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What Do I Do If I Have an IRS Collection Agent (Revenue Officer) Come to My Home/Place of Business?

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So IRS revenue officers are field collection agents and they spend about fifty percent of the time in the field going after taxpayers and/or chasing their assets. So if a revenue officer shows up your home or place of business, understand you’re not obligated to talk to the revenue officer.

Key Takeaways

  • So IRS revenue officers are field collection agents and they spend about fifty percent of the time in the field going after taxpayers and/or chasing their assets.
  • The best thing you can do in that case is to get the revenue officer’s card and any paperwork that they have to hand to you, and then go see an attorney as soon as possible so that you can deal with the situation.
  • The IRS views you as a serious collection risk. That’s why they’ve signed and sent an individual field agent to come see you.

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What Are the First Steps I Should Take in an IRS Audit?

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The first steps you should take in the audit are to gather your documents and to understand your risk. The first thing that we look at when we have a prospective client come into the firm is why we think the returner got audited. Every return tells a story and it’s only a matter of time before we go through the return and learn what that story is. In speaking with taxpayers what we often find is that people either lack

Key Takeaways

  • The first steps you should take in the audit are to gather your documents and to understand your risk. The first thing that we look at when we have a prospective client come into the firm is why we think the returner got audited.
  • the records to support their return or the story that their return tells doesn’t make a lot of sense or at least poses some additional questions that somebody would want to ask.

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What Type of Documentation Will I Need in My IRS Audit?

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Often the documentation that the IRS is looking for in your audit will fall into two categories: income side documentation and expense. A review of the IDR that the auditor provided will give you an idea what the focus of the audit is going to be on the income side. The IRS is going to ask you for bank statements and for supporting accounting if applicable that would tend to corroborate the amount of income that you claimed on your return. You can expect to produce a profit and loss if you’re a business, you can expect to produce a general ledger and the IRS will also want to see any credit card or any other financial account statements that would tend to corroborate your income. On the expense side they’re going to be looking for proof of deductions. So what that means is they’re usually looking for receipts, invoices and other documentation that would tend to corroborate your expenses although you can be dinged for missing invoices.

Key Takeaways

  • Topic: What Type of Documentation Will I Need in My IRS Audit?
  • Often the documentation that the IRS is looking for in your audit will fall into two categories: income side documentation and expense.
  • A review of the IDR that the auditor provided will give you an idea what the focus of the audit is going to be on the income side.

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Can I Go to Jail for Errors on My Income Tax Returns?

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Key Takeaways

  • Topic: Can I Go to Jail for Errors on My Income Tax Returns?
  • Yes you can! With the caveat stated that most people do not go to jail because of errors on the return, criminal prosecutions take willfulness.
  • There has to be some deliberate action on your part to mess up the return or to conceal income or hide expenses in some way.

Yes you can! With the caveat stated that most people do not go to jail because of errors on the return, criminal prosecutions take willfulness. There has to be some deliberate action on your part to mess up the return or to conceal income or hide expenses in some way. If there’s no evidence of willfulness, prosecution is probably not likely but in the course of the investigation, the auditor is looking for things called badges of fraud. They’re looking for evidence that you manipulated the numbers on your return in order to lower your taxable liability. If the errors are serious enough, it’ll trigger a referral to the Criminal Investigation Division of the IRS. So while the chances of jail are not exactly likely, if you’ve got a serious error on the return and you suspect willfulness it can and will trigger a criminal referral which is something that you don’t want to deal with.

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Brotman Law Featured in Inc. Magazine - Fastest Growing Law Firm in California