Thomson Reuters Releases Report on IRS Examinations

Thomson Reuters has released a special report for tax professionals on how to respond to Internal Revenue Service examinations.

The report, Handling the Increasingly Common Automated IRS Examination, examines two compliance programs used by the IRS to address underreporting: the correspondence examination, also known as the “corr exam,” and the automated underreporter, or AUR, program. In fiscal year 2013, the IRS conducted over 1 million corr exams and closed 4.1 million AUR cases, compared to 344,000 field exams, according to the report.

The report discusses these compliance programs, addresses problems associated with automated examinations, and offers step-by-step guidance on how to respond to a letter or notice from the IRS.

To successfully deal with the increasing number of corr and AUR exams and respond to IRS notices that have been sent to tax clients, Thomson Reuters also has introduced Checkpoint IRS Response Library. Subscribers can quickly search by notice or form name or number, follow a step-by-step work plan, determine the best course of action, and estimate the time it will take to complete the engagement.

The library provides guidance for handling individual, business and payroll post-filing issues and dealing with the IRS. It covers more than 500 IRS notices, forms and letters, divided into 58 chapters and 16 major areas. The library is updated quarterly by CPAs who have worked for the IRS.