Audits

Most people don’t cheat on their taxes. The forms aren’t all that easy to comprehend and fill out, even if you are a certified public accountant, so someone in Minnesota might innocently make a mistake in calculations or reporting. None of that means much, however, if you receive notification from the IRS that you are beingcontinue reading…

The word “audit” has a way of striking fear into the heart of any taxpayer. Notification by the Internal Revenue Service or Minnesota Department of Revenue that your tax history and filing practices are going to be put under the microscope is never a comfortable situation. One way to maintain a sense of composure iscontinue reading…

When significant discrepancies are noticed in a tax return, the Internal Revenue Service will take notice and reserves the right to conduct an audit to determine the reason for noncompliance. In the audit process, the IRS is particularly concerned about determining whether noncompliance is due to negligence or fraud. The question of whether noncompliance cancontinue reading…

In our last post, we spoke briefly about some of the general factors tax authorities will look out for when determining the nature of taxpayer noncompliance—whether it is due to negligence or fraud. As we noted, the penalties are different depending on whether the noncompliance is based on fraud or negligence. When building a casecontinue reading…

Statistics about individual income tax audits are hard to pin down, but a 2006 report by the Office of the Legislative Auditor found that the state of Minnesota conducted early audits on about 4 percent of individual returns and post-processing audits on about 2 percent of returns. Back in March, Forbes reported that the IRScontinue reading…