Tax Audit Lawyers in South St. Paul

In South St. Paul, Minnesota, a "tax audit" is a procedure in which the IRS or local tax authorities conduct an investigation of a taxpayer's tax filings, looking at them in more detail than they ordinarily do. Usually, they do this because there is something suspicious in the tax return. State and federal tax authorities also do a some number of random audits each year, without necessarily suspecting that an individual auditee has done anything wrong.

In South St. Paul, Minnesota, the process of a tax audit is generally not complicated. If you get a letter saying that you have been chosen for an audit, you should still take it seriously, however. The first thing you need to do is confirm that you are actually being audited, because there are fraudsters who impersonate tax collectors, attempting to squeeze money out of innocent victims. When you receive such a letter, you should use the phone book or Internet to find the contact info for the government agency that the letter claims to be from, and contact them. Do not rely on any contact information provided in the letter, as it may direct you to the scammer, who will just pretend to be a representative of the IRS.

Once you have made sure that your audit is indeed real, you can do a few things to get prepared for it. Most especially, you should collect all of the documents that the auditor has asked for, as well as any further documents and evidence that you think might help clear up any confusion about your tax return. You should bring these to the meeting with the auditor, and truthfully (to the best of your knowledge) answer all of the questions that the auditor asks.

Reasons For a Tax Audit in South St. Paul, Minnesota

There are various reasons why the federal government, or the government of Minnesota may want to audit a taxpayer.

A taxpayer can be chosen for an audit at random, even if the tax authorities don't suspect any wrongdoing. The idea behind these random audits is to keep taxpayers on their toes. So, if you are audited for this reason, and know that you've done everything thoroughly in filing your taxes, you will likely be fine.

But, some South St. Paul, Minnesota tax audits happen for a specific reason. This is usually because the IRS or your local tax authority suspects that you have not reported all of your income on your tax return. For instance, suppose that, last year, you bought an expensive new luxury car. But say you only claimed ,000 in total income that year. As you might imagine, the IRS is going to be very interested in finding out where the money for that car came from, and, if you have enough money to buy it, why you aren't paying taxes on that money.

It is also typical to be audited in South St. Paul, Minnesota if you claim a wide number of deductions. A tax deduction is simply a legal subtraction from one's taxable income. Various different expenses, including charitable donations, interest paid on mortgages, and others, are deductible from one's taxes. If you claim so many deductions that you have negated almost all of your tax liability, you can bet that the government is going to be suspicious.

How Can A South St. Paul, Minnesota Tax Lawyer Help?

If you are audited in South St. Paul, Minnesota, and believe that you have done everything right in preparing and filing your tax return, you likely don't have much to worry about. If there is anything wrong with your tax return, it was likely the result of an honest mistake, which will result in light penalties - usuallyy just an order to pay any back taxes you owe, plus interest.

However, there are some tax audits where the underlying facts are much more perplexing than a simple misunderstanding. In these cases, a good tax attorney in South St. Paul, Minnesota may be necessary to ensure that the process is as painless as it can possibly be.