Pop quiz. What government agency took down the notorious gangster Al Capone?

Believe it or not, it wasn’t the FBI, the CIA, or the state troopers. It was the IRS.

If you’re in the process of being audited by the IRS, it’s only natural to feel a little nervous about what this could mean for your business, your finances, and your future. You might even be thinking about getting advice from a tax professional.

Should you work with a tax audit lawyer? Keep reading to learn more about how securing legal representation can help you navigate your IRS audit with ease.

Why Did I Get Audited?

With millions of Americans filing their taxes each year, you might be wondering why the IRS decided to audit your tax return in particular. And that would be a fair question to ask.

The good news is that an audit doesn’t necessarily mean that the government thinks you’ve been committing fraud or misrepresenting your income. But it does mean that they’ve decided to take a closer look at your finances for the year. Some of the prompts that trigger tax audits may include:

• Someone close to you or related to you has been audited 
• The IRS has reason to believe that you’re participating in a tax avoidance scheme
• Your claimed income and the income reported by your employer don’t match
• The computer has flagged your return 

Regardless of the reason for the audit, however, you’ll want to make sure that your receipts and relevant documents are ready to go. In addition, because IRS audits can sometimes expand in scope, you may want to go ahead and gather income statements and documents for prior years. 

Here are the Benefits of Hiring a Tax Attorney

Being audited by the IRS may be inconvenient and uncomfortable. But does it really make sense to hire a tax lawyer? Here are just a few reasons why legal representation is important to secure during your audit:

1. You Get a Legal Interpreter

If there’s one thing about the Internal Revenue Code that everyone can agree on, it’s that the rules are insanely complicated. There are tons of regulations, clauses, and schedules involved with making a normal filing. And when you’re getting audited by the IRS, you can quickly find yourself in legally unfamiliar territory.

Imagine going to an obscure, out-of-the-way landmark while on vacation. You wouldn’t dream of going down the winding roads and turns without using GPS. And if you were unfamiliar enough with the area, you might even hire a tour guide.

An experienced tax attorney is like having a tour guide for your legal problems. They’ll be able to explain all the procedures and legalese while helping you anticipate what’s next. When you’re in the midst of a high-stress audit, that objective bit of expertise can have a huge impact on your outcome.

2. You Get Help Negotiating Your Penalties

Let’s say that the IRS finishes up its audit and concludes that you do, in fact, owe taxes. Once that determination is made, you could see the government sending you a huge tax bill. In the fiscal year of 2020 alone, for instance, the IRS assessed a whopping $31.4 billion in civil penalties.

In addition, these folks will often do their best to interpret everything in the worst light possible.

Your tax lawyer will be the person explaining your side of the story. Maybe you forgot about that open account or you sincerely misplaced those receipts. Perhaps you overpaid in a different area and so you technically don’t owe as much as the IRS says you do.

When you’re in the hot seat, it’s not always easy to advocate for your own interests. But for a tax attorney, IRS audits are quite literally just another day at the office. This makes your legal representation uniquely capable of defending you with vigor and confidence. 

3. Your Tax Attorney Can Defend You Against Litigation

Sometimes your IRS audit doesn’t end with a form and a bill. Sometimes both sides are so entrenched that the only way to settle things is to go to court. 

Or maybe that’s not you.

Maybe the audit starts with your business partner. But then after uncovering signs of suspected fraud, the investigation starts to take a deeper turn. And it looks like there could be prison time on the table.

What do you do?

If you’re like most people, you’re probably resisting the urge to panic. But because fraud-related investigations can take years to complete, the IRS could be preparing criminal charges against you as your audit drags on.

In these circumstances, you don’t want to be caught by surprise. You need to plan for your business and your family. And you have to come up with additional contingency plans while you wait for your day in court.

One of the biggest benefits of working with an experienced tax lawyer is that you’ll have someone on your side who understands what’s happening. And if it looks like the auditor may be building a criminal case, your lawyer will be able to come up with a satisfying course of action. For more info on the auditing and tax representation process, you can visit https://silvertaxgroup.com/irs-audit-defense/.

Have You Been Audited by the IRS? Hire a Tax Attorney

If there’s one government agency that you don’t want to get mixed up with, it’s the IRS. But when you’re being audited by the IRS, however, you don’t always have the luxury of being able to step away from the scrutiny.

Your tax audit lawyer will be able to help you plan, gather evidence, and defend yourself against an audit. In addition, your legal representative can be a valuable resource if it looks like criminal charges may be coming down the pipeline.

Are you being audited? If your answer to that question was “Yes.” or “It looks like I might be.”, you should run, not walk, to your tax audit lawyer’s office.

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