Appealing a Tax Audit

Appealing a tax audit requires a couple of steps to take and can be free if the person appealing the audit does not use a tax professional. A tax audit is defined as an examination by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of an individual or a corporation’s tax return to verify that the return is accurate and complete. The Internal Revenue Service has an appeals system for people that wish to appeal their tax return. Appealing a tax audit by the IRS does have its rewards, including some savings, but is also has it setbacks as well. Appealing a tax audit can be simple, painless, and cost effective if you do not use a tax professional to appeal the audit. When you appeal a tax audit the appeal will prolong the audit tax bill for a couple of months, giving you time to raise money to pay the bill and/or get IRS tax debt relief. The cons of appealing a tax audit include the appeals officer finding other problems that the auditor might have missed and the interest on your tax bill continue to grow even during the appeal processand if you hired an IRS debt tax attorney his or her tax attorney fees may continue to accumulate as well.

Tax Audit Appeals Process

Appealing a tax audit can be done with the help of a tax professional, with an attorney present, a certified public accountant present or you can represent yourself. In addition to tax audits, people can appeal other decisions made by the IRS as well. Those decisions are about decisions regarding penalties, trust fund recovery penalties, offers in compromise, employment tax adjustments, liens, levies, seizures and abatement of interest. The process of appealing a tax audit that has been handed down by the IRS contains only a handful of steps and is quite simple and painless if all of the steps are followed correctly.

1. Compose a letter of protest and send it to the local IRS district director
2. Make a Freedom of Information Act request for the auditor’s records
3. Show the appeals officer that you would have some chance of winning if you went to court
4. Negotiate tax issues, not tax dollars
5. Prepare with careful record organization and basic tax law research

Meeting with IRS Representatives

Once the steps that have been mentioned above have been met the person applying for the tax audit appeal can then begin with the appeals conferences. These conferences are very informal and you can represent yourself at these meetings or decide to be represented by your attorney, a certified public accountant, a tax professional or someone who is enrolled to practice before the IRS. The easiest method of appealing a tax audit is to avoid a tax audit altogether. To avoid a tax audit a person should properly report all of their yearly income on the designated forms. Also, make sure that you declare any hobby income that you might have made over the past year and deduct any business expenses on your tax forms if you own your own business. An attorney will help anyone appealing a tax audit get the results they are looking for or have certain matters from the audit cleared up legally.

• If you are facing a tax audit, or wish to appeal the decision of a tax audit, consult with a tax attorney near you to discuss the details of your case. The content of this page is provided for informational purposes only!