Never had the IRS on me but I will gladly pay my CPA to do my taxes every year exactly for this reason. Not only saves me time but he knows the tax code way better than I do but I also own some livestock with my parents so the income and expenses I have with that also adds a twist to how I can take certain relevant expenses (such as his professional fees) and include that as a farm expense to minimize the tax bill on any farm income I make. I figure if the IRS every wants to sniff around my tax returns having them done by a CPA should limit my risk with that. Not that I have anything for them to scrutinize anyways as ideally I would love to have little to no refund every year and try to do what I can to not give uncle Sam an interest free loan by setting my withholdings properly.
My experience was pretty easy, but sucked a lot. We started an LLC in 2018 and I tried to do the taxes myself. When doing my 2019 taxes, I realized I had screwed up my 2018 taxes.
I got in touch with a pro right away and paid a pretty penny to fix 2018 taxes and take over my 2019 filing.
I then got a letter from the IRS in January 2021 (that’s right, two years later) saying my 2018 taxes were filed improperly and I owed them $5,000. Of course, it was impossible to actually get in touch with anyone over there. So I mailed a response. 3 weeks later I get another letter notifying me that I hadn’t paid the $5,000, fines were being added, AND I had 30 days to pay before they put a lien on my property.
By the grace of God, I called and got through, using my one get of jail free card to be granted forgiveness.
I still have a little anxiety every day when I check the mailbox.
