EXAMINATION INFORMATION FOR NON-CLIENTS OR CLIENTS WHO HAVE MISSED THE LAST TAX COURT DATE

Over the years, the vast majority of examinations we have handled have been for non-clients. Many of these people went to less than scrupulous tax preparers, who will be nowhere to be found if the IRS wants to look at the tax return they prepared. Our firm caters to clients who want to do their tax returns honestly and who are not looking for the "big refund" no matter how much "creative accounting" they have to do. We are also willing to work with our own clients who were not diligent in submitting information to the government and as a result find themselves without the ability to challenge the IRS in Tax Court, or another agency in an administrative hearing.

If you would like us to help, here is what we will do.

1. FAX or EMAIL all pages of the IRS Notice, and a copy of the tax return being examined to us at 800-259-3372. We will send you a confirmation under most circumstances within 24 hours.

2. At no cost to you, we will evaluate the case and recommend to you whether it is worth paying us to handle the case, and what the limits of our representation will be. We are not interested in charging fees when there is very little we can do for you.

3. We will quote you an estimated cost of representation. We may quote you a flat rate (our rates are relatively low under this system) or we will charge by the hour. Our current rate is $350 per hour, but unlike other attorneys, you will never be charged for emails or phone calls, only for actual actions undertaken on your behalf. We will require a deposit of at least $700 (two hours) with the signed retainer agreement. This deposit will go into our attorney trust account, where it remains your property until we withdraw it upon billing.

4. If you decide to retain us, we will send you a power of attorney and a retainer agreement. You (and your spouse if you are married) will sign and date these forms and return it to us with a check for the retainer deposit. It may be sent by fax or email. We do not need an original copy.

5. Do not contact the IRS by telephone. We will do that for you, if it becomes necessary or we may ask you do call the IRS under certain limited circumstances. If this is an office examination, the IRS will want a call within ten days of the date on the letter for an appointment. Prior to making an appointment we will contact you to coordinate your schedule. If this is a correspondence audit there will be a thirty day period to respond by fax or mail. If you wait until after this thirty day limit you will forfeit your ability to go to Tax Court and lose the chance to apply to have the government pay all of your fees and costs.

4. If this is a correspondence audit (conducted by mail), we will review the IRS notice and your tax return, then send you a letter with detailed instructions on what documents we will need you to send to the IRS to successfully defend your tax return, along with the deadlines you will be required to observe. Again, this is your responsibility. We may be your legal representatives but you control the documents. You do not "store" documents with us and we do not keep them, with the exception of Forms W-2 which may be retrieved for a fee.

5. We understand that for a variety of reasons you may not have as many records as you did when completing your initial tax return, despite our constant theme of record-keeping. But we want you to understand these records (which again  we speak of so often) are a vital element in preventing you from having to pay additional tax. TO THE EXTENT YOU HAVE NOT KEPT THE REQUIRED RECORDS YOU SHOULD EXPECT TO PAY THE GOVERNMENT! We will provide legal services, but we cannot produce the necessary documents. You must do that yourself.

6. Once the IRS renders a decision, we will review your options with you. You will then make the decision whether to continue  to appeal in the administrative process, if that is even an option. In the event the Internal Revenue Service has issued a statutory notice of deficiency, which requires the filing of a tax court case, and there is an issue of law we recommend you pursue, you may choose to proceed further. If you submitted information within the IRS time deadlines you could even have the government pay your costs and fees back and further pay our attorney fees.