The IRS doesn't audit randomly. Returns get selected because something in them scored badly — a mismatch with third-party reporting, deductions out of range for the income, an industry the Service is targeting that year. Understanding why you were picked is the first step in deciding how to fight.
Three Kinds of Audit, Three Levels of Danger
Correspondence exams arrive by mail and ask about one or two items. Office audits bring you to the IRS. Field examinations send a Revenue Agent to your business — and those are the serious ones, because field agents are trained to expand scope, interview people, and follow money wherever it leads.
The single most important rule in any of them: control the flow of information. The IRS is entitled to documents that substantiate the return. It is not entitled to a guided tour of your life. Taxpayers who sit down alone with a Revenue Agent volunteer their way into expanded audits constantly — answering questions that were never asked, explaining things that needed no explanation. When I represent you, the agent talks to me. You have the legal right to exactly that arrangement, and the IRS's own rules honor it.
Decisions That Look Small and Aren't
Midway through most field exams comes a quiet request: sign Form 872 extending the statute of limitations. Sometimes signing is right; sometimes a strategic refusal forces the government's hand. Same with whether to take an exam issue to Appeals or let it ride to a Notice of Deficiency. These choices set the entire endgame, and they happen weeks before most taxpayers realize the game has started.
An audit is not an accusation. But it is an adversarial process wearing a polite face. Treat it accordingly.