[Agamemnon]

Remember.....if you get audited....the IRS cannot ask you about your previous tax returns....only the return of the audit year.

They certainly can ask for other years. I was audited back in 1991 for 1989. I had a small side business and a full time job paying about $30K/year. At the end of the audit I was assessed an additional $500 on the basis of a mis-allocated business expense.

Feeling lucky they then went for my 1990 taxes and told me I'd be audited as a follow on to the 1989. Meanwhile, I moved from CT to VA, and as often happens, audits that transfer get lost in the shuffle when you move and they are typically assigned a lower priority in the stack. Sometimes statute of limitations kicks in (3 years for taxes) and the audit ends by default. I wasn't that lucky. They found me in VA.

Happy ending to the story is that the audit for 1990 resulted in a $3000 refund to me.

I have not heard from them since. For all I know I have a flag next to my SSN that says, if we audit this guy it will cost us BIGLY!

FReegards!

[Liz]

Not sure when it did....but I think the law has changed since your 1990’s experience.

I think many taxpayers get intimidated in these situations and don’t defend themselves properly.

[miss marmelstein]

Once you pay the IRS off, they know they have a sucker, unfortunately. And they let the state in on it too. We had a situation where a deduction was nixed, waited four years to tell us and two years after that, the state came after us.