Notices that propose changes
Many individual income tax issues begin when the IRS compares your return with forms filed by employers, banks, and brokers. A mismatch can produce a notice proposing additional tax, and it is not yet a final bill, but it comes with a response deadline. Some of these notices are correct; others misread a sale of stock with no reported cost basis, or double count income. If you never filed for a year, the IRS may prepare a return for you using only the income it knows about, which usually leaves out deductions you could have claimed. Responding with documents, rather than simply paying or ignoring the letter, is often the more accurate route.
New York residency and its consequences
New York taxes residents on all their income and nonresidents on income from New York sources, and New York City and Yonkers add their own taxes for residents. A person can be treated as a resident because New York remains their true home, or in some cases because they keep a place to live here and spend much of the year in the state. Residency audits are common after someone reports a move to another state. These audits often look at where you keep your belongings, where your family lives, and where you spend your time. Records made during the year, such as travel logs and phone data, tend to carry more weight than later explanations.
What to bring us
Bring the notice, your returns for the years involved, and every information return you received, such as wage statements and brokerage forms. For residency questions, gather leases or deeds, travel and calendar records, and documents showing where your life was centered. In a first conversation we check whether the agency's numbers are right, identify any response deadline, and discuss whether amending, responding, or appealing is the sound next step. If several years are involved, we work out the order in which to address them.
