Simple Strategies for Avoiding an IRS Audit

Simple Strategies for Avoiding an IRS Audit sounds easy, but is it?  Yes!

Are you one of those individuals where the fear of an IRS audit keeps you awake at night? Well, you are not alone.  It is one of life’s more complex fears.  Never fun going into a room with someone that wants money from you and can basically do anything they want to get it, unless you PROVE you don’t owe it.

To make matters worse, when audited, it’s usually years after the fact, so details are either forgotten, or tossed into the garbage like three-year old receipts for something long forgotten.  If you are like most people, parts of your tax return include numbers that were honest, but simply estimates.  Life keeps us busy, and we often must let other things take priority, until we are right up against the tax filing deadline and we have no choice but to give our honest best guess as to how much we spent on something.

So, to help you sleep at night, below are a few tips that we hope help you in your quest to avoid a tax audit.  Although most people will never have to worry about an IRS audit, those who have been through the process can tell you that it’s something they only hope to experience once.

If you’ve never been through an audit that means you must be doing something right. However, if you’re concerned that at some point the IRS might choose you, there are some things you can do to prevent an audit, or at least decrease the probability of being selected.

• Tell the truth when you file your taxes
• Get organized and keep detailed records
• If you’re self-employed keep track of everything
• Avoid unreasonable deductions and keep track of all of them
• Try to avoid fluctuations in your income
• Don’t make too many charitable donations
• Let a professional prepare your taxes

It’s impossible to completely rule out the possibility of an IRS audit, but by taking these measures you can greatly reduce your chances of being chosen for an audit. One sure way to avoid an IRS audit is to simply stay poor.  They have no interest in auditing anyone unless they can get money out of them or prove fraud.  They hate fraud almost as much as owing them money.  Most IRS auditors would love to not have to audit anyone.  Unfortunately, soo many people lie on their tax returns, hide income or use unethical schemes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

If every citizen did this, our country would default on loans and on our defense budget would become too small to keep us safe.  However, if you feel like the IRS might single you out for an audit, then contact the professional CPAs and tax advisors at GROCO for help.

We have helped thousands of individuals and businesses from all walks of life, including many who have been audited by the IRS. We can help you, too. Just click here to contact us, or call us at 1-877-CPA-2006. You can also click here to read more about each of these audit-avoiding strategies.

We hope you found this article about Simple Strategies for Avoiding an IRS Audit helpful.  If you have questions or need expert tax or family office advice that’s refreshingly objective (we never sell investments), please contact us or visit our Family office page  or our website at www.GROCO.com.  Unfortunately, we no longer give advice to other tax professionals gratis.

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Considerately yours,

GROCO, GROCO Tax, GROCO Technology, GROCO Advisory Services, GROCO Consulting Services, GROCO Relationship Services, GROCO Consulting/Advisory Services, GROCO Family Office Wealth, and GROCO Family Office Services.