What’s happening
An IRS audit is when the IRS reviews your tax return and asks you to back it up. Some audits happen only by mail. Others mean meeting with the IRS, or an IRS agent visiting you. And many IRS letters work like audits, even if they aren’t called that. They say the income on your return doesn’t match what the IRS has on file.
The other thing we see all the time: an audit nobody answered. The letters went to an old address or got set aside. The IRS decided the case without you. Now there’s a bill, often a big one, and the IRS is trying to collect it.
What the IRS can do, and what it can’t
If you don’t answer, the IRS can make their changes and bill you for the tax, plus penalties and interest. Then it can collect, including taking money from your paycheck or bank account.
But you have rights at every step:
- During an audit, you can have someone represent you. You don’t have to face the IRS yourself.
- If you disagree with the result, you can usually take it to the IRS’s appeals office. That office is separate from the people who audited you.
- If you get a Notice of Deficiency, you usually have 90 days to take it to the U.S. Tax Court before you pay. Treat that deadline as absolute.
- If that deadline already passed, you may still be able to reopen the case. This is called audit reconsideration. It works when you have proof the IRS didn’t look at.
How we fight it
We take over the talking. Once you hire us, the IRS deals with us. We answer their requests, prepare your proof, and keep the audit focused on what it’s really about.
We build your side of the story. Most audits are won or lost on paperwork, and on how it’s laid out. We put it together the way the IRS looks at it.
We protect your deadlines. That includes appeals and your right to go to the Tax Court, so you don’t lose options because a date slipped by. If a case has to be argued in Tax Court, we work with an attorney who’s allowed to practice there.
We reopen old audits when the IRS got it wrong and nobody pushed back at the time.