Audits and IRS Strategies
Audits and IRS Strategies
80) You don't have to meet an IRS agent most of the
time. In the past, many taxpayers -- particularly
business taxpayers -- would send their advisors to
audits. The IRS tried to change this in 1987. The IRS
Manual advises auditors that much information can be
gained by meeting with the taxpayer (preferably alone)
at the beginning of an audit. In these situations
taxpayers usually go out of their way to be cooperative
and unwittingly give away important information. The
Taxpayers Bill of Rights, enacted in 1988, changed the
IRS's strategy. Now you do not have to appear at an
audit unless the IRS issues an administrative subpoena.
You can send any representative who is qualified to
practice before the IRS. If you have been issued a
subpoena or choose to go to the audit, it is a good
idea not to go alone. Bring along your tax advisor.
Any questions about the law or your reasons for taking
a certain position should be referred to your advisor.
81) You don't always want to continue negotiating with
the IRS and challenging audit results. Usually this is
a good idea, because the Appeals Office is more
reasonable than the auditors. They settle about 85% of
their cases, and most of those cases result in some
reduction of the amount owed by the taxpayer. But you
don't want to do this if the auditor missed something
questionable on your return, because the Appeals Office
looks at the entire return. When you have something to
hide but also believe that the audit results should be
appealed, simply ask the IRS to issue a notice of
deficiency after the audit. That allows you to appeal
to the Tax Court within 90 days. (You also can do
nothing for 30 days after the audit results are
received; then you'll receive a notice of deficiency
automatically.)
82) Persistence pays when discussing your tax return
with the IRS. An auditor is to meet with a taxpayer
before issuing a report. The idea is to reach an audit
result that you will consent to, since this holds down
costs by keeping the case out of the Appeals Office.
But the auditor also has a time deadline. Cases have
to be processed at a certain rate, and the agent cannot
spend too much time on your case. This can operate in
your favor if you refuse to leave the conference until
the auditor gives in on one or more of your points.
Simply make your arguments, let the auditor respond,
shift the conversation to another topic, then come back
to your points again. Persist in this manner until the
auditor finally gives in or announces that the
conference is over. Most of the time the auditor will
give in.
83) When you can't pay your taxes, get a 60-day loan.
If you don't have the money to pay, file a return
anyway. After a while the IRS will contact you about
the unpaid taxes. Respond immediately. You can simply
call the employee designated in the letter sent to you.
The employee will tell you how important it is to pay
the bill, but he or she will not tell you that a 60-day
installment loan is yours for the asking. IRS policy
is not to publicize this program, but any taxpayer
qualifies for it. All you do is tell the IRS employee
that you can have the money within 60 days and want an
installment agreement. The employee will try to get
you to agree to a shorter payment period but will
accept 60 days if you insist that's the best you can
do. There is no credit check or other investigation.
You get the 60 days if you ask for them. Of course
interest is charged during this period, so it is to
your benefit to pay the bill as soon as possible. In
addition, be sure that you make the payment within the
agreed time period. If you do not meet the payment
schedule, the collection division will accelerate its
collection efforts.
84) What's the best time to schedule an audit? Near
the end of the month is good. Auditors have rather
strict quotas to meet. If your auditor has not closed
enough cases for the month, there is an incentive to do
your audit quickly to get it closed by the end of the
month. If there is a three-day weekend coming up, the
Friday before it starts could be even better. The
auditor is likely to be distracted by plans for the
weekend and may not examine your return as closely.
There also could be a rush to get the audit done and
get an early start on the long weekend. The best time
of day to schedule the audit is around ten in the
morning. Then you're reasonably sure that lunch plans
will keep the meeting from dragging on. The threat of
missing or being late for a lunch date also could cause
the agent to hurriedly make some concessions that he
wouldn't ordinarily make.
85) When you're in a dispute with the IRS and plan to
go to court, you don't have to let interest expenses
mount. If you lose the case, interest is charged on
your overdue taxes. One way to avoid this is to write
a check to the IRS and label it as a deposit or cash
bond. This stops the interest from accumulating. If
the IRS decides you are wrong and issues you a notice
of deficiency, you can still take the case to Tax
Court. Should you lose the case, the IRS keeps the
money; if you win, the money is returned without
interest. But if you fail to label the payment
properly, as a deposit or bond, it will be considered a
payment of the taxes in dispute and no notice of
deficiency will be issued. You will not be able to go
to Tax Court.
86) You haven't reached an agreement with the IRS until
the proper officials sign it. IRS employees often
negotiate settlements and compromise with taxpayers,
but they do not have authority to bind the IRS. The
agreement has to be signed by officials higher up after
you sign it. So don't rest easy until you are notified
that the settlement has been signed. Sometimes a
higher-level official rules that the lower-level
employee gave away too much. In those instances,
taxpayers who thought they had settlements are
surprised to find notices of deficiency in their
mailboxes. Ask the employee when the agreement should
be approved and when you should receive word of it.
Follow up with a telephone call if too much time passes
without your hearing anything.
87) When it seems the IRS isn't listening to your
problems, there are several steps that can be taken.
First you should realize that the IRS is still having
problems with its new computer system, and you should
expect delays and foul-ups. Also, lower morale
apparently has increased turnover at the IRS, so there
are fewer experienced people to handle your problem.
The 1986 tax reform bill included substantial increased
funding for the IRS over five years, but as of 1990 the
IRS had not yet hired and trained enough employees to
ease the backlog. Whether or not you think the
government ought to be run this way, you'll have to
accept the fact that it is being run this way. Second,
you should consider whether you really want the problem
handled quickly. It is always uncomfortable to have an
unresolved tax issue hanging over you, particularly if
a lot of money is at stake. But many advisors believe
that by waiting you can work the IRS's high turnover to
your advantage. There is a feeling that an agent who
gets assigned your file after it has sat on the corner
of someone else's desk for months will try to close the
case quickly and finish his or her own cases. You are
more likely to get a favorable decision when a new
agent takes this attitude.
If you want a resolution quickly and the current
employee has been given a reasonable amount of time
(which should be several months and varies with the
complexity of the problem), it is time to contact the
problem resolution office. Your local PRO should be
listed in the telephone directory. The IRS says that
the backlog in PROs is now quite substantial. You will
get better results if you write a letter to the PRO
that clearly states your problem and gives your name
and taxpayer ID number. The IRS says that you now
should wait 45 days for a response. If you haven't
heard anything, you can call the PRO and ask who has
been assigned your letter and what the status is. When
discussing your case be cooperative instead of
demanding. Offer to do anything necessary to get the
matter resolved.
If the PRO takes too long or you don't want to
bother with it, simply tell the agent handling your
file to issue a decision. Tell him or her that you
prefer a negative decision to continued negotiation and
discussion. Once a decision has been rendered, you can
take it to the appeals level. Turnover is lower at
appeals and employees are better informed about the tax
law. In addition, appeals officers have strict quotas
and time limits on handling cases. They have to close
cases quickly and keep them out of court. When your
position is truly reasonable and the audit agent just
won't accept it, you are better off taking the case to
appeals. If your problem is with the collection
division instead of an auditor, you should stick with
the PRO.
88) Never give originals of any documents to the IRS.
Auditors frequently will resolve an issue in your favor
when they see documentary evidence that supports your
writeoffs. But always send photocopies to the IRS, not
originals. It is not unusual for documents to be lost
in the post office or the IRS mail room. When an agent
claims not to have received documents or to have lost
them, there's nothing you can do about it. There are
numerous court cases holding that you cannot sue the
IRS for damages, and the burden of proving the
writeoffs remains with you. Always send copies of
documents.
89) The word to taxpayers who've been audited is to
appeal all negligence penalties. IRS auditors are
routinely imposing negligence penalties any time they
find a deficiency in someone's taxes. But that's
wrong, because the penalties are to be imposed only
when the deduction was clearly inappropriate and the
taxpayer should have known that. Because auditors are
misconstruing the law, the Appeals Office is just as
routinely reversing the negligence penalties. Filing
an appeal is an easy way to save money.
90) You lost your right to use the Tax Court if you
don't tell the IRS you moved. You have only 90 days
after the IRS issues you a notice of deficiency to file
a petition in the Tax Court. If you miss the deadline,
you can't use the Tax Court. But the 90 days starts
running when the IRS mails a notice to your last known
address. It doesn't matter if you no longer live at
that address and do not receive the notice if that
address is your last known address. The IRS generally
is justified in mailing the notice to the address on
the tax return in question. It usually doesn't matter
that you've moved and filed subsequent tax returns with
the new address. If you gave a full power of attorney
to a tax advisor, the IRS can send the notice to that
person unless you have informed the IRS that the power
is revoked. The only official way to notify the IRS of
a change of address is to report the change of address
to the IRS on their official change of address form,
Form 8810, which you mail to the service center where
you have been filing the returns. Keep a copy for your
files.
91) Don't let the IRS bluff you into losing legitimate
deductions. Auditors are trained to say that if you
don't have exact records, you can't take the
deductions. But this isn't always true. It is true
where travel and entertainment expenses are concerned.
But in other cases, the Cohan rule applies. This rule
allows you to estimate the amount of your expenses when
the records are incomplete. All you have to do is give
reasons why the estimates are reasonable. The Cohan
rule even applies to auto expenses under the law passed
by Congress in 1986.
92) Mailing your tax return late is not always going to
get you into trouble. First, if you realize before
April 15 that the return is going to be late, you can
file Form 4868. This gives you an automatic four month
extension, and your return is not due until August 15.
You still have to pay the tax by April 15, but there is
no penalty when the final return is filed late. There
are other reasons the IRS will accept as reasonable
excuses for filing late. If you mailed the return on
time but didn't put sufficient postage on it, the IRS
will let you go. But save the original envelope as
evidence. Other valid excuses are a death or serious
illness in your family, a fire or other disaster that
destroyed your records, sending your return to the
wrong service center, being unavoidably absent from
your home or business, asking for the proper forms from
the IRS and not getting them on time, and visiting an
IRS office for help but being unable to get it on time.
If you qualify for one of these excuses, file a
complete explanation of the reason for the delay along
with your tax return. That way you should avoid any
penalties for filing late.
93) Late-filing penalties are based on a percentage of
the tax due. If you had net losses for the year, and
filed late, there is no penalty. Your accountant may
be able to clear up the backlog more efficiently and
accurately if he does your return a week or two after
the deadline, when he isn't overloaded with returns
that must be filed on time.
94) When the IRS Special Agent comes knocking, don't
let him in. A Special Agent is the IRS employee who
investigates taxpayers for criminal fraud. If he is on
your case, he's trying to put you in jail. You don't
have to talk to him, and you don't even have to let him
into your home or office. The problem is that most
people think they can stop the investigation in its
tracks by appearing open when the agent first shows up.
Little do these people know that the agents readily
acknowledge their most important evidence is often
gathered in that first meeting with the taxpayer when a
lawyer is not present. Taxpayers give away all kinds
of damaging evidence without even realizing it. The
most important question to many agents is how much
money you had in the bank at the start of the year.
They then add up all the money you've spent and
deposited in it during the year, subtract the beginning
balance, and say the remainder is your income. You
have to prove that there were gifts, loan repayments
and other sources of money that are not taxable.
Remember that if the special agent is talking to you,
he already has thoroughly examined all the paperwork
the IRS has on you and probably has talked to friends,
neighbors and people you do business with. Tell him
that there probably isn't any problem, but you're going
to play it safe and not talk to him unless your lawyer
is around.
95) What can you do if your spouse gets caught
red-handed by the IRSþand you signed the joint return?
Since you both signed the return, each of you is
potentially liable for the entire tax deficiency. The
IRS generally will go after whichever spouse has more
money and seems easier to collect from, even if the
couple is no longer married. It is very common for one
spouse to entrust the couple's financial affairs to the
other and merely sign the joint return without
questioning. The IRS realizes this and does provide an
escape hatch for an "innocent spouse." It is very
difficult to qualify as an innocent spouse because the
IRS doesn't want spouses who knew what was going on to
get out of their tax liabilities. When your spouse or
ex-spouse failed to report a large portion of income or
deducted an expense that never was incurred, you can
avoid personal liability by showing that you didn't
know about it, had no way of knowing about it, and that
it is not fair to hold you responsible for it. It is a
tough test to meet. A much better idea is to take
preventive measures so that you won't fall into this
situation. Be sure you are fully informed of your
spouse's financial affairs. If you can't do that and
think there might be a problem, you should file
separate tax returns even if it means paying higher
taxes.
96) Getting attorney's fees from the IRS gets easier.
The 1986 and 1988 laws made changes that make it more
likely the IRS will have to pay some taxpayers'
attorney's fees. To win, you must establish that the
IRS's position was not substantially justified. That
means you usually must show that the IRS knew or should
have known that it was wrong on either the facts or the
law. This applies to any position the IRS takes after
you receive a notice of deficiency or a notice of the
decision of the IRS's office of appeals. This is an
improvement over the prior law, under which the IRS
could successfully argue that it could take any
position it wanted prior to a court case without
incurring attorney's fees. There is no ceiling on the
amount of attorney's fees that may be collected. But
you are limited to a maximum rate of $75 per hour
unless you can show the court that a higher rate is
justified under the circumstances. Usually a high rate
can be justified by showing that the case was
especially difficult or the attorney usually gets a
much higher rate.
97) Where you file your return affects your chance of
being audited. As strange as it might seem, you can
reduce the chances of being audited by moving. IRS
statistics show that taxpayers in the national's
central region (Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan, Indiana,
and Kentucky) had the lowest percentage of audited
returnsþ0.93%. Taxpayers in the western region
(composed of 17 western states) had the greatest
percentage of audited returnsþ1.73%. Among individual
cities, taxpayers in Manhattan had by far the greatest
likelihood of being audited. Of all Manhattan
taxpayers, 1.98% were audited. The odds climb
dramatically for business taxpayers. The IRS says
2.83% of corporations and 3.42% of partnerships in
Manhattan were audited. You're least likely to be
audited if you live in Boston, where only 0.69% of
returns were audited. The IRS offers no explanation
for the difference in audit rates. Wondering if the
IRS will pick you to audit? UMI Books On Demand has
just arranged to reprint a report which has been
unavailable for many years. How The Internal Revenue
Service Selects Individual Income Tax Returns For Audit
shows the basis for IRS audit selection using excerpts
from the U.S. General Accounting Office study. To
order, send $25 to University Microfilms International,
300 North Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor MI 48106. Be sure to
specify catalog number AU00381 as they have over
100,000 titles in their catalog.
98) Be sure you avoid the IRS's "badges of fraud."
These are acts that the IRS uses to identify tax
returns that could yield significant back taxes after a
detailed audit. The IRS will give a return an initial
review. Usually if one of these badges is not found,
the auditor will conclude that time is better spent on
other returns. The first thing the IRS looks for is
understatement of income. If you fail to report a
substantial amount of income or an entire category of
income (such as tips), the IRS will look further into
your return. Fictitious or improper deductions also
are a sign the IRS is alert for. If you claim a
nonexistent dependent or inflate a category of
deductions, you can expect a long and detailed audit.
The same holds true if you engage in accounting
irregularities such as keeping two sets of books,
having inadequate records, or routinely postdating
documents. The IRS is particularly interested in
taxpayers who have no books or records. Allocating
income to related taxpayers is another act the IRS
looks for. Often these allocations are made to
fictitious taxpayers, or the device used to allocate
the income to someone else is a sham. The IRS will
closely examine such transactions. A taxpayer's
conduct when meeting with an auditor is another sign
the IRS considers. If you evade questions, refuse to
provide documents, claim that records were lost or
destroyed, or appear hostile to the agent, it will be
taken as a sign that you have something to hide. You
can avoid attracting the IRS's attention by keeping
accurate records, correctly stating deductions, and
complying with an auditor's requests for documentation.
99) Taxpayers in some occupations are more likely to be
audited than others. The IRS recently announced a
campaign to examine more returns of self-employed
individuals. These are returns that include Schedule
Cs listing different business expenses. The IRS says
these individuals are in the best position to
underreport income and overstate deductions and will
get closer scrutiny in the next few years. Airline
pilots are frequent audit targets because they have
high incomes (at least until recently), tend to invest
in tax shelters, and often claim questionable travel
expenses. Professionals, artists, entertainers, real
estate agents and independent contractors are big audit
targets for similar reasons. Flight attendants,
curiously, have a high audit risk because travel
expenses tend to be an unusually high proportion of
their income and many attendants try to deduct clearly
personal expenses such as hairstyling, pantyhose, and
cosmetics. It is believed that executives have the
lowest audit risk because they are salaried employees
and this limits their tax avoidance possibilities.
Consultants have a high audit risk because they can
easily underreport income and overstate deductions.
But if you write "executive" as your occupation and an
auditor discovers you are a consultant with your own
corporation, this will be considered an act of
deception and the auditor will take a close look at
your return.
100) If you've found a loophole here that you forgot to
take in the past, you can file an amended return. Form
1040X can be filed anytime within three years after the
original return is filed. You file an amended return
to change how you reported an item in the past or to
add items that were forgotten. The problem, however,
is that the IRS will not only scrutinize the change you
are making but often will decide to look over the
entire return. Most tax advisors agree that filing an
amended return substantially increases your chances of
hearing from an audit agent. The solution could be to
hold the amended return until about a week before the
filing deadline. The IRS has only three years from the
date a return was filed to make any changes in it. So
if you file the amended return at the last minute the
IRS doesn't have much time to examine the original
return. The only objections it can make are to your
changes.
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