Audit Letter From IRSMost notices are not an audit.
You just opened a notice from the IRS, and you want someone to say what it is asking. We keep the books the reply has to match, and payroll setup stays with a provider you choose. Those closed months are what the return is built from, with Steven Palmieri doing that work as a Tax CFO.
What does the letter say?
Name the notice number, or a line you can read. Leave account numbers off this note.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.
A preparer answers the letter. A Tax CFO asks why it came.
A matching notice, a balance, a basis question. Each one points at a month that was not closed or a number that was never written down. We answer this letter from copies and closed months, and then we close the months so the next one does not come. Reading the letter is today's work. The Tax CFO's work is the year after it.
The code on the letter
The code printed on the letter tells us what it is before the wording does. We read that first.
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A thick stack is not a trial
A thick envelope is usually a matching question or a balance due, not an examination. We sort it before the worry spreads.
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The printed date is the one
The printed response date is the one that counts. It goes on the calendar the day the envelope is opened.
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Copies, then the file
The reply is built from copies. You keep the only original where you could find it on a weekday.
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Two letters, one week
A state letter and an IRS letter can arrive the same week. They are two files, two clocks.
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October can still change the year
If the October books are still a guess, next year's letter is already being written. We close the months so the next envelope is thinner.
Click to see the October work ›Tap to see the October work ›Six kinds of letter
1Notice code
Notice code
The code printed on the notice names the job. A match, a balance, a list of copies, and a date to appear are four different jobs that can share one logo.
Write that code down before you explain the year to anyone.
2A balance due
A balance due
A balance is a number the agency already thinks is owed. Paying it is a choice. The return you signed is the check on that number.
We line the figure up with the return and the bank before anyone sends money.
3A document ask
A document ask
Some pages want a form, a statement, or the record of what a sale cost. A blank cost makes the whole check look like profit.
We ask for that cost record before anyone agrees with a zero.
4An exam date
An exam date
A date to appear is not the same as a notice that only wants a reply by mail. That appearance goes on the calendar before any other project that week.
Put the date where you will see it, then decide who is allowed in the room with you.
5Agree or not
Agree or not
If the figures match the return and the bank, agreement can be the calm choice. If they do not, the file is the disagreement.
You leave that call knowing whether you hold the calm choice or the file.
6Who may speak
Who may speak
Some pages are answered with copies. Some require a person who may speak for you. We do the copies and the reading. We do not enter the examination.
The first thing you get back is what the notice is asking, in plain words.
Steven Palmieri
The copies and the return
Steven Palmieri, Tax CFO and the Entrepreneur's CFO, reads the letter in your hand with you.
Steven and his team build the return from months the bank already agrees with, and the copies stay copies.
Before you send
The notice number, or a line you can read. Leave account numbers off this note.
The date printed on the letter
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.
Read it before the story grows
Read Read it before the story grows
The frightening part is rarely the first sentence on the page. It is the story you tell in the kitchen before you finish that sentence. You decide it is an examination. You decide the year is ruined. You decide someone must be hired before supper. Sometimes the page is asking for a copy of a form you already filed. Sometimes it is a balance that matches the return you signed. Sometimes it really is a date to appear. Those are different afternoons, and they should not share one reaction.
We start with the notice number and the date, then the sentence that says what they want. You stay in the conversation. Steven Palmieri, a Tax CFO, does this with owners who also want the books kept, payroll set up with a provider they choose, and the return prepared from months the bank already supports. The notice is not a side errand beside the year. When the printed lines and the closed months disagree, that disagreement is the work.
Bring the notice, or a clear photo of the notice number and the date. Leave account numbers off the form. We would rather see the kind of notice it is than a speech about how bad the year felt. The feeling is allowed. The file still needs the printed words.
The printed response date goes on the calendar the day the envelope is opened, beside the federal dates you already keep, and fear does not get to pick an earlier one. You keep the only original where you could find it on a weekday, and that same habit is how the file gets built before the date. A state notice and a federal letter can feel like one storm. They are two files and two clocks, and we keep them apart on purpose. We sort a thick pile before the worry spreads. We close the months while the year can still change, so the next letter is a copy instead of a reconstruction.
What a calm reply is built from
Read What a calm reply is built from
A reply is a small stack. The page itself. The date you will answer by. Copies, never the only original. The return line the page is pointing at. The bank month that line came from. If a sale is in the question, the record of what the thing cost before it was sold. A zero in that cost box can make an ordinary sale look like pure profit, and agreeing with the zero is how a small notice becomes a large one.
We keep working papers in that order because a later question always asks where a number came from. The calm, when it arrives, is plain. You can point at a page. You are not reconstructing the year from memory on a Sunday night.
If the honest reading is that someone who may speak for you has to take the next step, we say that early. We do not dress a copy job up as representation, and we do not leave you alone with a date you did not understand.
The year around the envelope
Read The year around the envelope
Owners who only call when an envelope arrives spend the year hoping. The better rhythm is dull on purpose. Each month the cash ties. Account names do not get renamed every season. That is how this fall's close can be read against last fall's close. Estimates follow the year you are actually having, not last year's bill divided into four hopeful payments. By October there is still time to change a choice that would otherwise show up in the spring as a surprise.
That is the same work whether the envelope in your hand is thick or thin. A clean month does not stop every notice. It does mean the answer is a copy instead of a reconstruction. A closed month turns the next notice into a copy job. Payroll that a provider actually runs, set up so the wage file matches the books, keeps a second kind of notice from arriving later because a deposit and a form drifted apart.
Read what agreement really is, what a disagreement needs, and when someone else must speak. The shape of a file with the dollars left blank is on its own page, because a made up balance would be a lie.