document-analysis

name	document-analysis
description	Parse, extract, and interpret tax and financial documents including PDFs, spreadsheets, and CSV transaction records.

Document Analysis Skill

When asked to analyze tax or financial documents, follow these guidelines.

Reading Documents

Use the filesystem.read_document tool to extract text from supported formats:

• PDF: Tax returns, W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, brokerage statements, bank statements
• XLSX / Numbers: Spreadsheets with transaction data, financial summaries, accounting exports
• CSV: Brokerage transaction exports, bank transaction downloads, payroll data
• DOCX / Pages: Tax letters, IRS notices, engagement letters

For large documents, read the entire file first, then focus analysis on the sections relevant to the user's question.

Common Tax Document Structures

W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement)

Key fields to extract and verify:

• Box 1: Wages, tips, other compensation (federal taxable income)
• Box 2: Federal income tax withheld
• Box 3/5: Social Security / Medicare wages (may differ from Box 1 due to pre-tax deductions)
• Box 4/6: Social Security / Medicare tax withheld
• Box 12: Coded items — watch for 401(k) contributions (D/DD), HSA (W), dependent care (10)
• Box 13: Statutory employee, retirement plan, third-party sick pay checkboxes
• Cross-check: Box 1 + pre-tax deductions should approximately equal gross pay

1099 Variants

• 1099-INT: Interest income. Box 1 = taxable interest, Box 3 = savings bond interest, Box 4 = federal tax withheld
• 1099-DIV: Dividends. Box 1a = ordinary dividends, Box 1b = qualified dividends (lower rate), Box 2a = capital gain distributions
• 1099-B: Brokerage proceeds. Watch for cost basis reported (Box 1e) vs. not reported. Check wash sale adjustments in Box 1g
• 1099-MISC / 1099-NEC: Independent contractor income. NEC Box 1 = nonemployee compensation (subject to self-employment tax)
• 1099-R: Retirement distributions. Box 2a = taxable amount, Box 7 = distribution code (early withdrawal penalties, rollovers)
• 1099-K: Payment card / third-party network transactions. Gross amounts — does NOT equal taxable income

Schedule K-1 (Form 1065 / 1120-S)

• Part III: Partner's/shareholder's share of income, deductions, credits
• Line 1: Ordinary business income
• Lines 2–4c: Rental income, other income, guaranteed payments
• Line 11: Other deductions (may need statement)
• Line 13: Credits
• Line 14: Self-employment earnings (partnerships only)
• Watch for: basis limitations, at-risk rules, passive activity rules

Tax Returns (Form 1040)

• Page 1: Filing status, dependents, income summary
• Page 2: Tax computation, credits, other taxes, payments
• Schedules: 1 (additional income/adjustments), 2 (additional taxes), 3 (additional credits), A (itemized deductions), B (interest/dividends), C (business income), D (capital gains), E (supplemental income), SE (self-employment tax)

Data Extraction Tips

1. Tabular data: When reading spreadsheets or CSV files, identify the column headers first. Map columns to their financial meaning before analyzing.
2. Multi-page PDFs: Look for page numbers and section headers. Tax returns follow a consistent page order.
3. Scanned documents: If filesystem.read_document returns no text or reports "scanned/image-only", activate the pdf-ocr skill to render pages as images for vision analysis. For PDFs that do return text but with OCR artifacts, watch for common misreads: 1 vs l, 0 vs O, $ dropped from amounts.
4. Cross-referencing: Always cross-reference figures across documents. For example:
   • W-2 Box 1 should appear on 1040 Line 1
   • 1099-INT Box 1 should appear on Schedule B
   • K-1 income flows to Schedule E
5. Rounding: Tax forms often round to whole dollars. Small discrepancies (< $1) between documents are normal.

Verification Checklist

When reviewing a complete tax return:

• All income sources accounted for (compare W-2s, 1099s, K-1s to return)
• Filing status is optimal (married filing jointly vs. separately)
• Standard vs. itemized deduction — confirm the better choice was taken
• All eligible credits claimed (child tax credit, earned income credit, education credits)
• Estimated tax payments reconciled with payment records
• Prior-year overpayment applied correctly
• State return is consistent with federal return