IRS and Massachusetts Tax Notice Help and Representation

Who this fits

Most tax notices are not audits. A large share are automated letters produced when something on your return did not match something the agency already had, when a payment was applied differently than you expected, or when a return the system was waiting for never arrived. That is a different problem from an examination and deserves a different response. The IRS page on understanding your notice or letter explains what each notice number means. Reading it is the first step, and we do it with you.

This work fits individuals and businesses at every stage: a first letter, a sequence that has already been missed, a balance that cannot be paid at once, a state notice that followed a federal adjustment, or an examination that has already started.

• The notice number, which identifies exactly what kind of letter this is
• The tax year and the specific return being questioned
• What the agency is actually claiming, as opposed to the balance printed on the front
• The response window, and what right you give up if it closes
• Whether this is first contact or part of a sequence you have already missed

How the work runs

The first step is diagnosis, not correspondence. With a signed power of attorney on file, we request your account transcripts and find out what the agency actually has on record. Very often the transcript explains the notice better than the notice does. Then we pull the return behind it and the records that support your position, and only then is it clear whether the agency is right, partly right, or working from bad information.

The second step is a written, timely response with the documentation attached and the position stated plainly. If the agency is right, we correct the return, get the balance to the proper number and pursue whatever penalty relief the facts support: administrative relief for a clean recent history, reasonable cause where circumstances were outside your control, or simply correcting the figure the penalty was calculated on. If the agency is wrong, we say so and show why.

The third step is making sure it does not happen again. A notice is usually a symptom. Missing income forms, a payroll setup error, unfiled years or estimated payments that never matched reality will keep producing letters until the underlying process changes. Where the cause is a return, the fix runs through Tax Preparation. Where it is years of books that were never kept, it runs through Cleanup & Catch-Up.

• Power of attorney filed, transcripts pulled, notice diagnosed
• Written response inside the window, with documents attached
• Penalty relief pursued where the facts support it
• Payment arrangements where the tax is owed and cannot be paid at once
• The underlying cause fixed so the letters stop

What you get

A plain explanation of what the notice actually says and what the agency's file shows. A copy of everything sent on your behalf. A balance that is the correct number, not the printed one, and penalty relief pursued where the facts support it. Where tax is genuinely owed and cannot be paid now, a structured option rather than a dramatic one: an installment agreement, a temporary hold on collection when paying would leave you unable to cover basic living expenses, or an offer in compromise where the formula built from your income, expenses and assets supports one.

And you are not the one on the phone. The correspondence comes to us.

Who leads it

Mike Isaac, EA, leads every notice. As an Enrolled Agent he is admitted to practice before the Internal Revenue Service and federally licensed to represent taxpayers before the IRS on any tax matter, before any IRS office, wherever the client lives. Resolving IRS and Massachusetts Department of Revenue notices was a standing part of his work as a senior accountant in business advisory at one of the country's leading CPA firms. Clients in Massachusetts and across the country get the same handling: the correspondence comes to the firm as well, and he reviews every response before it goes out.

Send a copy of the letter the day it arrives, with the return it refers to if you have it. The response window is already running.