How Far Back Can IRS Audit?
That’s a question a lot of people want to know, and an important one to know because you need to know when you need IRS audit assistance. The short answer is generally within 3 years…but there are some guidelines they follow. If there are large mistakes (the IRS calls it substantial understatement), the IRS can go back six years instead of three. If they find fraud during tax audit help…bummer, they can go back as far as they want.
Most of the time, within a minute or two, we can see on a filed tax return WHY the IRS chose the return for audit. In most cases, there is a big flag that begs for additional information and the IRS keys in on it so they can ask about it. Many times it’s a big loss or unusual tax item. While rendering IRS audit assistance in Denver, we have seen many cases too, where someone has put an income item on the wrong line, which almost always puts the IRS on alert. During our taxt audit help, we see that the IRS usually picks these items up in about 12 to 18 months - in our experience, that's how far back the IRS can audit in Denver.
Another way the IRS picks up a tax return for audit is when the tax return excludes an income item that the IRS is aware of.
How Does this Happen?
Good question. The IRS receives all kinds of information from individuals and companies that you do business with. The common ones are W-2s from your employer and 1099s if you are an independent contractor. Additionally, with tax audit help, there are all kinds of 1099s from banks and brokerages that can be reported by third parties. The IRS matches these items against your income tax return reporting and if they find that something is missing they can either open up an audit, which in our experience during IRS audit assistance only the IRS knows how far back they can audit, or simply make changes to your return and send you a bill. If you don’t protest the bill, the additional amount due becomes a legal debt to the IRS. Our experience with providing tax relief solutions and tax audit help in Denver is that the IRS is able to match this info and contact you within 6 months to a year.
As a note of interest, particularly if you have a tax problem, you can obtain this information that has been reported to the IRS. You can call the IRS (800) 829-1040 and ask for your income information (be sure to specify the year) and they can send this information to you. Whatever they tell you and no matter the situation, call Advanced Tax Solutions for tax audit help in Denver.
What the IRS Can Do?
Beware however, if you are already in the collections bull’s eye the IRS will most likely start asking questions about where you work and where you bank. They are not making pleasant conversations, they want to know where they can take your money. Our experience with our past cases providing IRS audit assistance and tax audit help in Denver is that they CAN garnish your wages and take the money out of your bank accounts without permission from you. If you are concerned about these types of questions, you can still get the information but it’s a little more involved. You can request the information as far back as the last 6 years through a process called a FOIA request (Freedom of Information Act Request). Through this formal process, with tax audit help, you can request the information and by law the IRS has not only to honor your request, but it cannot contact the collections department to let them know. It’s a very good way to get the information you need without waking up that sleeping big dog!!! If you are already getting levied or garnished, it won’t hurt to call them and save the additional time and money requesting the information as they already know where the money is.
Other Audits
Another type of audit is the random audit. The amount of completely random audits can vary, but with our past cases providing tax relief solutions and IRS tax audit help/assistance in Denver, it can be about 50,000 taxpayers that are just blindly and randomly picked. This audit is a very big bummer, as they are going to most likely go over every number in your return and demand proof. The IRS uses this type of information to see where people are making mistakes (or cheating) so that they can create processes that zero in on people with these types of issues. The goal is to find and audit more people they feel are likely to have these kinds of mistakes, with tax audit help from our past cases in Denver, only IRS can determine how far back they can audit. In other words, they want to streamline the process of determining where they can find more money faster.
The IRS has created a system of determining what kinds of returns are likely to have errors that will produce audit revenue most effectively. They protect the secrecy of the criteria for choosing their audit picks very carefully, and I would deem it impossible to get ahold of that information. With our past cases rendering IRS tax audit help/assistance, there are some items that are generally known to increase your chance of audit. For example, Schedule C (the form for self-employed individuals) is the most audited form in the history of the IRS. If you have $100,000 in GROSS income on a schedule C, you have a much higher probability than your neighbor who has a similar income as you but works for someone else.
There are many reasons to incorporate a small business, but audit risk is one very good one. If you incorporate and have the same income, with tax audit help, you are tossed into the audit pool with the big corporations. Compared to the Fortune 500 corporations your income suddenly seems like nothing at all! Now, let the taxpayer beware because, with our past cases, only the IRS knows how far back they can audit…before you incorporate you should contact a professional to make sure it’s a good idea for your specific circumstances. There are many good reasons NOT to incorporate, but if you do, it is extremely important to take care of all your business taxes to avoid having to be audited at all.
Get IRS Tax Audit Help/Assistance in Denver Now!
If you haven’t filed yet, you should read the section on filing late taxes. There is some great information there as to how to get back into the system and how long you have to file a return if you may have a refund! If you need IRS audit help and tax relief solutions in Denver, contact Advanced Tax solutions today!
