Someone in Your Corner When the IRS Writes
A letter from the IRS or your state should not turn into a scramble, or a conversation you have to handle alone. Tax Representation puts an Enrolled Agent between you and the agency, for a fee you know before you decide.
What Tax Representation Adds
When you forward us a notice, we read it and tell you what it means. That is included for every client, whether or not you have a plan.
Tax Representation goes further. We write the response, sign it, submit it, and stay with it through the level you chose. If you choose Defend and a covered return is examined, we represent you through the examination, so you do not face the examiner on your own.
Tax representation by an Enrolled Agent, federally licensed to practice before the IRS.
Three levels, depending on how far it goes:
Respond:
For IRS and state letters and notices on your covered years.
Defend:
For examinations. Includes everything in Respond.
Advocate:
For IRS Appeals, quoted per matter, for Defend clients.
Respond, for Letters and Notices
We handle the letters. If the IRS or your state writes about a covered year, we read it, explain it, and write the response for you.
- Responses to IRS and state notices on your covered years, with no limit on how many
- A plain-language explanation before anything is filed
- A penalty abatement request where there are grounds, one per covered year
- Identity verification responses
- We get your IRS account transcripts and keep an eye on your account
- Covered years: When you enroll, we cover the return due that year (usually last year’s return) and the two years before it, as long as we prepared them. After that, each year’s return we prepare is added when it comes due, and no year drops off while your plan stays active. If another preparer filed the return due in the year you enroll, we still answer notices on that return for up to five hours of our time.
Where it stops. Respond does not include amended returns unless one corrects a mistake of ours, and it stops at an examination. If a return is selected for audit, that is what Defend is for.
Defend, for Examinations
Defend includes everything in Respond. If a covered return is selected for examination, we represent you through it and deal with the examiner for you, so in most cases you do not need to attend.
- Everything in Respond
- Representation in correspondence, office and field examinations
- We deal with the examiner directly, with your signed authorization
- Document requests from the examiner, handled for you
- We assemble the workpapers and substantiation
- One amended return per covered year where the outcome requires it
- Audit coverage: We represent you in audits of returns we prepare, starting with the return due in the year you enroll and every year after it. That return is covered whether we filed it before or after you enrolled. The two earlier years are covered for notices only, and returns another preparer filed are not covered for audits.
Where it stops. At IRS Appeals. If you disagree with the result and want to take it further, that is Advocate.
Advocate, for IRS Appeals
If you want to challenge an examination result, we can take it to IRS Appeals for you. Advocate includes everything in Defend. If you have Defend, Advocate is available on a year Defend covers, quoted for the matter at a rate we agree with you before any work begins.
- Written protest and the Appeals conference
- Fast Track Settlement and mediation
- State administrative appeals where an Enrolled Agent may represent you
- Identity theft resolution, and innocent spouse and injured spouse relief on individual returns
- A rate agreed with you before work begins
Where it stops. At Tax Court. The United States Tax Court requires a separate admission that the Enrolled Agent credential does not carry, so if a matter needs to go there, we will tell you plainly and help you find the right person.
How It Works
- It is optional. Tax Representation is separate from your tax preparation, and you choose it if you want it.
- One plan for each return. You choose a plan return by return, and plans are available on returns we prepare. A plan on your individual return covers the schedules filed with it.
- Coverage starts after 30 days, for new matters. A plan covers letters dated more than 30 days after you enroll. A letter dated before then, or a matter already open when you enroll, sits outside the plan.
- Send us letters right away. Forward any IRS or state letter as soon as it arrives, and we take it from there.
What Tax Representation Does Not Cover
We represent you. We do not pay your tax bill. No plan covers the tax, interest or penalties an agency assesses.
We will not cover a matter that involves fraud or willful misstatement, information withheld from us or misrepresented to us, or a position you asked us to take against our written advice. Collections work, including liens, levies, installment agreements and offers in compromise, is not part of Tax Representation and is engaged separately. Payroll tax notices are not part of Tax Representation either; for periods we processed under Full-Service Payroll, they are handled there. Criminal matters belong with a lawyer, and we will help you find one.
If a notice arrives because of a mistake we made, our work to resolve it costs you nothing, whether or not you have a plan.
What Would It Cost?
It depends on your return. Ask us and we will tell you the number before you decide anything. The full terms, including hour limits on examination work, are in our Schedule of Services.