22 May Written IRS Appeal Protest
You can appeal an IRS tax decision to a local Appeals Office, which is separate from and independent of the IRS office taking the action you disagree with. The Appeals Office is the only level of appeal within the IRS. Conferences with Appeals Office personnel are held in an informal manner by correspondence, by telephone, or at a personal conference.
If you want an appeals conference, follow the instructions in the letter you received. Your request will be sent to the Appeals Office to arrange a conference at a convenient time and place. You or your representative should be prepared to discuss all disputed issues at the conference. Most differences are settled at this level.
If agreement is not reached at your appeals conference, you may be eligible to take your case to court. See Appeals to the Courts, later.
When you request an Appeals conference, you may also need to file either a formal written protest or a small case request with the office named in the letter you received. Also, see the special appeal request procedures in IRS Publication 1660. In addition, for the appeal procedures for a spouse or former spouse of a taxpayer seeking relief from joint and several liability on a joint return, see Rev. Proc. 2003-19, which is on page 371 of the Internal Revenue Bulletin 2003-5 at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb03-05.pdf.
- All employee plan and exempt organization cases without regard to the dollar amount at issue.
- All partnership and S corporation cases without regard to the dollar amount at issue.
- All other cases, unless you qualify for the small case request procedure, or other special appeal procedures such as requesting Appeals consideration of liens, levies, seizures, or installment agreements.
If you must submit a written protest, see the instructions in IRS Publication 5 about the information you need to provide. The IRS urges you to provide as much information as you can, as it will help speed up your appeal. That will save you both time and money.