Have you been audited?

audited

DTNg said:

I'm writing an article explaining what to do if you're audited,. the sidebar will include tips on preventing an audit. I have all of my professionals in place, I'd love to hear from some civilians who have experienced an audit.

deborahng(at)gmail.com

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I've been audited twice, but from my personal experience, there wasn't much I could do after the fact.

The first audit was a simple one, and merely meant that my tax forms were randomly selected and gone over with great care. I really played no part in it.

The second audit was much more intense, and I actually had to shwo an IRS agent everyhing from copies of all checks received throughout the year, to a receipt for every last thing I claimed as a deduction. I also had to give them access to my work computer.

It happened once time to me, that was enough. The one thing that will help more than anything else is never change anything even if it cost you money. Most returns go into the IRS computers and get red-flagged because something has changed over the year. I had someone prepare my return and did not notice they had put my mileage deduction down as fuel cost. The IRS wanted to know how I burned $20,000 worth of gas. This small mistake opened me up to a full audit. It just does not take much.