Am the Taxman: I Received a Form 4564. How Do I Know It’s Legit?
Source: Direct Inquiry
The IRS uses Form 4564 to request information from you in an audit. This means that you would have received a notification that you are being audited. If you received a Letter 556 in the mail, you have been selected for audit. Note, IRS will not initiate an audit by telephone, email, or text. If you received Form 556, the Form 4564 Information Document Request (IDR) is probably legitimate. This does not mean that you should not questions that are being asked in the IDR. If they are asking you for information that the IRS should already have (i.e., Social Security Number and Date of birth), you have reasons to suspect the document. You should suspect foul-play if they are asking for bank account information. Form 566 will provide a point of contact, Employee ID number, and phone number. Verify the IRS employee ID by calling directly to the IRS at 800-829-1040 and asking to verify the IRS employee’s ID. After you have independently verified the IRS Employees ID if you have any concern about what is being asked and why make the Tax Examiner or Revenue Agent explain the need for the information.
Form 4564 is called an Information Document Request (IDR). The questions the IRS asks can be intrusive. They imply that you have to supply a mountain of evidence & come in for questioning. Understand, just because the IRS requests it doesn’t mean you have a legal responsibility to provide it.
You must resist IRS requests for expansive disclosure. Instead, you must pay close attention to what lines on the return are being questioned and prove your case in the most direct, easiest & cheapest way. The IRS won’t show you how to present your evidence. Instead, they will continue to ask more intrusive questions.
You must provide unquestionable evidence of each item being investigated, but you’re not required to agree to open-ended questioning by the IRS. In this way, you will narrow down the issues & then attack those issues directly.
Form 4564 is usually used for more serious investigations, and they often ask for more information than they need from you. But, you must prove your case with the least effort and evidence possible.
Look carefully at the IRS questions and the lines of your return being examined.