Posted on 09/03/2024 4:30:52 AM PDT by MtnClimber
When a hurricane is coming, you board up the windows. When the IRS is planning a storm of audits of people who look just like you, you need an audit response plan.
The IRS has been dropping a new press release with an explicit threat to the bank accounts of successful Americans every other month or so. Their messaging sounds increasingly political, and high-income taxpayers would be foolish to ignore what they’re saying: the IRS plans more audits of successful Americans to force them to pay more taxes.
When a hurricane is coming, you board up the windows and stock up on bottled water. When the IRS is planning a storm of audits of people who look just like you, you need an audit response plan.
The IRS and the Biden administration keep repeating they’re targeting “the wealthiest Americans,” with incomes of $400,000 or more, but actual audit data say that right now, 63% of all new audits are focused on taxpayers with less than $200,000 of income. So maybe more than just the “wealthiest Americans” ought to be thinking this audit response planning, too.
So, considering those preparations, the first principle is this: don’t cower in fear. Know your opponent, anticipate their actions, and plan a response. In this situation, the IRS is your opponent. Knowledge about its agents and their process is power for you.
The IRS has a revenue maximization strategy in place — it’s been very public about it — and it wants cowed taxpayers to knuckle under and “pay their fair share.” It wants to “close loopholes” when the fact is, legal loopholes are created in the tax laws, and tax laws are the province solely of the U.S. Congress.
The IRS likes to audit people it thinks it can get serious money from....
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I suspect, using general US government general practices, about 49,000 WERE hired to just sit around, leaving the remaining 38,000 to do all the work. But the remaining 38k will be ruthless.
For many years now, there has been a thin veneer over this bureaucracy to give it the appearance of being a representative government (accountable to the people). The Deep State is in the process of ripping off that veneer like an old scab.
That's what I think these 87,000 IRS agents are for.
The entire issue of Kamala as our president is nothing more than the Deep State's thumb in our collective eye. They are saying, "You believe you have a representative government accountable to you?" "Well, here's your president. A cheap whore and an idiot, all rolled into one."
"You thought you were going to elect your own President (Trump) who was going to clean up the country. Did you think that we, the Deep State, were going to just sit passively by and let that happen?"
"Take a good look at Kamala. That's what we think of you "citizens."
"She's a nothing." "She's what we, the Deep State, think of you."
Those 87000 agents will vote for Harris.
Just FYI as I predicted the IRS has admitted that they have not hired very many of the touted 87,000. I forgot the exact figure but it was extremely low.
I was audited about 11 years ago for two of the previous years.
The only thing they asked for was a log book of my wife’s mileage on her “business vehicle”. We do not write off the vehicle. Just the mileage she uses it for business.
The IRS agents only comment was: “She sure does go to the bank a lot”.
I asked my CPA WHY were we audited. The answer was a random selection. Which I was told after that is why you do not file until April. The later you file the less likely you will be selected for a random audit. Once they do a certain amount of them they stop.
That is because any CPA or tax professional can make a lot more money in the private sector. Why would they want to work for the government? Especially the IRS.
The federal government does not get the best employees.
I had two brothers that worked for the govt. in their career.
One has an MBA in accounting. He worked for the VA in downtown DC after graduating college. He was told that if he did not get out of the government after a year or two at the most NOBODY in the private sector around DC would hire him. He left after 1 1/2 years. He is now a director with a major corp.
My younger brother took a job with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Lewisburg, PA(The Big House) straight out of college. He worked for them his entire career. He retired at age 55 because he said there was no more potential for advancement and he could. He has a govt pension. I love my younger brother, but he was always kind of lazy.
Ask if the politicians have been audited like Pelosi and McConnell etc. Too many make 10’s of millions in short order.
The IRS will sometimes ask if you use Quickbooks or Peachtree, and then they will ask for a copy of your data files. Never agree to this!
It gives them carte blanche to fish through all of your records. Provide only the specific records they want, and then only on hardcopy.
IIRC, the IRS has hired about 4500 in the past Fiscal year.
I got audited twice. Once for my business. Once for crypto trading.
The business audit was a breeze. It ended up costing me a few hundred dollars because my mileage was not as detailed as they like. The agent was a nice guy. We knew people in common from my college days. It took a couple of months and maybe 20-30 hours of my time over that period.
The crypto audit was a nightmare because they didn’t know what they were doing. This was in 2019 for 2017 trades. I had very good records. But they had changed rules in 2017 and I was “behind.” That cost me a bunch of money.
At the start of the crypto audit I had to explain how stuff worked to the agent. The audit took almost four years to complete. Obviously it wasn’t “full time”, but that crap hanging over your head is stressful.
My advice to anyone getting the notice is to call them and find out what the issue is. They will generally be very specific and will tell you what they have accepted and what is in question. Don’t admit to anything up front.
If you have screwed up, figure it out and settle up as fast as you can. Do not lie to the IRS. Know the rules. I got into a debate about the cost basis calculation. They wanted to use one, I used another. One would have cost me much more than the other. The IRS will ALWAYS assume the basis that will garner them the highest tax.
One the whole, the people I dealt with were very nice. The never threatened. They never dismissed my reasoning. They always answered my questions. Their demeanor was always professional. As you got to know them, you could get stories of some of their nightmare clients (not specifics, but in general.). Yikes…I must have been a dream for them.
Get organized. Have documentation for everything before you enter it. Keep notes about “why” you are doing what you are doing.
I used to get audited every year when I was in the corporate world. I loved the auditors because they would tell me where I could make my division operate better. It never “scared” me. But it IS a stress inducing pain the butt.
I know you didn’t ask me specifically, but I was told about the audits about 6-9 months after the file date. So for one audit, it was the following autumn of the year. So it was in Nov 2011 for taxes filed that April.
The second one was for 2017 taxes filed 4/15/18. I got the notice in May 2019. It was resolved in June 2023.
I still dread going to the mailbox.
Most of the time when people are being audited for tips its because the owner of the restaurant was audited and they discovered “discrepancies.” It rolls downhill from there.
Say the owner says they passed along $100k in tips to their staff. And the staff reports $20k. Someone is lying. And its usually the owners.
Full retirement at 55. No wonder the debt is so high. It takes most of us at least 10 years longer than that to save enough to retire and a lot of us never do save enough because we can’t.
Get a lawyer
#16 I owed $10,000 so the IRS said. I was dealing with 2 IRS women located in one state about a decade ago and I had previously set up a payment plan using the IRS website and made payments every month yet they in separate letters said I still owed the original amount. Lots of back and forth with paperwork and certified letters. I had screenshots showing the payments etc.
It took a 3rd person, a guy who was a manager in another state who said not to worry as he confirmed I was making the payments. It took maybe 9 months of back and forth to be resolved.
BTW the $10,000 is a way to get money from you quickly as hiring an attorney to fight it out would cost you more then $10,000.
His wife also worked at the same place in the accounting department. Although, during a prison guard strike she did have to be in the tower with an M16 once.
She retired at 49.
They both started there straight out of college at 22. So, they both could fully retire after 25 years. Then get a federal pension. Plus they both had contributed to a 401K.
Us siblings made fun of our younger brother when he took that job. He was the youngest and is now retired. The rest of us are still working. Who’s laughing now?
Once upon a time you exchanged lower compensation for better benefits. Now you get both and more in gooberment "service". No wonder the gooberment unions are so protective and belligerent.
Plus nobody wants to work right now.
That’s not 87,000. 😉
Did anyone think the IRS could hire all 87K in a year or two? IMO, 5 years would be an aggressive goal.
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