Are you having tax issues after filing your business and personal taxes? Is your CPA unavailable and not responsive to your texts? First things first, taxes are complicated and there are multiple parties involved. First, it’s you the client whose struggling to find answers, your CPA (who filed your taxes), then the department at the IRS who processed your returns, then another department that calculated refund/liability amounts different from what your CPA did, and then there’s the department which deals with calls/customer issues. Phew….if your mind isn’t spinning after reading all that then you might just be one of those who enjoy the pain/suffering that the IRS loves to dish out.

In this article, we will show you the steps you need to take if you receive a letter or notice from the IRS and the steps your should absolutely AVOID! Let me tell you about a client of mine who recently switched over to us to handle his business/personal taxes. The old CPA had under-reported certain incomes which led to an IRS Audit CP75, an audit is something you want to avoid at all costs. Why? Simple – the IRS will not only bully you into releasing your super confidential private financial info but it will rack up extreme amounts of penalties/interest on top of your unpaid tax liability.

Here are five simple steps which you need to take if you receive a letter in the mail from the Internal Revenue Service.

1. Take a picture or scan the IRS notice and immediately send it to your tax advisor/CPA
2. Don’t try to call the IRS, you will pull your hair out because they have extremely long wait times. Most CPA’s have direct access to the IRS which doesn’t involve long wait times.
3. If you get lucky and end up speaking to an IRS representative, don’t release any information and don’t try to negotiate with them. The IRS reps are not the brightest folks out there, in fact some of them wouldn’t qualify to work as a barista at Starbucks. Beaware!
4. Ask your CPA for a timeline and the extent of work required to resolve the issue
5. Be patient, don’t think that the IRS will rule in your favor but don’t lose all hope and think they are going to come after you for every single penny.

A solid CPA will provide you with an explanation for why you received the notice and how we can go about resolving it. At FitBiz, we even provide our clients with a timeline and a money-back guarantee if they aren’t happy with the timeliness and customer service when it comes to resolving IRS issues. Going back to my client whom I referenced earlier, this business owner was consistently stressed out regarding the notices he kept receiving. When he approached our firm, I was able to do an in-depth analysis and speak with the IRS as to the core reason for the audit. After countless back and forths with the IRS, I was able to provide a reasonable cause for the mishap, and the IRS settled for about 30% of the original debt owed by the client. Instead of having to save thousands of dollars for tax debts owed to the IRS, the business owner was now able to keep that hard-earned money in their pocket and invest it in expanding their business.

Again is every case going to be as simple as the one that I just described? No, absolutely not! In fact, I have seen cases where clients have failed to file not only their business taxes but also employment taxes such as 941, 940. The IRS will not look kindly upon failure to file back taxes, the penalties can be as much as 25% of your tax burden. The good news is, that as established tax professionals we can prepare these complex tax forms and calculations for you. It’s imperative on you the client get in touch with a proactive and aggressive CPA, who will not only negotiate on your behalf but provide you with peace of mind.

Get in touch with us now: 407-990-2002!