Yesterday and today I represented two taxpayers in examinations (audits). I took a day trip to Texas yesterday, and today spent some time in downtown Las Vegas. One thing is certain: The IRS has far nicer quarters here in Las Vegas than they do in the Texas town I visited. In Texas, the IRS was in a drab government building straight out of the 1950s; here, the IRS is in a nice corporate center.
Both audits went quite well for the taxpayers. Both taxpayers had heeded what I had told them: Keep good records. As I’ve said before (and will undoubtedly say again), if you have documentation for what’s on your return, an audit is usually an inconvenience. For my audit today, I carried in two briefcases full of paper (almost two reams of paper–1000 sheets). That’s a lot of documentation.
Meanwhile, while the IRS examiner and I were having a pleasant conversation we could hear snippets of the examination in the next cubicle. “I can’t allow this–you have no documentation.” “I asked for your automobile records in the Information Request.” “Do you have anything that shows your trip was related to the business and wasn’t a vacation?” I assume that audit didn’t go quite as well as mine.
Tags: Audits