National Taxpayer Advocate Mid-Year Report Raises Concern Over Mishandled Mail Audits
The Wall Street Journal reported that the IRS has come under fire for mishandling mail audits by a senior agency official— who is questioning the effectiveness of correspondence audits. A typical mail audit requires taxpayers to send documentation for items claimed on their returns, such as deductions for charitable donations.
But according to Nina Olson, the Internal Revenue Service’s National Taxpayer Advocate, many taxpayers have faced needless stress and aggravation when attempting to respond to IRS questions and audit notices due most frequently to failure on the part of IRS workers to follow procedure.In her midyear report to Congress Tuesday, Olson said taxpayers have expressed concern about “confusing notices” and “non-responsiveness” by IRS workers to letters from taxpayers or their preparers trying to reply to IRS inquiries by mail.
This is very disturbing since correspondence audits, which are conducted by mail, account for more than three-quarters of the IRS’s nearly 1.4 million individual income-tax audits for fiscal 2007. There is also the growing concern from taxpayers who have had trouble reaching the IRS by phone this year.
Basically, if you receive an IRS notice and are convinced the IRS is mistaken or you simply don’t understand it, be sure to seek help from a tax expert and reply to the IRS before the deadline. You may not need to write a check just because the IRS says you owe money, especially if you have the proper documentation that says you are correct.
Finally, if you don’t get the assistance you need from the IRS, try contacting the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service.
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Tags: correspondence audit, IRS audit, mail audit, Nina Olson, tax audit, tax expert, Taxpayer Advocate
July 24th, 2008 at 11:00 am
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