[hang-loose-cpa]

Hey everyone. I ran into this issue with my personal taxes. The IRS is auditing my taxes for year 2015 on my business mileage I claimed and other work expenses.

I have a valid log of all the miles I traveled and the purpose for each of these trips, as well as support for my work related expenses.

Basically, I work from home and I claimed the miles I drove from my place of business (my home) to offsite locations.

My question has to do with the timing of the audit and how should I proceed? The notice I received states I have 30 days to provide support for my claims. Should I call the auditor first and introduce myself? Or should I just mail all my supporting documents to the address and wait for a response? How long do you think it will take for me to get a response back?

Any help or information regarding IRS audits is REALLY appreciated!!! I searched around and couldn’t get a real answer to this.

Man,… I’m not going to lie, being audited by the IRS is pretty depressing. This couldnt come at a worse time…smh

[Recked]

eh, it happens to lots of people. i have years of experience in this area.
something probably threw a red flag, so they are taking a look.
if you have the backup to document and substantiate everything you have nothing to worry about.
i would call and introduce yourself, and explain you are in the process of compiling the information.

mileage logs are somewhat helpful, but it would also be good if you can prove you actually put x amount of miles on your car during the year.
i recommend to my clients to get their car serviced yearly right around the dec 31st mark. that way we have a 3rd party paper trail via the dealer/servicing receipt that shows miles in and miles out.
one at the beginning of the year and one at the end shows starting mileage vs ending mileage = total miles driver during the year
if you show total as 15000 and business use at 6500, it falls within the reasonable range.
your mileage log backs up the 6500, and the service records back up the total for the year so the IRS can see you are not pulling numbers out of your ass.

ezpass or toll records can also serve the same purposes in a pinch, but not as well.
toll records can help to substantiate some of your miles for business.

so just ball park. what were gross receipts, bottom line profit or loss, and dollar amounts for the areas they are focusing the audit on.
if i had to take a guess your mileage is over 80% business use, your home office is over 1/3, or your sch c shows a loss that was offsetting w2 income.
that orrrrrrr, someone rolled on you and called the IRS.
could be a random audit, but with the IRS budget at an all time low, they need to think they can collect on you in order to initiate action.

[ruggercpa2b]

They audited me last year for 2014 and 2015 because of mileage as well. The company I worked for at the time paid below the Federal rate. I would highly suggest calling the auditor and making sure you have the right paperwork. I submitted 2014 and they told me no and so I paid back what they said I owed. Then for the second year I called them and asked why they would not accept what I had because I thought it was sufficient. The person I talked to the second time around told me my first batch of paperwork did not have the email from HR on a company letterhead so they did not accept that as proper support. No one bothered to tell me.

Definitely call and ask if what you have is sufficient.

AUD - 73, 72 retake 7/2/2016
BEC - 8/20/2016
REG - TBD
FAR - TBD

I am so ready for this nightmare to be over. Been at this way too long.

[Author]

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