Airbnb Tax Prep Checklist: What Your CPA Actually Needs From You

Most CPAs bill by time, and nothing burns billable hours like a shoebox of receipts and a "here's my bank login, good luck." The hosts who pay the least for tax prep — and claim the most deductions — are the ones who hand over a clean, complete package in one go. This is that package. Bring everything on this list and your CPA can spend their hours finding you money instead of reconstructing your year.

New to how STR taxes work at all? Start with our Schedule E guide for Airbnb hosts, then come back here. And the obvious disclaimer: this is a preparation checklist, not tax advice — your CPA makes the actual filing calls.

The Income Records

• Your full-year Airbnb earnings report — showing gross, not just payouts. Download the earnings CSV from Airbnb's dashboard for the full tax year. The critical detail: your CPA needs gross earnings and host service fees as separate numbers, not the net amount that hit your bank. Gross rents go on Schedule E Line 3; Airbnb's service fees are deducted separately (typically as commissions on Line 8). Reporting only your net payout is the single most common host mistake — more on why below.
• Form 1099-K, if you received one. Airbnb issues 1099-Ks to hosts above the reporting threshold — a threshold that has changed several times in recent years and is lower in some states, so don't assume anything from whether you got one. All rental income is taxable either way; the 1099-K just means the IRS also has the number, so what you file needs to reconcile with it.
• Income from other platforms and direct bookings. VRBO statements, direct-booking payments, damage-deposit amounts you kept, cleaning fees collected — all of it is rental income. One total per source, per property.

The Expense Records

The goal here is one total per Schedule E category, per property — not a pile of receipts for your CPA to sort. Categories you should have totals for:

• The recurring operating expenses: cleaning and turnover costs, repairs and maintenance, supplies, utilities, insurance, HOA dues, internet and streaming subscriptions for the property, and platform commissions/host service fees. (Our Airbnb tax deductions guide covers 50+ deductible categories if you want to check for ones you've missed.)
• Mortgage interest and property taxes. Your lender's Form 1098 arrives in January and shows both. If the property is mixed-use, your CPA will pro-rate — just bring the full-year figures.
• Big purchases listed individually. Furniture, appliances, a new roof, a hot tub — anything substantial. Larger items may need to be depreciated rather than expensed (there's a de minimis election that often lets smaller purchases be expensed outright — your CPA will decide which side of the line each item falls on). They can only make that call if big purchases are listed out, not buried in a "supplies" total.
• Receipts for the big and unusual stuff. You don't need to hand over 400 coffee-run receipts — but for large purchases and anything an auditor might blink at, the receipt should be findable. A transaction record with the receipt attached is the gold standard; see our capture-at-source expense workflow for how to make that automatic.
• Mileage log, if you drive to the property. Date, purpose, miles. Reconstructed-in-April logs are weak; contemporaneous ones hold up.
• Contractor payments. If you paid any individual cleaner, handyman, or co-host $600+ during the year, tell your CPA early — you may owe them a 1099-NEC, and those have a January filing deadline that's easy to blow. Bring names, amounts actually paid during the year, and W-9s if you collected them.

The Property Facts

These are the questions your CPA will ask that most hosts can't answer on the spot — and they change how your entire return is prepared:

• Days rented vs. days of personal use. Count them for each property: nights actually rented at fair market rate, and nights you (or family, or friends paying below market) used the place. These two numbers drive expense pro-rating and the special rules around minimal-rental and personal-use situations, including the well-known 14-day rule. Don't self-apply those rules — bring the counts and let your CPA make the call.
• Average guest stay length. Short average stays (7 days or fewer) can change how your rental activity is classified, which affects self-employment tax and how losses are treated. Your booking history has this; your CPA needs it.
• First year renting? Bring the closing statement. Depreciation — usually the single biggest deduction hosts miss — is calculated from your cost basis: purchase price plus certain closing costs and improvements, minus land value. The closing statement (plus your property tax assessment for the land/building split) is what your CPA needs to set it up correctly. Get a preview with our free depreciation calculator.
• Not the first year? Bring last year's return and depreciation schedule. Especially if you're switching preparers — the depreciation schedule is the one document a new CPA genuinely cannot reconstruct without last year's paperwork.

The Handoff Mistakes That Cost Hosts Money

• Reporting net payouts as income. If the IRS has a 1099-K showing $48,000 gross and your return shows the $41,000 that hit your bank, that mismatch is exactly the kind of thing that generates automated notices. Report gross, deduct the fees — same tax owed, no red flag.
• Forgetting the host service fees entirely. The flip side: hosts who report gross but never deduct Airbnb's cut pay tax on money they never received. On a typical listing that's hundreds to thousands of dollars of deduction left on the table.
• Skipping depreciation because it feels complicated. It's not optional in any meaningful sense — the IRS assumes you took it when you eventually sell (depreciation recapture applies whether you claimed the deduction or not). Skipping it means paying tax now and later.
• Commingled accounts. If rental expenses are scattered through your personal statements, either you pay your CPA to excavate them or — more commonly — they simply don't all get found. A dedicated account fixes this permanently; see the bookkeeping guide.
• Starting in April. A February handoff gets your CPA's attention and time. An April 10th shoebox gets an extension, a rush fee, or both. If you only adopt one habit from this post, make it "totals stay current all year" — then tax season is a download, not a project.

The Shortcut: Keep the Package Current All Year

Everything above is painful exactly once a year — or trivial every week, depending on when you do it. Full disclosure, this is the product pitch: Black Cat Analytics is built to make this checklist a byproduct of normal use. Bank sync captures expenses as they happen and categorizes them to Schedule E lines; gross earnings and host service fees are tracked separately (so Line 3 ties to your 1099-K); receipts attach to transactions; contractor payments are tracked toward 1099 requirements; and per-property Schedule E reports export ready to hand to your CPA. Free tier available, so you can set it up before deciding whether to pay. That's the pitch — the checklist above works fine with a spreadsheet and discipline, too.

Frequently Asked Questions