homeowners bring three papers: Form 1098 from your mortgage company for the interest you paid, which arrives by January 31; proof of property taxes paid, meaning receipted bills from the tax collector, a cancelled check with the bill, or the year-end mortgage statement showing taxes paid; and, if you bought, sold or refinanced during the year, the settlement sheet, the closing statement from that deal.

What to bring for kids, daycare and college.

For each child, bring the Social Security card and birth date. For daycare or summer care, bring the provider's name, address and tax ID number and the total paid; the federal credit form requires the provider's number, and Pennsylvania's own credit requires a copy of that form, Form 2441, attached to the state return.

A student adds Form 1098-T for tuition, from the college's online account; Form 1099-Q for money taken from a 529 plan; and Form 1098-E for student loan interest, up to $2,500 of which Pennsylvania lets you deduct on its Schedule O.

Pennsylvania's Tax Forgiveness credit, which lowers or refunds state tax for lower-income households, asks a first-time claimant or anyone adding a dependent for copies of the dependents' birth certificates and Social Security cards, and its income test counts nontaxable money such as scholarships and grants, so bring those figures too.

What to bring for retirement income.

Bring every Form 1099-R (a pension, annuity, IRA or 401(k) distribution) and your SSA-1099, the Social Security statement whose box 5 shows net benefits. Pennsylvania doesn't tax Social Security, and it doesn't tax most pension and retirement plan payments (its term for them is "commonly recognized retirement benefits"). The code in box 7 of each 1099-R tells the preparer whether an early withdrawal may be taxable by Pennsylvania. A paper state return includes every 1099-R, whatever the amount or code and whether or not any Pennsylvania tax was withheld. Neither Social Security nor pensions go on the Berks local return.

What Pennsylvania and Berks County add to the list.

The state return and the local return each want a code, and the two codes are different numbers. The state return wants your five-digit school district code for where you lived on December 31. The local return, which goes to the Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau in Wyomissing, wants your six-digit PSD code (short for political subdivision), the state's code for your municipality. Each code has its own state lookup, and the Bureau's site points to the one for the PSD code. The table below holds what each of the three asks for.

Item Which return asks for it What to bring
School district code Pennsylvania PA-40 The five-digit code for where you lived on December 31
Resident PSD code Berks local return The six-digit code for your municipality
Work expenses you paid yourself PA Schedule UE, and the local return One schedule per employer and, if you have one, an employer letter (REV-757) or REV-775 affidavit; the local return also wants page one of the PA-40
Tax Forgiveness credit PA Schedule SP For a first claim or a new dependent, the dependents' birth certificates and Social Security cards
Child and dependent care PA Schedule DC A copy of federal Form 2441, the child care credit form, and Schedule 3; each provider's tax number
529 contributions PA Schedule O Each beneficiary's name, Social Security number and the year's amount
Business income Berks local return The state's business schedule for each business: PA Schedule C, or F for a farm, RK-1 for a partnership
Property tax or rent paid Property tax and rent rebate (form PA-1000) Owners: receipted tax bills or the year-end mortgage statement. Renters: the PA-1000 RC rent certificate signed by the landlord

Each return's printed instructions name the items in its row.

Treat each of the three returns as its own labeled folder.

The state return asks for a code and a few attachments.

A paper state return attaches every W-2 and 1099-R, but not the interest and dividend forms (1099-INT and 1099-DIV) unless they show Pennsylvania tax withheld. Pennsylvania has reciprocal agreements with Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia, meaning each state leaves the other's residents' wages alone; if an employer in one of them withheld its tax while you lived here, you file for that refund from the other state.

The Berks local return is a third return, and tax software doesn't file it.

Whoever prepares your return, ask whether the local one is included. Twin Valley School District residents file it with Keystone Collections Group, and Hereford Township residents with Berkheimer Tax Administrator, instead of the Bureau. It's due April 15, and the county's property tax and offices are laid out in our Berks County government guide.

The property tax and rent rebate has its own proof list.

The rebate is for older residents, widows and widowers, and people with disabilities; who qualifies and how to apply is in our guide to Pennsylvania's property tax and rent rebate. If you already receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income and have proven your age with the Social Security Administration, you don't need to prove it again. Otherwise a first-time applicant sends proof of age, and a Social Security card doesn't count as proof. A widow or widower aged 50 to 64 adds the spouse's death certificate, and a person with a disability adds the award letter from Social Security or Railroad Retirement, a letter from the Veterans Administration or Civil Service stating a 100 percent disability, or a physician's statement on the state's form.

The whole job is one evening at the kitchen counter: the ID pile, the money forms as they arrive, and the Berks folders on top. This is general information about what the papers are and who asks for them; a question about your own return goes to a CPA, an enrolled agent (the IRS's own credential for tax preparers), or, if you qualify, a free volunteer site under the IRS's VITA program or AARP Tax-Aide. Check the folder the night before, and if you haven't booked yet, start with the accountants and tax preparers in Berks County.

Questions people ask before a tax appointment.

What if a form hasn't arrived by my appointment?

Move the appointment rather than filing without it, because a missing form slows the refund.

Does my spouse have to come?

At the IRS's free sites, yes: "both spouses must be present to sign." Elsewhere both spouses must sign: AARP Tax-Aide says joint returns "require the signature of both spouses."

Can I bring photos of my documents on my phone?

Bring the paper forms, or upload scans if the preparer offers a portal; one Berks firm asks clients not to email photographs.

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