My client in Oregon has been notified of a business audit by the IRS. I live in So CA & keep his "shoebox". Change venue?

if you are not a lawyer you should not be representing person in legal proceedings. If you are a lawyer, you better get help from someone who knows what they are doing, fast.

Worst things first. If you are not an attorney, the "shoebox" may be the subject of a police search and seizure. These records are evidence. If you have no privilege they can be seized without taking the trouble to look for strategy notes etc. If you are holding to keep records from the authorities, then you may be in danger of "joining the conspiracy". Especially if this is about to "go criminal", there is no way they would want nor tolerate splitting the case up, especially if both potential targets are Washington residents. If you are sending the stuff back you need to make sure that EVERYTHING makes it back. You may want to have the client drive down and sign a receipt indicating that they received everything back. Do you have a nearby tax attorney who is somewhat conversant regarding criminal matters. You may want to keep his number handy. You may want to confer with him about how to best handle this. (still don't know your status --- attorney/cpa/ptinpreparer/ea). "Privacy Act?" You may want to start reading multi-party related taxpayer tax cases for background in this area. " Can they use details found on one audit to pursue another taxpayer? " That is how tax shelter cases are born; they audit one taxpayer, then audit the promoter, and then audit ALL the promoter's clients. Please remember to designate your question's BEST ANSWER. Please remember to designate your question's BEST ANSWER. Curt Harrington Certified Tax Specialist -- State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization Electrical-Chemical-Mechanical Patent (Intellectual Property) Attorney (562) 594-9784 http://patentax.com About Curt: http://patentax.com/curt/index.html Visit the Library: http://patentax.com/library/

Yes. They can get information in one audit and use it to pursue another taxpayer. Happens all the time. They are not telling the new taxpayer anything about the initially audited taxpayer that he doesn't already know. They aren't allowed to sit and explain the detailed findings of their audit of one person with another person. But they can definitely use specific items that relate to the other taxpayer such as a direct cash payment from a bank account from the audited taxpayer to the new taxpayer. If you are not a CPA, EA or Tax Attorney, you should really ask yourself what services you are selling here. You cannot represent people in tax matters unless you are selling services in that capacity. I will assume that you are one of these three, and would point out that this is a fairly elementary question, and there will be many more issues more complicated than this. If you cannot research the answer to the question you just asked, you really need to ask yourself if this is a road you want to go down. Tax controversy and return preparation are very different games and require their own type of mentality and skill set. From my experience, most tax attorneys are not risk averse enough to prepare returns on a large scale, but preparers are too risk averse to properly deal with tax controversies. But of course, this is not absolute. Christopher Larson Insight Law Tax Lawyer Tax Attorney - Bellevue Tax Attorney - Everett Tax Attorney - Kent WA Tax Attorney - Kirkland Bellevue IRS Contact Bellevue Offer In Compromise Seattle Payroll Tax Attorney IRS Tax Audit Lawyer Seattle WA IRS Tax Lien Attorney Seattle WA IRS Tax Levy and Wage Garnishment Lawyer Seattle WA Washington Sales and Business and Occupation(B&O) Tax Audit Seattle Tax Litigation Attorney Innocent Spouse Relief Seattle WA Business Tax Attorney Seattle WA IRS Tax Penalty Relief Attorney Seattle WA