Questions to Ask an IRS Examiner in an Audit

Can I Have Your Business Card?

In all likelihood, your IRS audit process will be an uneventful one that will leave you with no complaints; however, if you do end up unhappy, it is vital that you have information about your examiner. To ensure that you can properly address concerns if you have a complaint, or give a compliment to an exemplary agent, ask for this professional's business card and stow it away with your tax materials for safe keeping.

As the Internal Revenue Service website reports, you are entitled to copies of any papers that you sign while being audited. Your examiner will likely offer you these copies, but if she doesn't, ask for them. Getting copies of these papers at the time of your audit is vital to ensuring that you keep your tax records up to date and have the documentation you require should you want to contest a decision.

Although your examiner may not be able to give you an exact date on which you will receive the results of your IRS audit, he may be able to give you a ballpark figure. By asking, and keeping this given figure in mind, you can likely prevent yourself from worrying unnecessarily should your audit results take quite a while to get back into your hands.

Stressful situations, such as an IRS audit, lead some to babble on. If you are a nervous talker, it is vital that you prepare in advance to keep your queries and conversation with the audit examiner to a minimum. While you don't want to appear that you are hiding things, you also don't want to ramble on or pose questions that the examiner simply can't answer. While queries like, "What exactly are you looking for?" or, "Do you see anything wrong so far?" may seem logical, the individual auditing your return simply can not answer them, so posing them is futile. This trained IRS agent will give you the information he is allowed to give you when he can. After posing your collected questions, all you can do is wait while he completes the audit process.