Define the release decision
A sole proprietor has bank statements, payment-processor summaries, invoices, receipts and estimated-tax confirmations spread across email, downloads and paper folders. The archive owner must define the authoritative packet before encryption.
Identify the tax year, filing purpose, authoritative statements and every person who is allowed to receive the evidence packet.
Run the control sequence
- 01Name the tax year, filing purpose, taxpayer, preparer and accountable archive owner.
- 02Inventory source statements, supporting receipts, invoices, payment confirmations and filing acknowledgements.
- 03Separate authoritative records from working notes, duplicates, blank scans and unrelated personal documents.
- 04Record file name, source, date and expected retention trigger without copying financial values into the manifest.
- 05Confirm which records the accountant actually needs and which remain under the taxpayer’s control.
Preserve enough evidence
Record the tax packet identifier, tax year, source device or system, export date, manifest, responsible custodian, authorized preparers, key location, encryption environment, recovery result, retention rule and next review date. Do not put passwords, recovery secrets or unnecessary taxpayer values in the decision record.
Keep the manifest, custodian, approved recipient, key-separation decision, restore result and retention owner together without copying taxpayer values into the record.
Keep surrounding controls visible
Encryption does not determine deductibility, filing accuracy, record sufficiency, preparer authority or whether the IRS or a state agency will accept a return.
Tax preparation can create extra copies on tablets, laptops, removable media, synchronization folders and recipient devices. The archive owner must address those copies separately and verify the current software release before relying on product behavior.
Questions to ask
Should the archive password travel with the tax packet?
No. Send the archive and its credential through separate approved channels, and verify the preparer before release.
Does encryption make the tax packet accurate?
No. Encryption restricts file access; it does not validate amounts, deductions, classifications or filing eligibility.
Primary references
References support specific controls and do not imply endorsement.