Audits Temporarily on Hold, but High-Net-Worth Tax Audits May be Coming
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted almost every aspect of our society, and the IRS has been no exception. For a while, IRS field offices were closed in most areas[1] as agents, and other employees scrambled to transition to work-from-home as much as possible. Many planned audits were put on hold because of the lack of resources necessary during the early days of this health emergency.
As IRS field offices continue to reopen[2] in areas around the country starting on July 15, 2020 and the agency overall begins to ramp up its normal operations, we are seeing every indication that audits will resume, particularly audits of high-net-worth taxpayers. If you believe your returns were inaccurate or incomplete or that your actions exposed you to other potential tax violations or tax crimes, now is the time to contact our experienced Tax Lawyers and CPAs at the Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing. They can help you get back into compliance before an audit or criminal tax investigation is initiated. If you have already received notice of an audit or criminal tax investigation, we can help you reconstruct/present the necessary records and fight to ensure that your constitutional rights are respected, and the financial damage and criminal tax exposure is mitigated as much as possible.
Note: As long as a taxpayer that has willfully committed tax crimes (potentially including non-filed returns coupled with affirmative evasion of payment) self-reports the tax fraud (including a pattern of non-filed returns) through a domestic or offshore voluntary disclosure before the IRS has started an audit or criminal tax investigation/prosecution, the taxpayer can ordinarily be successfully brought back into tax compliance and receive a nearly guaranteed pass on criminal tax prosecution and simultaneously often receive a break on the civil penalties that would otherwise apply.[3][4][5][6]
It is imperative that you hire an experienced and reputable criminal tax defense attorney[7] to take you through the voluntary disclosure process. Only an Attorney has the Attorney-Client Privilege[8] and Work Product Privileges[9] that will prevent the very professional that you hire from being potentially being forced to become a witness against you, especially where they prepared the returns that need to be amended, in a subsequent criminal tax audit, investigation or prosecution.