Do you provide audit support?

Yes, Zenith Financial provides comprehensive audit support and representation for our clients. Our Enrolled Agents are federally licensed to represent taxpayers before all levels of the IRS, including examination, appeals, and collection proceedings.

Our audit support includes several levels of service. For IRS correspondence audits (the most common type), we prepare written responses to IRS inquiries, compile supporting documentation, and submit everything on your behalf. These are typically resolved through mail without any in-person meetings.

For office or field audits, we provide full representation: we review the audit scope and prepare a strategy, gather and organize all relevant documentation, attend the audit meeting on your behalf (you generally do not need to be present), respond to all examiner questions and requests, review any proposed adjustments and negotiate modifications, and advise you on whether to accept or appeal the findings.

If the audit results in an unfavorable outcome, we can represent you through the IRS Appeals process, which provides an independent review of the examination findings. Appeals often results in more favorable outcomes than the initial examination.

For returns that we prepared, routine audit representation for correspondence audits is included in our service. For more extensive audits (office and field audits), fees depend on the scope and complexity. For returns prepared by other firms, we can still represent you but will need to review the return and supporting materials first.

To minimize audit risk, we take a proactive approach during return preparation: we ensure all positions are well-documented and defensible, we avoid aggressive positions that are likely to trigger examination, we attach required disclosure forms when claiming treaty-based positions, and we maintain organized records that can be quickly produced if needed.

Expat returns are selected for audit at a higher rate than domestic returns due to the complexity and the international information returns involved. Having experienced representation available provides peace of mind.