Retired IRS Agents please help

[Acownt4it]

My client is being audited again. I think this is on the verge of being harassment.

My client's unreimbursed employer expenses were examined for tax year 2003. We received notice of this in March of last year. The long and short of it is; my client's case on this matter was closed in March of this year with a refund to my client of $217 instead of tax liability of $2100. This did not make the Cincinnati examiners office happy because the Chicago office closed the case and a National Taxpayer Advocate had to help us get this mess closed.

My client received a letter 2 days after receiving the refund stating that her 2004 and 2005 unreimbursed employee expenses are being examined.

My client did not particularly like the fee I charged for the 2003 audit, so she wanted to do the work herself. But now she wants to know if I can get an extension of time to produce the documents needed. The 30 days are up on April 5th. I do not have a problem helping hr with this, she is a good client and was really just trying to save herself some money but she realizes this is a bigger issue than she thought.

My questions and or advice I need are:
1. Does this sound like harassment to examine 2004 and 2005 right after the 2003 being closed with a refund to the client?
2. I have to deal with the Memphis Service Center now; do I bring up the 2003 examination?
3. How do I go about getting an extension to produce the required documents? 30 days for two years is a short time and in the middle of Tax Season?

[sea-tax]

Well I am not retired IRS agent but my advice would be to get a power of attorney then call the agent and beg for some more time. Usually if you contact them and give them some excuse that seems half way reasonable they will give you 30-60 days too get the info together.
As for the harrassment thing I have no advice there. I am not sure being audited two or three years in a row is enough to classify it as harrassment.

[Bird Legs]

IRS Audit

I had this same problem a few years ago. IRS audited client 2 years in a row on the same
item. Very little change. Received notice for an audit on the same thing the 3rd time.
I got a POA and wrote a letter explaining what happened in the past 2 years and
asked them to look at their records.
A short while later we received a letter from the IRS stating that the audit was cancelled.

[Acownt4it]

Thanks for the help

I am going to call the agent tomorrow and beg for more time. Even if my client had all the paperwork together at this time, there is no way I could put it all together by 4/05.

Say a tax audit prayer for me. I really need a miracle on this one.

[S T]

For what it is worth

Few audits, but occasionally one comes in during tax time. With POA I usually call and ask for a reschedule and it is granted. That should not be a problem for you. Since it is a different Service Office, I would bring up the fact that the change on the 2003 audit was in the favor of the T/P, not in favor of the Service and offer to send them the final "closing" paperwork and ask for reconsideration of the audit for subsequent years.

Otherwise, if the above does not work, I don't think you can ask for any type of consideration from the audit dept until the t/p has been audited 2 years in a row for the same item, and it is a no change, or change in favor of the T/P.

Good Luck!

Sandy

[dyne]

IRS does not like to waste it's time on repeated audits if the first audit was found
to be correct or a refund issued. You should contact IRS and ask that the audit
be ABORTED. They will probably do so.
Retired IRS Agent

[Gretel]

So, why in the world in our computer age, does the IRS not just look at prior audit history??

[BoPeepJr]

Gabriele

The current IRS Computer System is not what you would call modern. As previously mentioned, I would contact the Taxpayer Advocate that assisted with 2003, assuming that the issue is identical.