No one likes contact from the IRS. Which IRS agent is planning to visit? All
IRS agents are not the same. It helps to understand the essential differences
and what it means to the taxpayer or an attorney representing his client's
interests.
The IRS Revenue Agent
The most common
contact will be the Revenue Agent. This person works in the examination branch.
He often holds a CPA certificate or at least a solid background in accounting.
Trained by IRS in substantive tax matters, he is the soldier in the trenches in
the exam division of IRS. He will use predetermined audit guidelines to check
tax compliance. Revenue agents are known for being thorough, documenting each
step in the audit process. They will be fact centered and have sufficient
knowledge of the tax laws or the backup to discover it, if need be, assistance
being provided by IRS lawyers called Area Council.
Revenue agents will request information from the taxpayer
and will issue information document requests (IDR) for information setting forth
due dates to move the audit forward. Revenue agents like all IRS agents can
issue administrative summons to obtain both testimony and documents from less
than forthcoming taxpayers. This administrative action is not self enforcing
and requires district court action brought by the Internal Revenue Service to
enforce the demands made in the summons.
The IRS Revenue Officer
Possibly the most difficult and dangerous job at IRS is that
of the IRS revenue officer. When we hear of IRS agents killed in the line of
duty it is often from this unarmed tax agent’s ranks. He is the IRS collection
expert in the field assigned to local IRS offices with a likely background in
finance or perhaps a former business owner himself. He is primarily charged
with collecting back taxes that are owed. His demand to tax debtors is simple:
When are you going to pay the taxes you owe?
Revenue officers are also assigned taxpayer delinquent
accounts where the taxpayer is a non-filer. This is the IRS civil attempt to
obtain tax returns from the taxpayer. In all cases, revenue officers will check
for current filing status and request that any open tax returns be filed
directly with them.
Like revenue agents, revenue officers may issue
administrative summons for information and like their examination brethren, if
need be, they can make referrals to the criminal investigation division (CID)
for possible criminal violations disclosed or suspected along the way.
The IRS Special Agent.
No practitioner or taxpayer should ever confuse the IRS
special agent with either the revenue agent or revenue officer. The special
agent has but one role in tax administration and that is to determine whether a
criminal violation of the Internal Revenue Code has occurred. These violations
may be found in Internal Revenue Code. section 7201 and following, the most popular of which is tax
evasion and the filing of false and fraudulent tax returns. Special agents may
have backgrounds in law enforcement and are the only IRS personnel authorized
to carry guns. They take their work very seriously and are extremely good at
it. IRS conviction and incarceration rates border on 100% in most criminal tax
cases owing to the thoroughness of the special agent investigation. No lawyer
or accountant unfamiliar with the work of the special agent should endanger his
client by taking representation for a CID investigation which may go on
typically 2 to 4 years. The statute of limitations for criminal violations is
generally six years. Taxpayers who insist on representing themselves are simply
arranging for “a vacation in New England” at a federal
penitentiary.
IRS agents will identify themselves and Special Agents will
display an unmistakable gold badge. Taxpayers and lawyers are well advised to
appreciate the difference in the work they do for IRS.
TMD, Esq.
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