In our CPA practice, we find that many clients want to hold all of their tax information until they have received that final Form 1099 or K-1. Yikes! Don't do that! Some brokerage firms don't deliver 1099s until as late as March 8th, or amend the original 1099s frequently until March 31st.

Hopefully, you followed some of the suggestions we outlined a couple of years ago in TTW #21 to organize your records. If you did, great! This will make filing your tax returns a lot easier this year. It also means that you, and your tax advisor, can spend more time on tax and financial planning issues for 2012 vs. looking back to 2011.