Guidance Needed on Petitioning US Tax Court After IRS Audit Dispute

The IRS should have sent you a Notice of Deficiency (also called a "90-day letter" or "statutory notice of deficiency"). This is the ticket you need to petition Tax Court. It's typically sent by certified mail. If you never received this notice, you can't petition Tax Court yet. The 90-day letter is what gives the Tax Court jurisdiction over your case. Without it, they'll dismiss your petition. Call the IRS at 800-829-1040 and ask specifically about the status of your Notice of Deficiency. If they've actually issued one, request a copy. If they haven't issued one yet, ask what stage your case is at. You might still be in the examination process, not yet at the point where you can petition Tax Court. Also, check if you qualify for assistance from the Taxpayer Advocate Service or Low Income Taxpayer Clinic if your income is below certain thresholds. They can help navigate this process.

After going through a similar nightmare with business expense denials, I found this amazing service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me organize my documentation for my Tax Court petition. They have this document analysis tool that highlights exactly which receipts and evidence would be most compelling for my case. I was in a similar position where the same auditor kept denying my legitimate business expenses (in my case, travel expenses for client meetings). The taxr.ai system helped me identify documentation gaps the IRS was using against me that I hadn't even noticed. It saved me countless hours trying to figure out which documents would actually help my case.

I was super skeptical about taxr.ai when I first read about it here, but I was desperate since I had a similar audit issue with home office deductions. After trying it out, I'm honestly impressed with what it found. Their system detected that I was missing specific documentation linking my home office square footage to my business income - exactly what the IRS examiner kept flagging. The analysis took about 20 minutes and showed me exactly what additional documentation I needed to gather. Used those insights to prepare for my appeal, and just got notification last week that my appeal was approved! Saved me about $4,300 in disputed taxes. Definitely worth checking out if you're struggling with documentation issues.

If you need to actually speak with someone at the IRS to figure out your Notice of Deficiency situation, good luck getting through on those phone lines. After trying for WEEKS to get through about my audit, I found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) - they got me connected to an actual IRS agent in under 20 minutes when I'd been trying for days. I was so frustrated trying to find out if they had actually sent my notice or not (turns out they mailed it to an old address). You can see how their system works in this demo: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - basically they navigate the phone system for you and call you back when an agent is ready. Completely changed my experience dealing with the IRS phone system.

I hate admitting when I'm wrong, but I have to say Claimyr actually worked for me. After posting that skeptical comment, I decided to try it as a last resort since I'd been calling the IRS for over 2 weeks about my denied business expense deduction. Got connected to an IRS rep in about 25 minutes. The woman I spoke with was able to confirm they HAD sent me a Notice of Deficiency three weeks ago (it must have gotten lost in the mail). She resent the notice to my current address and explained exactly what I needed to do to file with Tax Court. Saved me from missing my 90-day window to petition the Tax Court, which would have been a disaster.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - check if your issue qualifies for Small Tax Case procedures (S case) in Tax Court. If your dispute is $50,000 or less for any one tax year (sounds like yours is), you can use simplified procedures. Form 2 on the Tax Court website (https://www.ustaxcourt.gov/forms/Petition_Kit.pdf) is what you need. Even without receiving the formal notice, you can download this form and file it. You'll need to include whatever notices you DID receive from the IRS. The filing fee is $60, and while having a lawyer helps, many people represent themselves in S cases. Just make sure you file within 90 days of the date on the Notice of Deficiency!

Has anyone actually tried calling the Taxpayer Advocate Service? I'm in a similar situation with denied business expenses from a side gig, and I keep hearing they're supposed to help but I can't get through to them either.

I went through something very similar last year with business equipment deductions that got denied. The key thing is making sure you've actually received that Notice of Deficiency before you can petition Tax Court - it sounds like you might still be in the appeals process rather than at the Tax Court stage. One thing that helped me was requesting a Collections Due Process (CDP) hearing when I got my collection notice. This gave me another bite at the apple to challenge the underlying tax liability, and importantly, if they deny your CDP hearing request, THAT decision can be appealed to Tax Court under a different process. Also, keep detailed records of every interaction you've had with the IRS - dates, times, who you spoke with, what was discussed. This documentation becomes crucial if you do end up in Tax Court or need to show the Taxpayer Advocate Service that you've exhausted normal channels. Don't give up - $6,700 is definitely worth fighting for, especially if you have legitimate documentation for those business expenses.