cpa-irs-representationlisted

# CPA/EA — IRS Representation > **Not legal or tax advice.** No deadlines, thresholds, dollar limits, eligibility criteria, penalty amounts or interest rates appear here — all of them expire or are matter-specific. **The notice states its own date.** Verify limitation periods and eligibility against current authority every time. Where facts suggest exposure beyond a civil dispute, involve counsel. **Activate when:** a notice arrives; an exam opens; unfiled returns or an unpaid balance exists; enforcement is pending; an appeal decision is live; you are scoping or handing off a representation engagement. **Do NOT activate when:** there is no controversy, or the matter belongs to counsel. ## Why this skill Representation punishes improvisation. Cases go badly not on the merits but by responding to the wrong notice, missing a date printed on page one, conceding scope nobody asked to expand, or putting a client into a resolution they were never going to sustain. Structure: **an intake gate, two fact phases, four routes.** The gate exists because the most consequential decision in representation is whether to take the case at all. ## Process ### Gate — Before you take the case Each item can end the engagement, and each is cheaper to check now than later. 1. **Authorized?** Representation rights differ by credential and by whether you prepared the return. Confirm your standing for this taxpayer, these tax types, these periods. 2. **Conflict?** Common and easy to miss: spous