What an audit really is
An audit, which the IRS calls an examination, is a review of a return to see whether what you reported matches the evidence. It is not an accusation. Returns get selected by scoring formulas, by information that does not match what a third party reported, or because someone else's audit touched your return.
There are three kinds, and the kind you have tells you a lot. A correspondence audit happens entirely by mail and usually targets one or two items, like a credit or a specific deduction. It is the most common by far. An office audit asks you to bring records to an IRS office and covers more ground. A field audit sends a revenue agent to your home, your business, or your representative's office. Field audits are the deepest, and they are where business returns usually land.
An examination ends one of three ways. No-change means the IRS accepts the return as filed. Agreed means you accept the proposed adjustments and sign. Unagreed means you do not, and the case moves toward Appeals. Unagreed is a legitimate outcome, not a failure.
Who this is for
Anyone holding an IRS letter that asks for records or proposes changing a return. That includes a mail notice questioning a single deduction and a revenue agent asking to schedule a visit to your business.
Some situations call for representation more than others. Self-employment income and Schedule C expenses. Cash-heavy businesses. Large or unusual deductions. Rental property and passive loss questions. Cryptocurrency. Returns where your records are thin, incomplete, or scattered. Any case where the examiner starts asking about years that were not in the original letter, because audits can expand.
It also matters when you simply do not want to talk to the IRS. That is a legitimate reason. Taxpayers who represent themselves tend to answer questions that were not asked, and volunteered information broadens an audit more often than it closes one.
What representation cannot do is invent records that never existed. What it can do is present what you have in the way the rules actually allow, and keep the examination inside its own boundaries.
How AmeriClear handles it
We investigate before we promise anything. We read the notice, pull your IRS transcripts with Form 8821 or Form 2848 on file, and find out what is really being examined, which years are open, and what the IRS already has in its system. Then we look at your records against the issue and tell you plainly where you are strong and where you are exposed.
Form 2848, the power of attorney, is what changes your day-to-day. Once it is filed, our Enrolled Agents and tax professionals, who hold unlimited practice rights before the IRS, deal with the examiner. Correspondence comes to us. Calls come to us. In most examinations you do not attend at all. We assemble the documentation, respond to information requests, and answer the questions that were asked and no others.
Our fee is flat and quoted before you commit, so the cost is known at the start rather than discovered at the end.
What to expect
Correspondence audits often resolve in a few months. Office and field audits run longer, sometimes well past a year for a complicated business return. The examiner will make information document requests, and how those are answered shapes the whole case.
At the end, the examiner issues an examination report showing the proposed changes and the reasoning. If you do not agree, you generally receive a 30-day letter, which gives you 30 days to request review by the IRS Independent Office of Appeals. Appeals is a separate function from Examination, and it can consider the risk of the government losing in litigation in a way an examiner cannot. Many cases settle better there. It is usually worth using.
If the matter is still unresolved, the IRS issues a statutory notice of deficiency, known as the 90-day letter. That notice gives you 90 days to petition the United States Tax Court before the tax is assessed. Tax Court petitions are outside our scope and are handled by counsel, not by our firm, and we will tell you when you are approaching that point rather than letting a deadline pass quietly.
Outcomes depend on the facts and the records. No one can promise you a no-change, and you should be careful with anyone who does. What we can tell you is what your file supports before you decide anything.