IRS audit representation
An audit letter is a request for information, not a verdict. What happens next depends largely on how it's handled.
The word "audit" carries more weight than the process usually deserves. Most people picture an agent at the kitchen table going through a decade of receipts. The reality, for the large majority, is a letter asking about one or two items on one return.
That doesn't make it harmless. Audits have a habit of widening — an answer that raises a question invites another question, and a narrow examination becomes a broad one. And an audit that goes badly doesn't just produce more tax; it produces penalties and interest on top, and it can bring other years into view.
Two things determine how it ends. The first is documentation — what you can actually substantiate. The second is how the communication is managed, which is the part people underestimate and the part representation changes most.
What kind of audit you're facing
Correspondence audit
Conducted entirely by post. Narrow, usually focused on one or two specific items — a deduction, a credit, an income discrepancy. This is the large majority of examinations.
They feel manageable, and often are. The risk is that a partial or poorly-supported response converts a narrow question into a broader look, and that deadlines get missed because the letter didn't feel urgent.
Office audit
You're asked to attend an IRS office with specific documentation. Broader than a correspondence audit, and conducted by a person who will ask follow-up questions in real time.
Field audit
An agent comes to your home or business. The broadest and most serious kind, and the one most often applied to businesses and higher-income returns. Field examinations are conducted by Revenue Agents with wide discretion over scope.
Which one you're facing is stated in the letter. It's the first thing to establish, because it changes everything about how the examination is handled.
What representation actually means
With authorization filed, the IRS deals with Katherine rather than with you. In practice that means:
- You stop being the one talking. Correspondence, phone calls and meetings run through the practice. For office and field examinations, the taxpayer frequently doesn't attend at all.
- Scope gets managed. Auditors ask for what they want. Not every request is one you're obliged to satisfy in the form it's made, and the difference between producing what's required and producing everything you have is often the difference between a narrow audit and a wide one.
- The record is built properly. Substantiation gets organised and presented in a form that answers the question asked, rather than raising three more.
- Deadlines get held. Audits run on dates, and missed dates convert into assessments made without you.
- The result gets tested. An examination report isn't final. There's an appeals route, and there are grounds on which findings get revised.
- Penalties get addressed separately. Additional tax and the penalties on top are two different arguments. Penalty relief is frequently available even where the underlying adjustment stands. More on penalty abatement →
If you were assessed and never took part
There's a large group of people who were examined, never responded, and were assessed by default. Sometimes the letters went to an old address. Sometimes they arrived during something else entirely and were never opened. Sometimes they were opened and the person froze.
The assessment that follows looks final. Frequently it isn't.
Audit reconsideration allows a closed examination to be reopened where the taxpayer didn't participate, or where documentation now exists that wasn't considered. It isn't automatic and it isn't guaranteed — but if you're paying, or being pursued for, a balance from an audit you never took part in, it's worth having someone read the transcripts before you accept that the matter is settled.
This is one of the most under-used remedies in tax resolution, and one of the most commonly missed.
What we can and can't do
As a CPA, Katherine has unlimited rights to represent you before the IRS — examinations, appeals and collection matters, in all 50 states. That's the same standing as an Enrolled Agent or an attorney.
Tax Court is different. Representing a taxpayer before the U.S. Tax Court requires an attorney, or a non-attorney admitted by the Court's own examination. If your matter is heading there, Katherine will tell you and help you find the right person.
Anything with criminal exposure belongs with a tax attorney from the outset, for reasons including privilege that don't extend to accountants. If an examination shows signs of moving in that direction, the right move is a referral, not a wait-and-see.
How this runs
The letter.
What kind of audit, which year, which items, and what date is on it. That establishes urgency before anything else.
The return and the record.
What was filed, what supports it, and what's missing. Sometimes an examination is straightforwardly answerable and the conversation is short.
Authorization and contact.
Katherine files the representation authorization and takes over the correspondence.
The response.
Documentation assembled and presented, questions answered, scope kept where it belongs.
The outcome — or the challenge.
Agreement where the finding is right, appeal where it isn't, and penalty relief argued separately either way.
If there's a balance.
An audit that ends in additional tax becomes a collection matter, and that's the same engagement. Ways to resolve a balance →
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if I'm really being audited?
The IRS opens an examination by post. Never by phone, email or text. If someone calls claiming to be conducting an audit and asks for payment or card details, it's a scam — that isn't how the process works, and it's worth knowing before it happens to you.
What triggers an audit?
A mix of automated scoring, mismatches between what you reported and what third parties reported, certain deduction patterns relative to income, and some random selection. Being selected is not an accusation.
How far back can the IRS go?
There's a standard examination period, a longer one where income was substantially understated, and no limit at all for a fraudulent or unfiled return. Which applies depends on the facts.
Should I handle a correspondence audit myself?
Sometimes. A single-item request with clean documentation is often manageable. It gets risky where documentation is incomplete, where the answer invites further questions, or where the year under examination connects to years that aren't.
What if I don't have receipts?
Harder, not necessarily lost. Substantiation can sometimes be built from bank records, third-party evidence and industry norms, though the rules on what's acceptable vary by deduction type — some categories have strict documentation requirements that can't be worked around.
Can the audit spread to other years?
Yes. It's one of the main reasons scope management matters.
What if I disagree with the result?
An examination report isn't the end. There's an appeals route to the independent Office of Appeals, and deadlines attached to it. Findings do get revised.
Will this become a criminal matter?
For the overwhelming majority of examinations, no. Civil audits and criminal investigations are different processes. Where indicators do appear, the correct response is a tax attorney immediately — and Katherine will say so rather than continue.
I was audited years ago and never responded. Is it too late?
Possibly not. See Section 4 — audit reconsideration exists for exactly that situation.
Do I have to meet the auditor in person?
For a correspondence audit, no. For office and field examinations, representation frequently means the taxpayer doesn't attend.
Start with the letter
The kind of audit, the year, and the date on the notice tell us most of what matters. Book a time or call and read it to us — that first conversation is usually enough to know whether this is straightforward or not.