A CP2000 starts with automated matching, not a final IRS decision. Here's what triggers the notice, why timing varies, and what to check before responding.

Filing on extension is not itself a red flag. What matters is the support behind the numbers, especially estimates, mismatches, and documentation gaps.

Facing an IRS audit can be a stressful experience. Understanding how to navigate the process effectively is crucial to protecting your financial interests. This post offers clear, practical guidance for IRS audits, focusing on strategies that help you respond confidently and efficiently.

A joint return generally creates joint and several liability. Sections 6015(b), 6015(c), and 6015(f) provide different forms of relief, with different knowledge, marital-status, allocation, timing, and equitable requirements.

Most IRS examinations remain civil. Potential criminal exposure turns on evidence of a willful violation and affirmative acts, not merely a large adjustment. Contact from IRS Criminal Investigation should be handled through experienced criminal tax counsel.

The IRS generally has three years to assess additional tax, but the starting date, six-year substantial-omission rules, unfiled returns, false returns, extensions, amended returns, and special statutes can change the deadline.

Correspondence examinations are generally handled by mail, office examinations involve an IRS office interview, and field examinations are conducted by revenue agents and may cover broader business issues. Scope, records, communication, and appeal rights depend on the actual case.

The ERC claim period has ended, but pending claims, disallowances, refund suits, promoter issues, amended income-tax returns, and audits remain active. The applicable assessment period depends on the quarter and current law.

Form 2848 authorizes an eligible representative to act before the IRS for specifically listed tax matters and periods. It does not create unlimited authority, permit routine return signing, or allow the representative to receive or negotiate a refund.

When the IRS says you owe more tax and you believe the IRS is wrong, you have options. The right path depends on where you are in the process: examination, Appeals, Notice of Deficiency, Tax Court, or refund litigation. Each path has different deadlines, costs, procedures, and protections. The most important rule is simple: do not ignore the notice. Once a 90-day letter is issued, the timeline moves quickly. The Examination Level: Where Disputes Start Most disputes begin duri

Restaurants, contractors, nail salons, food trucks, retail cash operations—these businesses face more IRS scrutiny than businesses that process most transactions digitally. It's not a presumption of guilt. It's a recognition that cash is harder to trace, and the IRS has developed specific methods for reconstructing income when books and records don't tell the full story. Knowing those methods helps you understand what your records need to prove. Why Cash Businesses Draw More

If your business owes payroll taxes, you might assume that's a business problem. The IRS disagrees. Under the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP), the IRS can assess the unpaid employee portion of payroll taxes directly against individuals—piercing through the business entity entirely and going after personal assets. This is one of the few places in tax law where the protection a business entity normally provides simply disappears. What Are Trust Fund Taxes? When you run payro

S-corps are one of the IRS's most consistent examination targets in the small business space. The reason is straightforward: owner compensation is the primary mechanism through which S-corp owners avoid self-employment tax on business income, and the IRS knows it's frequently abused. Here's what triggers scrutiny, what agents look at during an S-corp payroll examination, and what makes a defensible position. How S-Corp Owners Get Selected The IRS uses automated scoring system

When the IRS suspects unreported income, they don't just ask you to prove what you earned. They build their own number. One of the most common methods they use to do that is bank deposit analysis. If you don't know what this is, that's a problem — because it can result in a significant tax assessment based entirely on deposits you made and can't adequately explain. How It Works Bank deposit analysis is an indirect method of reconstructing income. The IRS totals all deposits m

Being audit-ready doesn’t mean you expect the IRS to show up. It means your records are organized enough that if they did, you wouldn’t need to scramble. The businesses that survive audits cleanly aren’t doing anything special at audit time — they’re doing basic things consistently throughout the year. Here’s a year-round checklist for building an audit-ready business. It’s not complicated. It’s just consistent. Monthly: Close Your Books Every month, categorize all transactio

Desk with paperwork Desk with paperwork Sometimes the IRS closes an audit with changes you never agreed to. Maybe you didn’t respond to the examination report. Maybe you missed the 30-day letter deadline. Maybe the IRS assessed tax based on a substitute for return (SFR) because you never filed. In any of these situations, the assessment stands — but you may have a path to reopen it through an audit reconsideration. What Audit Reconsideration Is An audit reconsideration is a p

If you owe the IRS and you’ve been ignoring notices, there’s a point where the letters stop and a person gets involved. That person is a Revenue Officer. And unlike the automated system that sent those CP notices, a Revenue Officer has real enforcement power — liens, levies, seizures, and the authority to show up at your business. Having worked alongside Revenue Officers during my time at the IRS, I can tell you: this is not the stage where you want to be figuring out your op

Your IRS account transcript is a record of every transaction the IRS has posted to your tax account for a given year. Filing your return, processing a refund, assessing penalties, receiving payments, issuing notices — all of it shows up as a transaction code on your transcript. And most people who pull their transcript have no idea what they’re looking at. I used to read these every day as a Revenue Agent. Here’s how to pull your transcript, what the most important codes mean

Every year, the IRS shifts resources and attention based on where the compliance gaps are biggest. For 2026, those shifts are significant — and they affect small business owners more directly than most people realize. Having worked inside the IRS examination function, I can tell you: enforcement doesn’t always mean more audits. It often means better data matching, faster automated notices, and tighter scrutiny on the issues that have historically produced the biggest adjustme

There’s been a lot of noise lately about a potential “COVID tax refund” tied to penalties paid during the pandemic. Some articles are claiming that millions of taxpayers may be eligible for refunds based on a recent court case. Before you get too excited — or too skeptical — let’s slow down and walk through what’s actually happening. The Claim in Plain EnglishThe argument comes from a case called Kwong v. United States. The position is this: because COVID was a federally decl