IRS Question

[cjsmith]

Anyone here ever been audited? What's your experience been like?

Fortunately, the letter I received is only asking me for one thing -- documentation for one number on my return. (Mortgage interest.) And it doesn't actually use the word 'audit' anywhere. A rumor I've heard says that once they decide they're only asking you about one thing, they won't then widen their scope again -- but that's just "a rumor I've heard", not "something I've seen in black and white in an IRS publication".

Also fortunately, I think the thing they're asking about is in fact documented. I believe I can supply the paperwork they need. (joedecker, any advice on presentation from your lovely and talented wife would be *enormously* appreciated. Maybe she'd barter for a gift certificate to a nice restaurant or something.)

Comments

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Technically a letter requesting documentation may be called a computer audit, but it's not an audit of the kind where everything is subject to questioning and the examiner is allowed to follow his/her nose wherever it leads, which is the terror-striking kind people fear when they think audit. This kind is easily dealt with by substantiating the item in question, and nothing else will come up.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the sense I have. Chris (joedecker's wife, a tax accountant) said it similarly: if I get the paperwork back I'm fine, but if I can't substantiate it the auditor may do more fishing, depending basically on how busy and how annoying the auditor is feeling. (She called it a "mail audit".)