If I may ask, how many years after the return was filed did you get the audit request?
I don’t remember but it wasn’t years, for me it was no issue since I kept each year in a separate box with everything orderly and easy to read, stapled and paperclipped, so all I had to do was take that box into them.
I did the same for my accountant so that all he had to do was check my figures and make sure they matched each organized stack of receipts and bills and cancelled checks, in return he didn’t charge me much.
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.