Tax Relief Blog
What is an IRS Tax Audit and Examination?
An IRS tax audit and examination isn’t fun because they will be evaluating all aspects of what you have reported on your tax returns. They have the right to do this for individuals as well as for businesses. Sometimes, there is something on a given tax return that causes them to see red flags. Others are selected at random to be inspected from top to bottom.
It can be very unnerving for an IRS tax audit and examination to occur. They will go through your personal or business tax information. They will do it with a fine toothed comb too, searching for information to verify that the tax information reported is accurate. If everything is accurate they will finish up and be on their way.
Some people get lucky and discover they are entitled to some money from the IRS. However, that isn’t always the way it works. There are more people that find they now owe the IRS more money than they thought.
Compliance
If you are selected for an IRS tax audit and examination, you will get notification in the mail. You will be told if you need to mail in forms or if they will be coming on site. You will get information what has to be offered to them and when it has to be available.
What Happens if they Find Errors?
If there are errors, the IRS will find them. You simply aren’t going to be able to hide them. The good news is that they are more forgiving if those errors were the result of some mistake. If you interpreted the tax laws different from what they should be, then they will take that into consideration.
When you may end up in a great deal of trouble though is if they see evidence of straight out fraud on your tax filings. This means you knew what you reported was incorrect, but you did it to hide the amount you really owed to them. They don’t seem to be very accepting of such outcomes if that is what they see with an IRS tax audit and examination.
Implementing Changes
There may be elements of operations that you are involved with that the IRS won’t accept. If that is the case, they may give you a window of 30 days to make changes to how you handle things. For a business, this can be expensive and time consuming. Make sure you fully understand what you must do to be in compliance with them.
We can Help
If you are facing an IRS tax audit and examination, then you may feel very uneasy about it. We can help you to get everything ready to go though. Having someone you can rely on can help you to feel more at ease. We can also help with negotiations if the IRS feels that you owe them money. Working out payments can help you to stay out of financial trouble. It can also help you to avoid problems such as a levy or a lien imposed by the IRS.
We will make sure you are treated respectfully by the IRS. We will also make sure that you understand the information that they share with you. The last thing you want is to be completely on your owe when the IRS is looking over all of your tax return records piece by piece.
Appeal Process
We can also assist you with the appeal process. This is your right if you don’t agree with the findings of the IRS during the audit and examination. There is a misconception that the IRS is always right and there is no way around it. The appeal process gives you the legal method of explaining why you don’t think their findings during an audit and examination are correct.
