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CPA — Form Finder
A client says "I sold some crypto, my wife started consulting, and we have a rental in another state." In that sentence are six forms, two states, and three questions you need answered before you can quote the job.
Run CPA — Form Finder on a real problem
Bring something you're actually deciding — free, in the browser.
How it works
1. Decompose. Clients describe their year as a story; forms attach to events. For each element capture: what happened or what status holds · type (income / deduction / credit / information reporting / election / status) · which taxpayer or entity · timing, including whether it spans years · jurisdiction.
Gate: ask about location for every element, separately. The most common scoping error is a missed jurisdiction, not a missed form — a rental elsewhere, months of remote work, a mid-year move, an owner living in a different state from the entity. Each can add a filing nobody priced.
Form 1040 and schedules — Schedule 1 (additional income and adjustments) · Schedule 2 (additional taxes) · Schedule 3 (additional credits) · Schedule A (itemized) · Schedule B (interest and dividends) · Schedule C (sole proprietorship) · Schedule D with Form 8949 (capital asset sales, including digital assets) · Schedule E (rental, royalty, pass-through) · Schedule F (farming) · Schedule H (household employees) · Schedule SE (self-employment) · Schedule 8812 (qualifying children and other dependents).
When to use it
- scoping or quoting a new tax engagement
- a client describes a transaction and you need to place it
- building a document request list
- sanity-checking that a return has the schedules its facts imply
- user says 'what forms does this need', 'which schedule', 'what do I file for', 'is there a form for', 'what filings am I forgetting?'
When not to use it
the forms are known and the question is how to complete a line; the return is already prepared and the question is whether it is right (use cpa-return-review instead); the question is a threshold, limit, rate, or filing date — those are not in this skill and must come from…
Worked example
CPA — Form Finder
A client says "I sold some crypto, my wife started consulting, and we have a rental in another state." In that sentence are six forms, two states, and three questions you need answered before you can quote the job.
Install this skill (free, MIT)
npx skills add deciqAI/knowledge-skillsUseful? Star the repo — stars help other builders find it.
Related mental models
Representation punishes improvisation.
Errors that reach clients are rarely exotic.
The parent second-order-thinking traces downstream consequences others miss.
The parent opportunity-cost measures the value of the best foregone alternative.