WHAT NOT TO DO

Here are some of the most common IRS audit mistakes made by taxpayers in an audit:
  • Ignoring IRS notices or letters;
  • Failing to read your taxpayer rights;
  • Bringing friends or family who are not tax professionals with you to the audit;
  • Allowing the IRS perform the audit at your business or home;
  • Volunteering information the examiner has not asked for;
  • Not carefully organizing your records prior to the examination;
  • Not gathering missing records that you can get from others;
  • Providing financial information that’s not required on your return;
  • Reconstructing records you no longer have like automobile mileage logs;
  • Bringing other documents that were not specifically requested;
  • Providing your one and only original copy to the IRS;
  • Fighting, arguing or otherwise being unprofessional and disrespectful to the examiner;
  • If the audit is not going well, stop the examination and exercise your right to professional representation;
  • If you’re being treated unfairly, exercise your right to meet with the audit manager and have the examination transferred to another individual;
  • Don’t sweat the small stuff. Concentrate on the major issues and move on;
  • Not agreeing with the audit results and then not exercising your rights to appeal the results
To the extent you owe taxes and the examiner has been successful in finding this, he will likely assume you have made the same mistakes in other tax years and will apply the same logic to other years as well. When evaluating your exposure, apply this logic to other years that can be challenged as well before you begin the examination.  Evaluate your exposure.