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Guide

Using a mock audit during an IRS R&D tax credit audit

If an IRS examination or a state audit is already open, a mock audit can help you organize the file against the questions you are likely to face. It runs alongside the real process; it does not replace it.

What it helps with

  • Sorting the records you hold by the question each one answers.
  • Seeing which answers are thin before the examiner does.
  • Drafting a first response to each question that your advisor can work from.
  • Ordering the work of closing gaps.

What stays separate

  • The official IDRs and their deadlines. The mock audit's question set is a draft; it is not a complete answer to a real IDR, and it does not extend any deadline.
  • Representation. Nothing here engages an advisor or notifies the IRS.
  • Decisions. The examiner's view of the facts and the law is theirs to form.

Working with your advisor

Give your advisor the report and the drafts, not a final answer. The review checklist sets out what to verify in a draft before any part of it is used in a response to the IRS or a state.

If the examination is already advanced

Note.Later explanations cannot change the dates of the records they explain. A mock audit can show what the file supports; it cannot add to what was recorded at the time.

General in nature, not tax advice.

Find out what your research actually qualifies for

A scoping conversation takes thirty minutes and costs nothing. You leave with a view on eligibility, likely credit range and the documentation you would need.

Free R&D mock audit: completely free. Book a call or email hello@creditarmor.ai for a login.

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