Michael Gregory Institute: Effective Strategies for Avoiding and/or Resolving IRS Audits

This presentation from former IRS supervisor Michael Gregory looks at real world ways you can help your clients avoid or quickly resolve issues generated by an IRS audit. From Mike’s commentary on How to Work with IRS: Second Edition (June 2014), and an overview of how the IRS is organized into 13 different business units, valuable and helpful information and commentary is presented regarding these issues in the Large Business and International Division (LB&I) (assets over $10M) and the Small Business Self Employed Division (SBSE) (assets $10M and less). An example from the estate and gift classification process is followed from start to finish to provide added insight into the process and the way IRS approaches these issues. Issue resolution at the IRS is division dependent. Both LB&I and SBSE have issue resolution concerns that are different and require a different approach from you and your client. Ideas for addressing these concerns with specifics related to specialists are provided. Given 13,000 revenue agents with 2,000 specialists at the IRS, Mike presents steps you can take when you need a specialist and when working with specialists to allow you to take appropriate actions - from the initial filing of the return to avoid an audit, examination tips if audited, appeals recommendations on cases where there is no agreement, and litigation.