Year-end CPA packet checklist for landlords with multiple LLCs

1. Start in the fourth quarter of 2026

The packet is time-sensitive because the documents get harder to find, not because this page sets a filing deadline. Bank statements, lender forms, and vendor totals for tax year 2026 are easiest to gather while the year is still open. A missing receipt in October is a phone call. The same receipt in April is a guess.

Agree the period with your CPA: usually the calendar year, for each LLC. Write the dates and the cash or accrual basis on every statement you send. Keep a dated copy of what you sent.

2. One packet per LLC

Build a packet for each LLC, and a separate one for property you own in your own name. Ten LLCs means ten sets of books and ten packets. A combined file of every transaction, with no owner, puts your CPA back in the mixed books you were trying to leave.

Filter reports by LLC before you export. A profit and loss for all legal owners is a combined view. Label it that way if you include it, and do not let it replace the entity statements. The monthly version of this handoff is in how to manage finances for multiple rental LLCs.

3. Profit and loss per LLC and per property

Each LLC gets its own profit and loss for the year: income, expenses, and the result. If that LLC owns more than one rental, also include a profit and loss for each property. The entity says what the LLC earned. The property says which building had the repair.

Check the owner, the properties included, the dates, and the basis before you trust the total. Bank text often does not name the property. If you cannot tell which property a charge was for, put it on an exception list. Do not guess a property to finish the packet.

4. Balance sheet for each LLC

Include a balance sheet that has been reconciled to the LLC’s accounts: cash, loans, security deposits held, and equity. A class-filtered profit and loss does not answer how much cash the LLC has or what it owes. If the cash in the bank is not the cash on the balance sheet, stop and reconcile. Do not plug a number so the packet looks finished.

5. Forms 1099

For each LLC, include the Forms 1099 it issued to vendors, or the list your CPA will use to prepare them: legal name, the amount paid, and what the payment was for. Rents, services, and repairs are the usual items landlords ask about. Your CPA decides who must receive a form. Do not skip a vendor because the total “looks small,” and do not invent a threshold in the cover note.

6. Mortgage interest Forms 1098

Include each Form 1098 for mortgages on that LLC’s properties. If the form has not arrived, include the lender’s year-end statement and replace it when the 1098 shows up. A mortgage payment in the bank is one withdrawal. The books usually need it split into interest, principal, and escrow. The 1098 supports the interest figure. It does not, by itself, post the principal to the loan balance. Your CPA confirms the split.

7. Depreciation and the fixed-asset list

Send a fixed-asset list for each LLC, not a depreciation calculation. For each asset: what it was, which property, the date it was placed in service, and the cost. Include this year’s improvements that might be capitalized instead of expensed, and note anything you sold or scrapped. This checklist does not compute depreciation, and it does not tell you the recovery period. Your CPA does that from the list and the receipts.

8. Receipts and mileage

Include the receipts and invoices behind the expenses, stored so a reviewer can open them. The useful receipt has the payee, amount, date, proof of payment, and the property. “Hardware store” on a statement is weaker than a receipt tied to the repair.

Include the mileage log for trips to those properties: date, miles, where you went, and the business purpose. A stack of unlabeled trips will not survive a question. Android now, iPhone coming soon, if you log trips in a landlord app. The log is what the CPA needs, whatever you used to keep it.

9. Security deposits held

List every security deposit the LLC still holds at year-end: tenant, property, amount, and the account where the cash sits. Note deposits you returned or applied to unpaid rent during the year, with the date. On the books the amount you still hold is usually a liability, not income. If the cash in the deposit account does not match the list, reconcile the difference before you send the packet. The account layout is in how many bank accounts to keep for rental LLCs.

10. Owner contributions and draws

List money you put into the LLC and money you took out, by date and amount. A draw is not an expense, and a contribution is not rent. Also list amounts you paid from a personal account for the LLC’s property: date, amount, which property, and whether you were reimbursed. Those are facts. Whether each one is a contribution, a loan, or a reimbursement is a question for your CPA, and it should be labeled as a question if you have not agreed.

Include the same list for money that crossed between your LLCs. One LLC paying another’s bill, or holding the other’s rent, is a balance between two entities. It should show up in both packets.

Questions people ask