Laurence Lawler: Hi! I am Laurence Lawler, National Director of the American Society of Tax Problem Solvers. My client and I have been sitting here discussing his upcoming 1040 Audit and how he should prepare for that. Well, perhaps you might be interested in some of the same information.

Our focus is going to be on individual audits. Although, many of the things we talk about are not going to be any different if you are a corporation being audited, our focus will be on the individual, and we are going to talk about a number of different things including how long the IRS has to audit someone, what might prompt the IRS to audit someone, when to prepare for the audit, and we will give you some preparation guidelines and cautions and tips as we go along.

We will talk about the different types of IRS audits. We will talk about when you need professional help and what do you do if you think the IRS is wrong. We will finally wrap it up with the IRS' penalties and interests.

We are going to cover a number of different cautions that you should take as we go through this complex material today and some things that you should know if you do meet with the IRS. Taxpayers frequently find themselves saying the things that they didn't really mean or not explaining them properly to the IRS and ending up causing themselves additional problems. We are going to try and give you some tips to avoid that today.

Before we get started I'd like to introduce myself and the organization that I represent. I am a CPA, an enrolled agent and a Certified Tax Problem Resolution Specialist. I am with the American Society of Tax Problem Solvers which is an organization dedicated to educating professionals who represent taxpayers before the IRS as well as raising the ethical standards of our practices.

We would like to see everyone look for the ASTPS logo when they look for representation. So let's begin with showing you how to deal with your IRS Audit and we are going to start with how long the IRS has to audit you.