IRS representation for our clients

Only someone eligible to practice before the IRS can represent you, and IRS Publication 947 lists attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents among them. Representation is set up with Form 2848, which you sign to name that person and the matters and years they can handle.

At Haven, Mike Swartz is a CPA, which puts him within the group the IRS allows to represent taxpayers. The firm offers this work to its own clients only. If we already prepare your return, keep your books or advise you, and the IRS writes about a year we know, we can answer for you. We don’t take on representation as a standalone engagement for people outside the firm.

The reason is practical. Representation goes better when the person speaking to the IRS already knows the return, the documents behind it and the household or business it describes. A client’s file is already in our hands, and the history of the year is already understood. If you are new and have an open IRS matter, an attorney or another eligible representative may be the better first call.

Form 2848 lets an eligible professional represent you before the IRS; Form 8821 only lets someone inspect or receive your tax information. The difference is whether the person can act or only look.

With a Form 2848 in place, your representative can talk with the IRS about the matters and years listed on it, respond to notices and make your case. They must be an individual eligible to practice, such as an attorney, a CPA or an enrolled agent, as Publication 947 explains.

Form 8821 is narrower. It authorizes a person or firm to see transcripts and receive copies of notices, but not to argue on your behalf. That can be useful on its own, for example when someone needs to review your account history before deciding anything.

For clients who need representation, we use Form 2848. You sign it, it names who can act and on which tax matters, and it can be limited to the specific forms and years involved. It does not hand over control of your finances; it authorizes dealings with the IRS and nothing more. Details for both forms are on IRS.gov.

Read it closely and reply by the date printed on it. A CP2000 means the income that employers, banks or brokers reported to the IRS doesn’t match what is on your return, and the IRS itself says, “This notice isn’t a bill.”

The notice proposes a change. It lists the items that didn’t match and the tax that would result if the IRS is right. Sometimes it is right, often because a late or corrected form arrived after filing. Sometimes the income was reported in another place on the return, or the third party made the mistake.

The response date matters most. The IRS asks you to reply by the date listed, agreeing, partly agreeing or disagreeing, with documents to support your answer. A Form 2848 lets a tax professional handle that reply for you.

For our clients, the first step is uploading the notice through the client portal so we can compare it with the return we prepared. We then work out which items are correct and draft the response before the deadline.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service is, in its own description, “an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service,” and its help is free. You ask for it with Form 911.

The Advocate is separate from the representative you hire. Your CPA or attorney works for you and speaks for you under a Form 2848; the Taxpayer Advocate Service works inside the IRS to deal with problems in how a case is being handled. Both can be involved in the same matter, and requesting the Advocate costs nothing.

Whatever route a case takes, records decide most of it. IRS guidance is to keep records for three years by default, six when unreported income passed 25% of the gross shown, and with no end date when a return was never filed. A client whose documents are already organized, and already in our portal, starts any IRS conversation from a stronger position than one hunting for paper. That is one reason this service is built around existing clients, whose books and returns we already hold.