Most mineral rights owners think about their interests when a check arrives and forget about them in between. Once a year, it's worth spending an hour reviewing everything to make sure nothing has slipped.

Here's a checklist to work through every December.

Income Review

Compare total income to last year. Pull up your royalty payments for the year. Is the total up, down, or flat compared to last year? If it's down significantly, figure out why. Is it lower production, lower prices, higher deductions, or a well that went offline?

Check for missing payments. Look at each well or property that should be paying. Did any skip a month? Did any stop entirely? A missed payment could be a processing delay, a suspense hold, or an operator change you weren't notified about.

Verify 1099 accuracy. When your 1099-MISC forms arrive in January, compare the totals to your own payment records. They should match. If they don't, contact the operator before you file your taxes.

Lease Review

Check lease expiration dates. Are any of your leases expiring in the coming year? If so, decide whether you want to renew, renegotiate, or let them expire. If a lease is about to expire and you haven't heard from the operator, reach out to understand the status.

Review lease terms for leases held by production. If your leases are held by production, they'll continue indefinitely. But it's still worth reviewing the terms periodically, especially the deduction clauses, to make sure the operator is honoring them.

Property Tax Review

Confirm property taxes are paid. Check each county where you own minerals to make sure ad valorem taxes are current. Delinquent taxes accrue penalties and, in extreme cases, can result in a tax sale.

Review assessed values. Did the assessed value on your mineral interests change? If it went up significantly, is it justified by the income the property generates? You may have grounds to protest the valuation.

Record tax payments for deduction. Ad valorem taxes on mineral interests are deductible on your federal return. Make sure you have receipts or records of the amounts paid.

Ownership and Title

Update ownership records. Did any family member die, sell their interest, or transfer minerals to a trust during the year? Update your records to reflect the current ownership.

File statements of claim if needed. If you own minerals in a state with a dormant mineral act (North Dakota, Ohio, Kansas, and others), check whether you need to file or renew a statement of claim.

Update your address with operators. If you moved during the year, make sure every operator has your current mailing address. Checks returned as undeliverable end up in suspense.

Document Review

Organize the year's check stubs. File them by property and operator. If you've been logging payments digitally, make sure everything matches.

File any new division orders, leases, or correspondence. Don't let documents pile up in a kitchen drawer. Get them into your filing system.

Back up your records. If you use MinRight or any other digital system, make sure your backup is current. Verify that the backup actually works by checking that the file exists and is recent.

Tax Preparation

Gather depletion records. You'll need your cost basis (or the running balance for cost depletion) and your gross income per property for the depletion calculation. Having these ready before you meet with your CPA saves time.

Organize deductible expenses. Legal fees, accounting fees, property taxes, and any other expenses related to your mineral interests are deductible. Collect receipts and records.

Note any sales or transfers. If you sold minerals or transferred them during the year, the tax treatment depends on the sale price, your basis, and the type of transfer. Flag this for your CPA.

The Big Picture

Update your mineral rights inventory. Revise the summary document that tells your family what you own. Add new properties, remove sold ones, update income figures.

Review your overall position. Step back and look at the full picture. Are your interests growing, stable, or declining? Are there properties worth selling? Leases worth renegotiating? Wells you should be paying more attention to?

An hour once a year keeps you informed, keeps your records clean, and prevents small issues from becoming big ones.

MinRight makes this annual review easier by keeping everything in one place. Pull up the analytics for a year-over-year comparison, check the deadlines view for upcoming expirations, generate an ownership report to update your family inventory, and verify your backup is current. Most of this checklist is a few clicks when the data is already organized.

For more on the tax preparation side, see our posts on reporting royalty income, depletion calculations, ad valorem taxes, and checking for unclaimed payments.