Strategic Alliances: Audit Defense & Tax Negotiation Service
Are you a tax professional who would prefer to focus on preparing tax returns, rather than dealing with state and IRS auditors and collectors? Would you like to set your practice apart from your competitors by offering a service that they are not offering?
If you answered "yes" to these questions, then you will want to become our strategic partner so that you can offer your clients our "audit defense" and/or "tax debt negotiation" services.
Audit Defense Service:
As its name implies, our "audit defense" service allows tax preparers and CPAs to hand off state and IRS audits -- for a very low flat per-return fee. We then assist our strategic partner's clients with their state and IRS audits. Our strategic partners either pay our flat per return fee themselves or they pass our fee on to their clients -- and in some cases they even charge their own fee on top of our low flat rate fee.
Our "audit defense" service includes meeting with the client, reviewing the tax return and other tax records, preparing for and attending the audit meeting, and negotiating with the auditor, audit manager, and/or appeals office for any proposed adjustments.
- We handle enough state and IRS audits that we know many of the auditors. We know what the IRS auditors are looking for. We know what has worked for us in prior audits.
- We provide a second opinion as to the accuracy of the tax return. It is one thing for the tax preparer to argue that a position taken on the tax return that he or she prepared is accurate. It is quite another thing for the tax preparer and an independent tax attorney to argue that a position taken on the tax return is accurate. This second voice can add weight to the return position, which may increase the chances that the auditor or appeals officer will will agree with the return position.
- We do not compete with tax preparers or CPAs, rather, we free up their time to do what they do best.
Best of all, our strategic partners are able to tell clients and prospective clients that they provide much more than the sub par audit defense service that is offered by some of the consumer tax preparation software (here is an overview of these other "audit defense" services). Our strategic partners provide their clients with an experienced tax attorney, not a mere clerk or secretary. This can help our strategic partners market and grow their practices.
Tax Debt Negotiation Service:
Our tax debt negotiation service picks up where our audit defense service leaves off.
Our tax debt negotiation service allows the tax preparer to avoid having to deal with state and IRS collections. Whether it is working out an installment agreement or offer in compromise, helping clients to discharge tax debts in bankruptcy, advising a client on civil or criminal tax penalties, or taking the IRS to court, our tax debt negotiation service can help.
The terms are similar to our audit defense service terms in that a low per return fee covers our time and we give all clients an up front estimate of the time we think their matter will take.
We offer this service in combination with or separate from our audit defense service -- which means that tax preparers who want to handle the audit can have us handle the later negotiations/remedies if the audit is not successful.
Here are some additional reasons why strategic partners provide our tax debt negotiation service to their clients:
- We spend a lot of time keeping up with tax procedure cases and rulings and working directly with state and IRS collections personnel, which allows us to work efficiently and provide exceptional service for clients.
- We eliminate the need for the tax preparer to get involved in the tax negotiation process, a process that can often take years to resolve.
- We provide the tax preparer with a resource for helping to mitigate any loss associated with tax returns. Let's face it, our tax laws can be complex and being a tax preparer isn't easy these days. Mistakes or oversights happen. Sending clients to a trusted resource and covering a portion of their expenses to help remedy a problem once it arises can go a long way in retaining the tax preparer's hard won reputation and mitigating any damages.
Other Benefits
Another reason to partner with us is that many of our own clients need tax returns prepared. We only send our clients to our strategic partners to have their tax returns prepared. We used to provide this service in house, but we made the decision that tax preparation conflicted with and distracted us from providing our core services -- audit defense and tax negotiation services.
What to Hear More About These Services?
