What to send your CPA at tax time for a rental LLC

Why a package beats a shoebox

A tax preparer does not need your bank logins or a pile of receipts. They need to see what the LLC earned, what it spent, what it owes and what it owns at the end of the year, and to trust that the numbers tie out. IRS Publication 527 describes the job in one sentence: each year you report all rental income and deduct your out-of-pocket expenses. Everything in the package below exists to make that sentence provable. Read it at the IRS Publication 527 page.

The IRS also tells you what proof looks like. Publication 583 lists supporting documents as sales slips, paid bills, invoices, receipts, deposit slips and canceled checks, and says they back up the entries in your books and on your return. You do not send those to the CPA by default. You keep them where you can find them, and send the summary that points to them. How long to keep them is covered in how long to keep rental property records.

First, know which return the LLC files

The package depends on how the LLC is taxed. The IRS says an LLC with only one member is treated by default as an entity disregarded as separate from its owner, and its rental activity goes on the owner's own return, usually Schedule E of Form 1040. The source is the IRS page on single member limited liability companies. An LLC with two or more members files its own partnership return unless it elects otherwise, which is the case in does a 2-member rental LLC file Form 1065.

Either way the package is nearly the same. A multi-member LLC adds the operating agreement, each member's percentage and a record of every contribution and distribution. Tell your CPA at the start which situation you are in and which entity owns which property, so they do not have to guess.

The five things to send

1. A trial balance as of December 31. It lists every account in your books with its ending balance, debits on one side and credits on the other, and the two sides must be equal.
2. The general ledger for the year: every transaction, by account, with dates and descriptions. The CPA uses it to answer their own questions without emailing you.
3. Schedule E support: rent received by month, and the expense totals by category with the detail behind any large or unusual amount. The categories are the ones in Schedule E expense categories for rental property.
4. Your payee list for Forms 1099: who you paid for services during the year, how much, and whether you have each person's W-9. Line A on Schedule E asks whether you made payments that would require Forms 1099, so the preparer will ask. Details are in Form 1099-NEC for rental contractors.
5. Year-end balances with proof: the mortgage statement (balance and the interest paid for the year), the bank statements for December, and the balance of the security deposits you are holding.

Add three smaller items if they apply: the closing statement for anything bought or sold during the year, invoices for any single repair or improvement over a few thousand dollars so the CPA can decide between repair and improvement, and a note about anything unusual, such as a unit vacant for months or an insurance claim.

What a good trial balance looks like

A trial balance is not a report you read for insight. It is a test. If debits and credits are not equal, something is wrong in the books and the CPA will find it, at your hourly rate. Run it before you send it.

Example a made-up one-property LLC sends the trial balance above. Debits add to $362,900 and credits add to $362,900, so it balances. Income of $52,400 less expenses of $36,600 (6,200 + 3,100 + 7,400 + 11,200 + 8,700) is net rental income of $15,800, the number the CPA expects to land on Schedule E before their own adjustments.

Notice what ties to what. The security deposit account on the debit side ($4,800) equals the liability on the credit side. The checking balance should match the December bank statement after reconciling, which is why a bank reconciliation comes before the package, not after.

Clean these up before you send

• Reconcile every bank account through December 31, including the account that holds deposits.
• Clear the uncategorized or "ask my accountant" account. Anything left there is a question you are forwarding.
• Separate principal from interest on the mortgage. Only the interest is an expense. See record a mortgage payment.
• Make sure owner withdrawals and money you put in are booked as equity, not as income or expense. Two posts cover this: owner draws vs distributions and recording an owner contribution.
• Check that the Schedule E total from your categories equals the net income on the trial balance.

If you send it as one folder or one email with files named by what they are (2026 trial balance, 2026 ledger, 2026 payee list), your CPA can start the same day. Whether to send PDFs or spreadsheets is a question to ask them once, and then reuse the answer every year.

How DoorKeeping handles it

In DoorKeeping each property has its own books, with its own ledger, bank account, deposits held and profit and loss, and expense accounts map to Schedule E lines. The Schedule E report and the 1099-NEC report are produced from those books, bank feeds match deposits so the bank balance reconciles, and month-end close gives you a point at which the numbers stop moving. The owner statement shows each property in one place. Anything involving money still waits for your one-tap approval. DoorKeeping gives no tax advice, so send the package to your tax preparer and let them decide how it is reported.

Sources

1. IRS, Publication 527, Residential Rental Property (2025), read Oct 30, 2026
2. IRS, Publication 583, Starting a Business and Keeping Records, read Oct 30, 2026
3. IRS, Single member limited liability companies, read Oct 30, 2026
4. IRS, Instructions for Schedule E (Form 1040), read Oct 30, 2026

Questions

What does my CPA need to file taxes for a rental LLC?

A balanced trial balance, the general ledger, rent and expense support for each Schedule E line, a list of people you paid who may need a Form 1099, and year-end loan, bank and security deposit balances.

Do I send every receipt to my CPA?

Usually not. Keep the receipts and invoices on file, since Publication 583 treats them as the proof behind your books, and send the summary. Send an invoice only for large or unusual items the CPA asks about.

What is a trial balance?

A list of every account in your books with its ending balance. Total debits must equal total credits. If they do not, there is an error in the books to fix before the CPA sees it.