reesesWeb

Dear LazyWeb,

I'm being audited for tax year 2004 based on a discrepancy in my Schedule D.

I am a tremendously lazy person, and a few things happened that year:

1. My trading volume went way up in comparison to previous years. I was living/working on the road, and I needed a hobby. One that made money seemed like a good idea.
2. ETrade (the place where my "play" account is kept) did a weird account migration thing halfway through the year -- they created a new account for everyone and moved them over. This meant two sets of 1099s, etc.
3. I sold three equities purchased in one account in 2003 at a small loss in 2004, the proceeds going into the new account
4. I was a lazy bastard and didn't match them up when I compiled my financial data for the year.

That last step was the dumb one. Because the liquidation transactions were reported to the IRS, there appeared to be a difference of a few thousand dollars between my Schedule D and my return and what ETrade filed with them. Not a huge difference, less than 1%, but they don't like it when the sides of the equation don't balance.

I just received notice of the audit, and have two options. I can just pay the assessed amount due, which is tiny (about $2500), or I can appeal the decision, presumably by providing an updated Schedule D for 2004. This would mean digging into the bowels of the tax data, and would probably take 3-5 hours.

Yes, I am that lazy.

I'm happy to pay the amount if it will truly make the problem go away, but I suspect (know) that doing so will change the status of my account with the IRS. I need to know the ramifications of that change in status.

Therefore, to my request: I need a decent personal tax attorney in San Francisco, preferably with an office downtown. (I live in SoMa, and, did I mention, I am lazy.)

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