How to scan tax documents and W-2s with your phone

How to scan tax documents with your phone

1. Sort and flatten the paper

   Group your forms by type (W-2s, 1099s, receipts, letters), unfold them and lay each one on a flat, dark surface in soft light.

2. Scan with Document or Batch

   Tap the camera button in the middle of the bottom bar and choose Document, or Batch for a stack of pages. Smart edge detection finds each page, corrects the perspective and captures it; keep adding pages and finish when the form is complete.

3. Name it clearly

   Tap the document title and rename it, for example "W-2 2025 - Employer name". The name is what you search for later and what your preparer sees as the file name.

4. File it by tax year

   Create a New Folder such as "Taxes 2025", then use Move to folder to put every scan for that year in one place.

5. Share it as a PDF

   Tap the share icon, choose PDF and a Quality, use Select pages if needed, turn on Protect with password (Premium) if you like, and tap Share or Print.

Scan tax forms into searchable PDFs

Tax paperwork is mostly multi-page forms, statements and small slips, and it all needs to end up as clean PDFs. Doc Scanner scans a whole form in one go: you hold the phone over each page, edge detection captures it straight and square, and the pages become one PDF. You can add, reorder and delete pages afterwards, so a statement that arrived in two envelopes still ends up as one file.

Every PDF you export from Doc Scanner gets an invisible text layer, on the free plan. The page still looks exactly like your scan, but you can search it for a word or a number in any PDF viewer, and your preparer can do the same. Read more about searchable PDFs.

Your phone also has a built-in scanner: the Notes and Files apps on iPhone, and the scan button in Google Drive on Android. They work for a quick page. For a full tax season, Doc Scanner keeps everything in folders, finds forms by the text inside them, lets you choose PDF quality and page size, and never stamps a watermark on a document you send to your preparer.

W-2s and 1099s: make a clean copy

A paper W-2 often arrives as several copies on one sheet, separated by perforations. Scan the copy you need (or the whole sheet before you tear it) so the employer details and every box are on the page. If a form is printed on thin paper, put a dark sheet behind it so text from the back doesn't show through.

• Filters: tap Edit and choose Grayscale or B&W for crisp black text on white, or Magic Color when the form uses coloured boxes. Contrast brings back faint print.
• Check every box: zoom in on the amounts, the employer identification number and your Social Security number. If one digit is soft, scan the page again.
• Page size: choose Letter on the Share screen if your preparer prints the forms, or Original to keep the scan's own shape.
• Quality: High for the copy you keep, Medium for e-mail.

Doc Scanner makes a clean copy of the form; it doesn't fill in tax software for you. If you want to copy a number instead of typing it, the text recognition screen (Premium) lets you select and copy the recognised text. Always double-check each figure against the paper form.

One folder per tax year

The simplest system that works: one folder per tax year. Tap New Folder, name it "Taxes 2025", and move every W-2, 1099, receipt and letter for that year into it. Next year, start a new folder; last year's stays exactly where you left it.

• Move in bulk: select several scans at once and tap Move to folder.
• Build one packet: select the forms your preparer needs and tap Merge to combine them into a single PDF.
• Name with a pattern: start each document with the form type and year, such as "1099-INT 2025 Bank", so the list sorts itself.

Receipts for deductions, donations and business expenses belong in the same folder. See how to scan receipts and how to scan bank statements.

Find any form by its words

In March you won't remember which folder the mortgage statement ended up in. You don't have to: type into the search field at the top of My Documents and Doc Scanner searches document titles and the recognised text inside your scans. Try an employer's name, "1098", "interest" or the name of your bank.

On iPhone, your documents also appear in Spotlight search by title and recognised text, so you can find a W-2 from the home screen without opening the app.

Text recognition runs on your phone with on-device AI-powered OCR, so your tax forms are not uploaded to be read.

Send it to your preparer with a password (Premium)

Tax documents carry your Social Security number, income and bank details, so treat the file like the paper. On the Share screen, turn on Protect with password to lock the PDF with AES-256 encryption (Premium). Send the PDF by e-mail and tell your preparer the password by phone or text, never in the same e-mail. Details in how to password-protect a PDF.

• E-mail: tap Share and pick Mail, Gmail or Outlook; see how to scan and email a document.
• Preparer's portal: if your preparer uses an upload portal, save the PDF to your phone's files from the share sheet and choose it in the portal.
• Keep a copy in your files: on iPhone, Save to Files in the share sheet lets you pick any folder in the Files app.
• Print: tap Print if your preparer still prefers paper.

Ask your preparer how they want to receive documents before you send anything. Keep the paper originals as well until you are sure you no longer need them.

What to scan at tax time

A checklist to work through with your phone in one sitting:

• W-2s from every employer
• 1099 forms: NEC, MISC, INT, DIV, B and others
• 1098 forms: mortgage interest, tuition (1098-T) and student loan interest
• Health coverage forms such as the 1095
• Charitable donation receipts and letters
• Property tax bills and receipts for deductible expenses
• Last year's return, for reference

Scanning a whole box of older paperwork as well? How to digitize paper documents covers sorting and naming a large archive.

See Doc Scanner in action

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Related pages

• Searchable PDFMake a PDF searchable for free on iPhone or Android. Doc Scanner adds an invisible text layer to every PDF it exports, offline, with no upload needed.
• Scan and emailHow to scan and email a document from iPhone or Android: scan, pick PDF, set quality and pages, then send with Gmail, Outlook or Mail. No watermark.
• Many pages, one PDFScan multiple pages into one PDF on iPhone or Android: Batch mode captures page after page, then reorder, add or merge. No watermarks, no ads, no sign-up.