Tax Relief Services

IRS Audit Reconsideration: How To Reopen an Audit You Missed or Disagree With

Updated September 6, 2026

By Angeline Balsitis, EA · Reviewed by Melissa Ly, Chief Tax Officer

Audit reconsideration is the IRS's own process for a person who missed an audit, never got the letters, or has documents the examiner never saw. It reopens an assessed balance without a court. The one condition the IRS repeats is that the information has to be new, and that condition is where most requests are decided before they are read.

What audit reconsideration is

The IRS explains the process in Publication 3598. It is a process used by the IRS to help you when you disagree with the results of an IRS audit of your tax return, or a return created for you by the IRS because you did not file, as authorized by Internal Revenue Code 6020(b). That second case matters more than people expect. A substitute-for-return assessment, built by the IRS from third-party forms with no deductions and no dependents, is an audit result, and reconsideration is the route to replace it with a real return.

The IRS's Collection Due Process FAQ points to the same process, with the same caveat: you must submit new information the IRS did not previously consider. That phrase governs everything on this page. The publication is Publication 3598, What You Should Know About the Audit Reconsideration Process.

Who the IRS says can ask

The publication lists four reasons for a request. You did not appear for your audit. You moved and did not receive correspondence from the IRS. You have additional information to present that you did not provide during the original audit. Or you disagree with the assessment from the audit.

Then it lists when the request will be accepted, which is a different and narrower thing. Your request will be accepted if you submit information the IRS has not considered previously; if you filed a return after the IRS completed a return for you; or if you believe the IRS made a computational or processing error in assessing your tax. And the liability must be unpaid, or credits denied. The IRS adds a note: if you have paid the amount due in full, you must file a formal claim on Form 1040-X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, instead.

So the person who lost an audit, has no new documents, and simply thinks the examiner was wrong does not have a reconsideration case. That person has an appeal, if the window is still open, or a claim for refund after paying. Reconsideration is for new facts, not a second opinion on old ones.

What the IRS asks you to send

The publication gives the steps. First, review the examination report and attachments to determine which items you feel are incorrect, gather the documentation that supports your position, and verify that it is new information not presented before and that it is for the tax year in question. Second, make photocopies of those documents and attach them to a letter explaining your request, being clear about which changes you want considered. The IRS recommends Form 12661, Disputed Issue Verification, to explain the issues you disagree with, and says to attach a copy of the examination report, Form 4549, if you have it. Include a daytime and evening telephone number. Do not send originals; the IRS says they will not be returned.

That word clear is the practical instruction. A reconsideration request that sends a box of receipts and asks the IRS to sort it out is not a request the IRS can act on. Each disputed item, each document that supports it, and what the corrected number should be.

What happens after you send it

The IRS says it will send you a letter if it needs further information, that it is in your best interest to provide complete information on each disputed issue, and that it considers each issue separately based on the new information you provide. It will change any adjustment if your new information and the tax law support the change. When it receives your documentation it may delay collection activity, but it warns that it may resume if the information is not sufficient or you do not respond to requests for additional information within 30 calendar days. If you have an installment agreement, the IRS says you must continue to make payments.

The outcomes are three. The IRS accepted your information and will abate the tax assessed. It accepted your information in part and will partially reduce the tax. Or your information did not support your claim and it cannot eliminate the tax. If you agree with the result, pay or make arrangements. If you disagree, the IRS lists your options: request an Appeals conference, pay the amount in full and file a formal claim, or do nothing, in which case it sends a bill.

Where reconsideration fits with everything else

It sits between an appeal and a lawsuit, and it is often the only door left. The appeal window on the original audit has usually closed by the time someone finds out about the assessment. The Tax Court route on a Notice of Deficiency has usually closed too. A Collection Due Process hearing generally cannot reopen the liability if there was a prior opportunity, and the IRS's own FAQ names audit reconsideration as one of the three ways to raise it anyway. What reconsideration cannot do is pause the collection clock on its own. The IRS says it may delay collection, not that it will, and a levy notice that arrives during the review still carries its own deadline.

For a substitute-for-return balance the sequence is simpler: file the real return for that year, which the publication names as a ground for acceptance in itself, and request reconsideration with it. Our unfiled tax returns page covers the filing half.

What Clarity does with a reconsideration

The first thing we do is answer the IRS's own question honestly: is there new information. We pull the account and the examination record, compare what the examiner had against what you have, and separate the items where a document changes the answer from the items where it does not. A request built only on the strong items is one the IRS can accept. A request that argues everything gets read as arguing nothing.

• We build the package the publication describes: the letter, Form 12661 by issue, the exam report, the copies, the phone numbers.
• For a substitute-for-return case, we prepare the real return and file it with the request.
• We handle the IRS's follow-up inside its 30-day windows, under a power of attorney.
• We manage collection in parallel. Reconsideration does not stop a levy notice; we treat any that arrives on its own clock, and where a plan or hardship status is needed in the meantime we put it in place.

The investigation fee is $495 for an individual and $695 for a business. It covers the transcript and examination record pull, the new-information review and a written recommendation, and it comes with a 15-day money-back policy from the date you sign. You have the written agreement before anything is charged.

The hard part, stated plainly

The hard part is the word new. Most people who want a reconsideration want the IRS to look again at the same facts and reach a different answer, and the IRS says in its own publication that this is not what the process is for. If the documents do not exist, we will say so in the first conversation rather than file a request that comes back with the third outcome.

The second hard part is that the review takes time and collection may continue during it. The IRS says it may delay collection and that it may not. Someone with a levy notice in hand needs that notice handled on its own terms while the reconsideration runs.

When you do not need anyone

If the audit disallowed one deduction, you have the receipt the examiner never saw, and the balance is small, the publication tells you exactly what to send and where. Write the letter, attach the copy, use Form 12661, and mail it. That is a reconsideration request and it does not need a firm.

Where a review earns its fee: the balance is a substitute-for-return assessment across several years, the disputed items are many or the records are incomplete, a levy or lien notice is already in motion, the 30-day follow-up windows are running, or you are not sure whether what you have counts as new. Those are the cases where the selection of issues decides the outcome.

Audit Reconsideration Questions, Answered

Results vary based on individual facts and circumstances. Whether the IRS accepts a reconsideration request depends on the information submitted, and no specific outcome is guaranteed. This page is general information about the IRS audit reconsideration process, not tax or legal advice.

Related Services: IRS Audit Representation · Unfiled Tax Returns · Collection Due Process Hearing · IRS Payment Plans · or return to All Tax Relief Services.

“Your reconsideration request will be accepted if you submit information that we have not considered previously.”

— IRS, Publication 3598, What You Should Know About the Audit Reconsideration Process

The passage quoted above is from IRS, Publication 3598, What You Should Know About the Audit Reconsideration Process.