Q&A: IRS Audits

Being selected for an audit doesn't mean that you're suspected of incorrectly reporting your taxes.
There's no getting around it: The prospect of being audited by the IRS is unnerving. But the agency chooses to audit individuals and businesses for a number of reasons, including:

• Mismatched documents. If numbers from forms like W-2s and 1099s don't match what was reported, a taxpayer may be targeted.
• Proximity. When someone has a business relationship with someone else who’s being audited, like a partner or investor, an audit may be ordered because of shared issues and/or transactions.
• No reason at all. Some are selected for audits simply because a statistical formula was applied and they came up.

What is an IRS audit?

The goal of an IRS audit is to determine whether the taxpayer has paid the correct amount of money in taxes. This is done by examining the taxpayer's accounts and financial information. [MORE] . . . 

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