Strategy and Behavior During IRS Audit | International Tax Audit Attorney San Antonio Texas
Hello and welcome to Sherayzen Video Blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an international tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.
Today, I’m continuing my series of blogs from San Antonio, Texas. In the previous blog, I discussed the importance of full disclosure of facts to your international tax attorney after you receive your IRS letter and after you contact your attorney or retain your attorney with respect to this audit.
In this blog, I would like to discuss the importance of proper behavior with respect to IRS agents. There is an absolutely erroneous opinion which is being propagated by unsavory characters (let’s put it this way) that the best strategy in an IRS audit is to be aggressive against the IRS and deny everything, do not sign anything, basically no matter what the facts of your circumstances are, be as hostile to the IRS as possible.
This is absolutely wrong; I cannot tell you how wrong this is. The IRS has tremendous powers to find out about your case to enforce the law against you and to basically punish you for being noncooperative during their investigation and in most cases, but I would say in all cases but as an attorney, I cannot say ‘in all cases’, in the vast majority of cases, let’s put it this way. In the vast majority of cases, the best strategy is the one that is adapted to the facts of the case. In the vast majority of these cases, the strategy is one of cooperation, honesty, disclosure but strong defense of your position. Ethical defense. Logical defense. Defense that does not offend the IRS personally but the one that states your position in the logical, legally, justified way.
You want to have a cordial relationship with the IRS agent. You want the IRS agent to understand that you are not a criminal; that you are not a person who lies. You want them to trust you with respect to what you tell them. They want to trust your ability to deliver on what you promised to deliver.
The strategy that is based on lying to the IRS, hiding from the IRS, swearing at the IRS, fighting them at every point whether it is necessary or not necessary is completely wrong. This is not to say that your defense should not be strong, of course, you must always strongly defend your position as long as it is a justifiable position. There are certain points that sometimes are better to be conceded and explained. The defense of your case will be based on a strategy, not on hostility to the IRS, because hostility to the IRS is usually a counterproductive way to conduct and IRS audit. As I’ve said: cordial, polite but a strong defense; you will have your position, you will have your facts and this position and these facts should form the basis of your defense against the IRS.
If you would like to learn more about an IRS audit, and if you’d like to secure my help with respect to your defense in an IRS audit, you can call me at (952) 500-8159 or you can email me at [email protected]
You can call me at (952) 500-8159 or you can email me at [email protected]
Thank you for watching, until the next time.
