Taxpayers have the right to pay the correct amount of tax.

Taxpayer bill of rights item  3 says taxpayers have the right to pay only the amount of tax legally due, including interest and penalties, and to have the IRS apply all tax payments properly. The IRS does a decent enough job with this in most instances. We file nearly all federal income tax returns electronically so the returns are processed correctly. The problem often arise when the IRS matching program can't find everything on your return. This generates a notice to you with a proposed assessment. This notice is a CP 2000. You may owe the proposed amount or you may not. There are many instances where the amount due isn't valid and an explanation can resolve this. Here are a couple of examples. I represented taxpayers who didn't report securities sales. The IRS received only the amount of the sale not the amount paid for the securities. The cost of the securities was provided to IRS and this issue was resolved generating a refund for the taxpayers. Taxpayer received CP 2000 because taxpayer made IRA contribution but the receipt of the IRA contribution wasn't reported to IRS by the financial institution so IRS had no record of this.  This can be resolved by providing all documents to IRS demonstrating that an IRA contribution was made. I've had people tell me they didn't understand the notice but they paid the proposed assessment to make the IRS go away.  BEFORE YOU PAY ANY IRS PROPOSED ASSESSMENT BE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND IT AND ACTUALLY OWE IT!  While it may be accurate it may not be. We review IRS notices often to determine if the proposed assessment is accurate or an explanation should be provided.

Robby