In some instances, when I am called upon to help a taxpayer defend against oppressive IRS inquiries and actions, my clients are amazed. They are amazed by my predictions of the events and my apparently intuitive counter measures.
Well, as much as I like a compliment, this is not magic nor brilliance per se. Rather, it is sensible research and derived expectations from the vary manuals used to train IRS employees. Yes, the training manuals are public as are the audit guidelines used by the most feared of the IRS gestapo, the Auditor Agent.
A study of the IRS's own manuals is time well spent, though at times it churns ones stomach seeing the nature of this beast. Nonetheless, to know your enemy you must sleep with them. That may be colloquial but to my point, you must get very close and see life from their viewpoint.
A recent client event had me calling the IRS's collections department. I was charmed by the young lady helping me who actually sang while her computer tried to work on her request. The IRS computer system is hardly state of the art and at times very very slow. She was not the personification of evil portrayed by some and in fact just wanted to hep me resolve issues at hand. She did her best. When she got frustrated, I was able to help her using my studied knowledge of all things IRS and we made good progress in the call.
It is no mystery what the IRS will do next. Of course, there are some cowboys who make trouble by skipping mandated steps and precautions but they aren't the majority. A well trained IRS agent can be controlled because you know their training that leads to their responses. Is this fair? YES IT IS!
I like talking with the IRS because I already know before I dial that I can win. The problem clients have is fearing too much and not learning what they are up against and knowing the training that IRS agents get to beat them. When confronted with seemingly wizardly skill, IRS agents are quick to negotiate and settle issues that otherwise could have been nightmares.
I can help my clients when trouble comes knocking, but most will never have a problem. Why? Because I know before I go!
Best,
Wizard Deluxe
Dm-Your Own CFO