IRS Audit Representation
I was looking for IRS audit representation and I found some good information on the website of Joe Mastriano CPA, here’s a interesting quote from his website at www.taxproblem.org:
Audits are selected based on IRS programs. One program looks for compliance and another tries to find errors. They have not examined your return yet. Are you afraid? These days, auditors tend to be nicer. They tend to be more educated than the collection officers. They do not want to send your case to the criminal division unless they have to. I have represented people who have taken phony deductions, and have left out income on their tax returns. During my career I have never had an auditor accuse my client of criminal fraud. In each case they were happy to make the adjustments and charge the taxpayer additional tax, interest and penalties.
Of course, you have to say things like….I forgot, or I guess I made an error, or I can’t find the proof for the deduction. You can’t say, “Oh yeah, my friend the accountant said I should put down a lot of expenses because there is less than 1% chance of being audited”. There may actually be a less than 1% chance of being audited in your case, but you have to be careful not to say you ‘willfully’ did anything you know was wrong in the preparation of the tax return. Got it? To this day I don’t know of anyone foolish enough to admit to ‘willfulness’. If you follow this manual, you will have very little to fear, unless of course you can’t document the items on your return and don’t want to deal with the increased tax liability.
There are two main types of audits. Correspondence and face to face. If any of these produces a tax liability, then the IRS sends you an examination report. You have 30 days to appeal it. In a face to face audit, the letter will ask you to provide information to back up certain items on your return. You may have to prepare two sets of proof. One directly responding to the letter, and another proving all the other items on your return.
If you are looking for information on tax delinquents you should the delinquent returns section of our site.
Once the audit is over, and you missed it. all is not lost. We can request an Audit Reconsideration. In many cases the IRS will open up the audit again, so that you can have a chance to present your proof for expenses, etc. An audit reconsideration may be requested if you subsequently obtain receipts you were not able to submit before.
I have represented people in audits from other states without any problems. It is not necessary, or better, for the tax payer to sit face to face with an auditor to prove your income and expenses. You should not let the auditor into your home or office to conduct the audit. As a representative, I have yet to have the IRS refuse to have me send the information by mail when I have an out of town client. Locally, I don’t mind appearing with my client. We have a pretty decent audit group here in Houston.
All you need to know about taxes and the IRS is available freely on Joe Mastriano’s website, and he also has a comment section where he provides quick tips and advice to his users. I needed help with my company audit so I called his secretary and arranged a one hour paid consultancy so he can go over my situation.