When the IRS calls, you are not just having a casual phone conversation. You are speaking with a federal agency that can change your financial life and, in severe cases, threaten your liberty. Whether the call is about a missing return, a balance due, an audit, or something more serious, what you do in the first few minutes can either protect your position or hand the government ammunition that is difficult to undo later. At the Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing, our dual licensed Attorneys and CPAs are used to stepping in right after that first call, stabilizing the situation, and taking over all communications so you are no longer on the front line.
First Question: is it Really the IRS Calling?
Before you worry about what to say, make sure you are not dealing with a scammer. IRS phone impersonation schemes remain a significant problem, and the IRS itself urges taxpayers to understand how it contacts people to avoid fraud.
In General, the IRS
- Usually makes initial contact about a tax issue by mail, not by phone, email, text, or social media.
- Does not call to demand immediate payment using prepaid debit cards, gift cards, or wire transfers, and does not threaten to send police or immigration officers to arrest you if you do not pay on the spot.
Legitimate IRS Calls Do Happen, Especially
- When you already have an open audit, collection case, or appeal.
- When a revenue officer has been assigned and has sent prior letters.
- When an IRS employee is returning a call you initiated to a published IRS number.
When You Receive a Call, You Can and Should Calmly Verify Who You are Speaking With Before You Discuss Anything:
- Ask for the caller’s full name, title, badge number, and the IRS office or unit where they work.
- Ask what notice or letter they are calling about and the notice number, if any.
- Tell the caller you will call back from an official IRS phone number (for example, the general IRS line or the number on your most recent notice), then end the call politely. Use a published IRS number from IRS.gov or from a recent IRS notice, not a number the caller gives you.
If the caller refuses to provide identifying information, pressures you to pay immediately, asks for payment by unusual methods, or threatens arrest or deportation, you are almost certainly dealing with a scam, not the IRS.
What To Do Once You Confirm it is the IRS
Once you are satisfied that the caller is really from the IRS or an authorized collection contractor, your goal is to protect your rights and avoid making off-the-cuff statements that could hurt you later.
In almost all significant cases, the safest move is to:
Limit the Conversation
You can confirm basic identity information and ask what the case is about, but you do not have to answer detailed questions about your income, deductions, business operations, or bank accounts on the spot. It is entirely appropriate to say that you want time to review your records and speak with your tax counsel before discussing the substance of the case.
Request Written Information
Ask the caller to confirm the issue in writing if you do not already have a notice. The IRS has standard letters for audits, balances due, liens and levies, and other actions. Written notices are clearer, give you deadlines in black and white, and are far easier for your tax attorney to evaluate than a verbal summary.
Assert Your Right to Representation
Under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, you have the right to retain an authorized representative and to have the IRS deal with that person instead of you in most situations. You can simply state that you will engage counsel and that your representative will contact the IRS. Once a properly completed power of attorney is on file, IRS personnel are generally expected to contact your representative rather than you directly.
Capture Key Details From the Call
Write down the date and time, the caller’s name and ID, the phone number that showed on your caller ID, any case or notice numbers mentioned, and a brief description of what they said. This information is invaluable when we later pull transcripts, contact the IRS on your behalf, and check whether the caller correctly described your account.
What you should avoid is just as important:
- Do not try to “explain” past returns or cash activity off the top of your head.
- Do not guess at numbers, account details, or dates.
- Do not agree to anything you do not fully understand, including on-the-spot payment commitments or “informal” interview discussions.
- Do not send documents or authorize access to records before a dual licensed Attorney and CPA has reviewed what is being requested and how it fits into the bigger picture.
Why the IRS Might Be Calling You, And What That Signals
A legitimate IRS call can relate to very different types of cases, and the risk level varies accordingly. Common situations include:
Balance Due and Collection Issues
If you have unpaid taxes, the call may come from an IRS collections unit or a revenue officer. They may discuss payment arrangements, liens, or potential levies. Even though this sounds “civil,” what you say about your income, assets, and prior behavior can be used later if the IRS questions whether you have been truthful or cooperative.
Audit or Examination Matters
An examiner or revenue agent might call to schedule an appointment, request records, or clarify items on a return. Audits, especially field or in-person examinations, are where “eggshell” and “reverse eggshell” situations often arise, meaning there may already be serious problems in the returns or information the IRS has that you are not aware of.
Identity Verification or Account Security
In limited circumstances, the IRS may call as part of an identity verification process or to follow up on suspected identity theft, usually in connection with prior mailed notices. Even here, you should verify the call independently and be careful about giving sensitive personal information over the phone.
Potential Criminal Matters
When IRS Criminal Investigation is involved, special agents usually do not identify themselves until they are ready to conduct a formal interview, and they often show up in person rather than calling first. If anyone identifies as an “IRS special agent,” you should treat the matter as highly serious and decline to answer questions until you have criminal tax counsel on the line or in the room.
The problem is that taxpayers rarely know which category they are in at the time of the first call. That is why we treat every IRS contact as potentially high stakes until we have pulled your transcripts, reviewed your notices and returns, and understood the IRS’s internal view of your case.
Protecting Yourself When There May Be Civil Fraud or Criminal Tax Exposure
For many of our clients, the real concern is not a late fee or a small balance. It is the risk that an IRS call will open the door to a deeper review of years of underreported income, cash businesses, offshore accounts, digital assets, or aggressive positions that were never properly disclosed. In that environment, the wrong answer to a seemingly simple phone question can accelerate a case from routine civil status into fraud development or a criminal tax investigation.
IRS examiners and revenue officers are trained to look for “badges of fraud,” such as inconsistent statements, missing or altered records, unexplained cash movements, and patterns of noncompliance across multiple years. When they see these indicators, they can consult specialized fraud personnel and, in appropriate cases, refer the matter to IRS Criminal Investigation. CI’s own statistics reflect conviction rates near 90 percent in cases it chooses to prosecute, which is why early missteps are so dangerous.
Our role is to put a privileged buffer between you and that risk. Because our CPAs are employees of the Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing and operate as part of the legal team, their forensic accounting and your communications with them are protected by the attorney-client privilege and the attorney work-product doctrine. That structure allows you to be completely candid about what really happened, so we can:
- Evaluate whether your facts suggest non-willful errors that can be corrected within the civil system, or willful conduct that may require a criminal voluntary disclosure or other specialized strategy.
- Decide whether and how you should speak to the IRS at all, and what topics must be off limits in any direct communication.
- Control what documents are produced, in what order, and with what context, so that the record supports a defensible civil outcome and does not read like a roadmap for prosecution.
What you should not do is treat the phone call as an informal chat, assume that being “open” with the IRS will always help, or rely on a nonlawyer preparer to handle a potentially criminal-tinged conversation without the protection of privilege.
Contact the Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing if The IRS Has Called You
If you have received a phone call from someone claiming to be with the IRS, or if an IRS employee has already left voicemail messages or set an appointment with you, you are at a critical decision point. Ignoring the call can lead to enforced collection, default audit adjustments, or escalated enforcement. Responding carelessly, on the other hand, can lock in admissions or create a record that supports civil fraud penalties or a life-altering criminal tax investigation and prosecution.
At the Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing, our dual-licensed civil and criminal tax defense Attorneys and CPAs focus on precisely these high-risk federal and California tax controversies. We confirm whether the caller is legitimate, pull and analyze your IRS account history, identify the true nature and risk level of the case, and then take over all further communications. Because our CPAs are employees of the firm and are part of your legal team, all of this analysis and strategy happens within the protection of the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine, protections you simply do not get when you speak directly to the IRS or rely solely on a nonlawyer preparer.
If the IRS has called you, or you suspect that a call may be coming because of unfiled returns, underreported income, or other past issues, contact the Tax Law Offices of David W. Klasing for a confidential, reduced-rate initial consultation. Call us at 800-681-1295 or complete our online contact form HERE to schedule an appointment. The sooner you put experienced, privileged representation between you and the IRS, the more options you will have to protect your finances, your reputation, and your liberty.
