Before an IRS Audit

There are many steps to the process of an IRS audit. Many people consider the first step of an IRS audit to be when they receive a letter audit or a correspondence audit. When the IRS sends out a letter stating that the taxpayer made some mistakes on his or her tax return but does not assess any more taxes or revises taxes owed, many people does not consider this step part of the IRS audit process.

The start of the IRS audit process

When a tax return is filed with the IRS, by mail or e-filed, it is checked to a certain extent.

The first check at the IRS is for completeness. If a tax return is filed with any missing information such as Social Security number, signatures, date of birth, etc., then the IRS will not apply the tax payer that the tax return is incomplete and how it taxpayer can correct the mistakes.

Many taxpayers file their tax returns with missing tax forms or schedules and there will be receiving at least a letter from the IRS. The letter from the IRS that you are going to receive from this type of mistakes is not bad and will contain information you need to make everything right. 

Friendly Letter from the IRS

When the mistakes on a tax return are just about missing information or missing tax forms, then the IRS will send a borderline friendly or nice letter to the taxpayer. The letter will not talk about any taxes owed. That is the next step done by a computer program.

Multiple Letters from the IRS

Some taxpayers receive a letter from the IRS about missing information or tax forms or schedules and then they made corrections. Then the computer program catches more mistakes and inconsistencies. Then the IRS sends a letter audit to take care of the tax calculations. See Letter audit for the process involved when the IRS receives a complete tax return.