Income Tax Lawyers In Brighton, MI

Four notices account for most of the income tax disputes we see, and each one starts a different clock.

A CP2501 is first contact. The IRS has spotted a mismatch and wants your explanation before it proposes any tax at all. You have 30 days. Let that pass and a CP2000 follows.

The CP2000 is the one most people see. It comes out of the Automated Underreporter unit, where a computer compares the third-party forms filed under your Social Security number against what you reported: W-2, 1099-NEC, 1099-K, 1099-B, W-2G, K-1. You have 30 days from the date printed on the notice, or 60 if you live outside the country. Silence is treated as agreement.

After that comes the statutory notice of deficiency, sent as a CP3219A. This is the 90-day letter, and the 90 days are absolute. Petition the U.S. Tax Court inside that window or the tax gets assessed and your file moves to collections, where the argument is no longer about whether the number was right.

The fourth is a substitute for return, which the IRS prepares when you did not file at all. It gives you no deductions, no credits, and the filing status that costs the most. The deadline moves depending on which letter arrives. What does not move is that the balance was built without a single thing in your favor.

Two practical points that cost people money.

First, do not answer a CP2000 with an amended return. Form 1040-X goes to a different IRS unit than the Automated Underreporter unit that sent your notice, so the amendment often never gets matched to the file, and the 30 days run out while you wait. Answer on the response form that came with the notice.

Second, the interest on a CP2000 runs from the original due date of the return, not from the date printed on the notice. A 2022 issue surfacing in 2026 has been accruing for four years before you ever heard about it.

Paying the IRS does not settle what you owe Michigan. Treasury says as much on its own notice page, and the second bill is the part almost nobody sees coming.

Your Michigan return starts from your federal adjusted gross income. So when the IRS changes your federal income, the state return is wrong too, automatically. The IRS reports the change to Lansing, and Treasury issues a Notice of Proposed Income Tax Adjustment for the same tax year.

Under MCL 206.325, you have to file an amended Michigan return within 180 days of the federal final determination date. The clock starts at the final determination, not at the first IRS letter. Miss it and Treasury can assess anyway, with interest running the whole time.

One carve-out is worth knowing. Where the federal change is small enough to fall under the threshold written into MCL 206.325, the amended return is not required, though Treasury can still assess the additional Michigan tax. You are relieved of the filing, not the liability.

Michigan has no separate amended return form. You file an MI-1040 with the Amended Return box checked and attach Schedule AMD. Our guide to filing an amended tax return walks through the federal side.

Two returns, two authorities, two bills. The federal one gets the attention because it is bigger and it came first. Michigan taxes the same added income at a flat 4.25 percent for the 2026 tax year, and Treasury charges interest from the original due date at a rate that resets every six months. It ran at 8.48 percent through the first half of 2026.

The state balance is the one people forget. It is small next to the federal number, which is exactly why it sits unpaid and gathers interest until Treasury escalates it.

Plenty of CP2000 notices do not need us.

If the notice is right, the amount is small, and you can pay it, sign the response form and send it back. That is the whole job. A forgotten savings account 1099-INT that moves your tax by a rounding error does not need a lawyer, and we will tell you so on the phone.

Call us when one of these is true:

• The proposed adjustment is wrong and proving it takes documentation you would rather not assemble alone
• The number is large enough that a 20 percent accuracy penalty matters
• You are inside the 90-day window on a notice of deficiency
• The IRS filed a substitute return for a year you never filed
• The issue spans multiple years, a business return, or a K-1
• You already paid the IRS and Michigan is now billing you for the same year

We also will not tell you an offer in compromise looks likely before we have seen your transcripts and your financials. Firms that quote you a settlement figure on the first phone call are guessing.

What is the difference between an income tax problem and general tax debt?

They are different stages. Tax debt is collection: the amount is agreed and the argument is about how you pay. An income tax problem is assessment: the argument is whether the amount is right in the first place. Assessment comes first and its deadlines are far shorter. Once the assessment is final you lose the ability to dispute the number and you are left with payment options.

The IRS says I underreported income. Is that an audit?

No. A CP2000 comes from the IRS Automated Underreporter unit, a computer matching third-party forms against your return. No examiner is assigned. It is a proposed change, not a bill and not a final determination. But the consequences of losing are the same as an audit, and a disputed CP2000 can escalate into a real examination.

I already paid the IRS. Why is Michigan billing me for the same year?

Because they are separate taxing authorities collecting separate bills. Michigan Treasury says on its own notice page that a payment you sent the IRS does not affect what you owe Michigan. Your state return starts from federal adjusted gross income, so a federal income change makes the Michigan return wrong too. The IRS reports the adjustment to Lansing and Treasury bills you for its share.

How long do I have to fix my Michigan return after an IRS change?

180 days from the federal final determination date, under MCL 206.325. File an MI-1040 with the Amended Return box checked and attach Schedule AMD. Where the federal change falls under the threshold set in that statute the amended return is not required, though Treasury can still assess the Michigan tax. Missing the window does not erase what you owe.

What happens in an income tax audit?

It depends which kind. A correspondence audit runs by mail and usually covers one or two items. An office audit brings you in with documents for a named list of issues. A field audit sends an examiner to you, and those are mostly business returns. All three open with a document request, and what you hand over in that first response shapes everything after it.