Should You Use a Lawyer or CPA?

Tax Audit Help

What kind of tax audit help should you have when you get selected for an IRS audit? Should you use your neighborhood accountant? Should you upgrade to a CPA? Or should you call in a really heavy hitter and hire a tax audit lawyer. Like all good questions legal in nature there is no one easy answer; rather the answer is, It Depends. Tax audit help usually is unnecessary in the typical correspondence audit. Correspondence audits typically are sent out to try to clear up a small number of questions, sometimes as little as just one or two. However, there is one caveat to this: If at ANY time during any kind of audit you have serious questions about how to answer or respond, you should begin thinking seriously about getting some outside tax audit help. Moreover, if there are items on your income tax return that you know you fabricated (read “made up”) you should get some serious tax audit help without delay. Find a reputable tax audit lawyer and tell him or her the truth. Why do I say hire a tax audit lawyer? Because only a lawyer has the advantage of never having to tell anyone what you have told him or her. CPAs don’t have the privilege of attorney-client, neither do accountants, EAs nor other preparers. Only lawyers can keep your deepest and darkest secrets, only tax lawyers can give you the kind of tax audit help you need when you have cheated. IRS audit representation is also a specialized field; not every tax attorney can be counted on to have the necessary experience and training to defend an income tax audit. So when you’re thrashing around for help, remember that you want an IRS tax lawyer who is trained in IRS audits and has successfully defended clients through IRS audit representation.

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