Practice Before the IRS
Treasury Circular 230 contains rules governing the recognition of tax attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents, and other persons representing taxpayers before the IRS. Attorneys are eligible to practice before the IRS by right, but other individuals have to apply for enrollment and maintain certain additional qualifications and training. Starting in 2011, the IRS has made it more difficult for non-attorneys to enroll and takes a more adversarial role in corresponding and communicating with non-attorneys.
I received a letter from the IRS. Am I going to jail?
No, you most likely are not going to jail - but you absolutely do need to open and read the letter, because the Internal Revenue Service will not just go away.
There is an understandable tendency on the part of many people to not want to open and read correspondence from the IRS, particularly when they think the letter contains bad news. But the letter may not contain bad news. If it does and you do not respond, on the other hand, you will only make the matter worse - perhaps much worse.
Most importantly, many Internal Revenue Service letters trigger the running of statutory time periods. This means that you must take some action within the time frame specified in the letter. If you do not act within the time period set forth, you may lose very important rights. Thus, it is imperative that you read any correspondence from the IRS as soon as possible. This cannot be stressed enough.
The most important factor to bear in mind is that you are dealing with professionals who have but one goal in mind: to collect as much tax as possible from you, even if it means intimidating you, threatening you with prison, or taking away your children (yes, they have done that). How do you deal with a professional? You hire one yourself – a local tax attorney who is not afraid of the IRS and knows how to meet them on their own terms. Many times, the tax attorney will have far better tax knowledge than the IRS officer and can gain ground where you might have lost out.
See also: Tax Court
