One specialty, practiced for 38+ years: what happens after filing, when the IRS gets involved.
Flagship service IRS Audit Representation Representation through the whole audit, including appeals. You never sit across from the IRS alone — your representative spent 19 years on their side of the table. See all eight services →Taxpayers, businesses, and the firms that represent them — anywhere in the country, by phone.
“I cannot tell you how much relief I feel.” — Tracy, a client. Hear from clients →
And business tax issues, IRS account issues — anyone dealing with the IRS.
Every guide ends at the same door — thirty free minutes with Jim or Madison.
Free ConsultationThen he wrote the handbook the profession resolves cases with. Buttonow CPA is a tax problem resolution practice — audits, tax debt, unfiled returns, penalties, payroll problems — run by the CPA who used to sit on the other side of the table, alongside the Enrolled Agent who edits that handbook.
Free Consultation Call (336) 253-8266
Free 30 minutes for new clients — with Jim or Madison, not a salesperson. No obligation, and no advice relationship until you engage us. After that, fees are hourly and quoted with an estimate before any work begins.
THE PRACTICE Post-filing tax controversy — nothing else.
The record behind the representation
IRS enforcement is not random — it is a published sequence of moves, and every move has a window where representation changes what happens next. Pick your situation and walk the sequence the way our clients live it: what the IRS does if you wait, beside where our three stages step in.
Move 1 of 5 · Notices only
If you wait — the IRS
Balance-due notices arrive — and keep arriving. Interest and the failure-to-pay penalty accrue every month the balance sits, whether you open the envelopes or not.
Stage 1 · Due Diligence — where we step in
We pull your IRS account transcripts and verify the balance is even right before anyone agrees to pay a dollar of it.
Move 2 of 5 · Assessed & collectible
If you wait — the IRS
The assessed tax becomes collectible debt and your account enters the IRS collection stream. The letters change tone — and now they carry deadlines.
Stage 1 · Due Diligence — where we step in
Due diligence: your income, assets, and expenses mapped against the IRS’s own standards, so we know which resolution paths you actually qualify for.
Move 3 of 5 · Lien exposure
If you wait — the IRS
The IRS may file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien — a public record that attaches to everything you own and announces the debt to every lender who looks.
Stage 2 · Solution Execution — where we step in
A collection agreement — installment agreement, extension to pay, or currently-not-collectible status — puts a structured path in front of enforced collection.
Move 4 of 5 · Levy exposure
If you wait — the IRS
After a Final Notice of Intent to Levy, the IRS can take wages, bank balances, and receivables. Your hearing window is measured in days.
Stage 2 · Solution Execution — where we step in
The IRS talks to us. Deadlines get answered, responses get filed, and your hearing rights are exercised on time and on the record.
Move 5 of 5 · Certified debt
If you wait — the IRS
Seriously delinquent tax debt can be certified to the State Department — passport applications denied, existing passports revoked. The debt now follows you everywhere.
Stage 3 · Maintain Compliance — where we step in
Resolved is not finished. We keep you in compliance and monitor your IRS account weekly, at no charge — a new issue surfaces in days, not years.
Move 1 of 5 · Return selected
If you wait — the IRS
A letter selects your return for audit and lists the items to substantiate. Most taxpayers answer it themselves — and everything they say becomes the record.
Stage 1 · Due Diligence — where we step in
We read the notice line by line and pin down exactly which years and items are in scope before a single document moves.
Move 2 of 5 · Deadlines running
If you wait — the IRS
The examiner issues information document requests with hard deadlines. What you miss becomes a proposed adjustment; what you overshare becomes new questions.
Stage 1 · Due Diligence — where we step in
Due diligence on your side of the file: records organized against each request — complete, responsive, and nothing volunteered beyond what is asked.
Move 3 of 5 · Tax + penalties proposed
If you wait — the IRS
The examination report proposes more tax — usually with accuracy-related penalties riding on top. Sign it, and it becomes what you owe.
Stage 2 · Solution Execution — where we step in
We argue facts and law at examination level, where most audits are decided — with a representative who coordinated large-case audits from the other side.
Move 4 of 5 · Appeals deadline
If you wait — the IRS
Disagree, and the case can move to IRS Appeals — an independent review with a deadline to request it. Miss the window and the assessment hardens.
Stage 2 · Solution Execution — where we step in
Representation runs through appeals. Jim spent 19 years inside this process; your case is presented the way the other side reads cases.
Move 5 of 5 · Into collection
If you wait — the IRS
An unresolved audit ends as assessed tax that flows straight into the collection stream — notices, then lien and levy exposure behind them.
Stage 3 · Maintain Compliance — where we step in
After the audit closes, we keep you compliant and monitor your account weekly, at no charge — the next letter never ambushes you again.
Move 1 of 5 · Penalties accruing
If you wait — the IRS
Unfiled returns do not age away. Failure-to-file penalties run as high as 25% of the tax per return — and your refund claims expire three years after each due date.
Stage 1 · Due Diligence — where we step in
We interview your IRS account first: which years the IRS shows as missing, and what income it already has on record for you.
Move 2 of 5 · Substitute returns
If you wait — the IRS
Wait long enough and the IRS prepares a substitute for return — built from income records alone, with none of your deductions, credits, or correct filing status.
Stage 1 · Due Diligence — where we step in
Wage and income transcripts pulled, so your real returns are built on the IRS’s own data — and beat the substitute on the facts.
Move 3 of 5 · Balances assessed
If you wait — the IRS
Balances from substitute returns become assessed, collectible debt — and the collection machinery starts on numbers you never agreed to.
Stage 2 · Solution Execution — where we step in
Your actual returns are prepared and filed: refunds claimed while they are still yours to claim, filing status corrected, the real balance established.
Move 4 of 5 · Penalties compounding
If you wait — the IRS
On every open year, failure-to-file and failure-to-pay penalties plus interest keep compounding on the assessed balance.
Stage 2 · Solution Execution — where we step in
Penalty relief, documented: every abatement your facts support is identified, argued, and — if the first answer is no — appealed.
Move 5 of 5 · Cycle restarts
If you wait — the IRS
One new unfiled year restarts the entire cycle — penalties, substitutes, collection — from the top.
Stage 3 · Maintain Compliance — where we step in
Compliance restored and kept: current filings on time, and your account monitored weekly at no charge so a slip is caught in days.
Move 1 of 5 · Fast enforcement
If you wait — the IRS
Payroll taxes are trust-fund money in the IRS’s eyes — it collected them from your employees’ wages. Enforcement here moves faster than anywhere else in the system.
Stage 1 · Due Diligence — where we step in
We review the business’s account and separate what is assessed, what is still accruing, and exactly who is exposed.
Move 2 of 5 · Personal liability
If you wait — the IRS
The Trust Fund Recovery Penalty can make owners and other “responsible persons” personally liable for the business’s payroll debt — your house, not just your company.
Stage 1 · Due Diligence — where we step in
Due diligence before any interview. The IRS’s responsible-person questions are answered prepared and represented — never cold, never casually.
Move 3 of 5 · Operating levy
If you wait — the IRS
The IRS can levy business bank accounts and receivables. For an operating company, one levy can stop payroll, rent, and the business itself.
Stage 2 · Solution Execution — where we step in
Representation with a resolution path — a collection agreement or another alternative structured around one fact: the business has to stay alive to pay anyone.
Move 4 of 5 · Reclassification
If you wait — the IRS
Classification disputes can reclassify your contractors as employees — retroactively, with the full employment-tax bill attached.
Stage 2 · Solution Execution — where we step in
Classification disputes and business notice resolution are part of the representation — argued on your facts and your records, not the IRS’s assumptions.
Move 5 of 5 · New periods accrue
If you wait — the IRS
Every new payroll period accrues fresh. Fall behind again and enforcement restarts immediately — this time with a history.
Stage 3 · Maintain Compliance — where we step in
Maintain Compliance: deposits and filings kept current, and the account monitored weekly so a slip surfaces while it is still a phone call, not a levy.
Move 1 of 5 · Stacking penalties
If you wait — the IRS
Failure-to-file, failure-to-pay, and accuracy penalties stack on the same balance — and interest is charged on the penalties themselves. The pile grows by itself.
Stage 1 · Due Diligence — where we step in
We pull the account and itemize it: exactly which penalties were assessed, on which years, and under which rules. Most clients have never seen the list.
Move 2 of 5 · Windows closing
If you wait — the IRS
Every penalty notice carries a response window. Silence reads as agreement — and unchallenged penalties harden into the collectible balance.
Stage 1 · Due Diligence — where we step in
Each assessment verified for accuracy first. Incorrect penalties are challenged on the record, inside the window, with documentation.
Move 3 of 5 · Relief unclaimed
If you wait — the IRS
Reasonable-cause and first-time abatement relief exist inside the system — but the IRS grants them to people who ask properly. It does not volunteer them.
Stage 2 · Solution Execution — where we step in
Penalty relief as a discipline: abatement identified, documented, presented, and appealed — by a practitioner who teaches this material to other firms.
Move 4 of 5 · Full balance collectible
If you wait — the IRS
Unpaid penalties merge with the underlying tax into one collectible balance — and lien and levy exposure follows the total, not the pieces.
Stage 2 · Solution Execution — where we step in
One strategy for the whole balance: relief first, then a collection agreement your real numbers can sustain — not five separate fires.
Move 5 of 5 · Cycle restarts
If you wait — the IRS
A single sloppy filing season adds a fresh layer of penalties on top of the resolved ones. The cycle does not care that you fixed it once.
Stage 3 · Maintain Compliance — where we step in
Maintain Compliance plus weekly account monitoring, at no charge — the next notice gets answered while it is still small.
The pattern never changes: the earlier a stage starts, the more windows stay open. The cheapest move in any tax problem is the first one — and yours starts with thirty free minutes.
Free ConsultationEnforcement timelines vary with each case’s facts. This walk-through is educational — it describes the process and promises no outcome.
This firm does not prepare routine returns or keep books. When the IRS audits, assesses, penalizes, or comes to collect — that is the practice, all of it, for taxpayers and for the firms that represent them.
An audit is an argument about evidence, run on the IRS’s timetable. We run it with you — examination, proposed adjustments, and appeals — and the IRS sends its letters to us, not to your kitchen table.
Payroll tax is trust-fund money in the IRS’s eyes, and it enforces accordingly. Payroll debts, employee classification disputes, business notices, and penalties — handled as one case, not five surprises.
A notice is a claim, not a verdict. We interpret what it actually says, verify whether the IRS is right, and prepare and submit the response — before the response window closes.
Installment agreements, extensions to pay, and currently-not-collectible status. The right agreement is the one your real numbers can sustain — built from your account transcripts and your actual cash flow.
Years behind is a solvable problem. We find exactly which years the IRS shows as missing, build your returns from the IRS’s own records, file them, claim the refunds still open to you, and restore your compliance.
Penalties are assessed by default and removed by argument. We identify every abatement your facts support — reasonable cause, first-time relief — document it, present it, and appeal it if the first answer is no.
Before anyone negotiates, we interview your account. The firm contacts the IRS and reviews your issues, penalties, and enforcement status — generally reaching back 18 years. Most resolution mistakes are made in the dark; this turns the lights on. Available to taxpayers and to tax firms.
For firms that represent: the systems behind this practice — client management for controversy cases, IRS notice monitoring, and processes that cut representation risk — from the practitioner who wrote the handbook on the subject.
Free Consultation Tell us which one sounds like your envelope.
Every engagement in this firm runs the same published sequence — the one from our FAQ, and the one Jim teaches to other practitioners.
We start with the IRS’s own records — transcripts, balances, penalties, enforcement status — set against your facts, before anyone proposes a solution. Most bad outcomes in tax resolution start as guesses. Ours start as an account review.
Then we execute the path your facts support: representation inside the audit, the collection agreement, the penalty argument, the overdue filings — negotiated and documented directly with the IRS or the state, by the people you hired.
Resolution is not the finish line. We keep you filing and paying current — and we monitor your IRS account weekly, at no charge, so the next issue surfaces in days, while it is still small.
INCLUDED AFTER RESOLUTION Weekly IRS account monitoring — at no charge. If the IRS moves again, we know within days.
Jim Buttonow is the inventor and co-founder of Beyond415 — the post-filing tax controversy software built to systematize exactly the work this firm does, and adopted over the years by tax giants such as Thomson Reuters and H&R Block. The processes in this practice were not borrowed from a playbook. He automated them.
Chief architect · Inventor · Co-founder — New River Innovation
Jim authors CCH’s The Tax Problems and Solutions Handbook — the working reference on audits, collections, and penalties. Madison Whitfield is its bi-annual editor, and together they co-authored the IRS Collection Solutions Handbook (2025). When other practitioners get stuck on a case like yours, this is the shelf they reach for.
Quoted, published, and teaching where the profession reads
Tax Notes · FA Magazine · GOBankingRates · Wall Street Journal · CPA Practice Advisor · Journal of Accountancy · Accounting Today
Twice named to Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting · NATP contributing expert on IRS representation · On the faculty at NCSEA Fall 2026 and for NATP’s Introduction to IRS Representation
OUR PARTNERS & CIRCLES CCH Wolters Kluwer · National Association of Tax Professionals · Accounting Today · Pioneer Educator · CPE Warehouse
When you hire Buttonow CPA, your case is worked by the people on this page. There is no hand-off queue behind them.
Founder & Managing Principal
Jim spent 19 years inside the IRS in compliance and enforcement — including as a Large Case Team Audit Coordinator — before entering private practice in 2006. He chaired the IRS Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee (ETAAC) in 2015 and 2016, served as North Carolina’s representative on the IRS Taxpayer Advocacy Panel from 2020 to 2022, and has testified before Congress.
He invented and co-founded Beyond415, the post-filing controversy software; authors CCH’s Tax Problems and Solutions Handbook; and has twice been named to Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting. He is NATP’s contributing expert on IRS representation — and he still takes the free consultation calls himself.
Enrolled Agent
Madison is an Enrolled Agent who resolves post-filing tax problems every working day: audits, unfiled returns, penalties, business and payroll tax issues, tax debt, and controversy. When you book the free consultation, you may well get Madison — that is a feature of this firm, not a substitute.
She keeps the profession’s reference current: Madison is the bi-annual editor of CCH’s Tax Problems and Solutions Handbook and co-author, with Jim, of the IRS Collection Solutions Handbook (2025). The person working your case helps write the book the rest of the field reads.
Three clients, in their own words.
“I am so grateful for ALL of your help. I am finally feeling like I can officially move forward.”
“Many thanks for explaining how this all works and taking this off my plate. I cannot tell you how much relief I feel.”
“I don’t know what we could have done without your help. Our business can now get back to business.”
Client comments describe individual experiences. Every case turns on its own facts — no outcome is promised or implied.
Selected for examination? Representation from the first letter to the last appeal.
A balance you cannot pay in full is a negotiation — not a dead end.
However many years behind you are, there is a first step, and it is not a form.
Assessed by default. Removed by argument, documentation, and timing.
Trust-fund taxes draw the fastest enforcement in the system. Match it.
Business notices, classification disputes, and penalties, handled as one case.
You do not have to take their calls. Dealing with the IRS is what we do for a living.
Do not guess what is in your account. We interview it — back 18 years.
Consultation, account reviews, and systems for firms that represent taxpayers.
You talk with Jim or Madison about your actual problem: what the IRS has done so far, what your account likely shows, what happens next if you wait — and if you act. The consultation is free for new clients, one per individual or business, by appointment, with no obligation. One honest limit: a consultation is a conversation, not an advice relationship. That relationship starts only if you engage us, in writing.
Our consultation is free — no obligations. If we help you, we will quote you our fees. We charge hourly for our services, and after your free consultation we can provide an estimate of the length of time and the fees associated with resolving your issues. No honest figure exists before we have seen your facts — and we would rather quote you a real number after thirty free minutes than a guess before them.
With your IRS account, not with your paperwork. We contact the IRS and interview your account: which years show as unfiled, what income the IRS already has on record for you, and whether it has filed substitute returns in your name. Then your real returns are prepared and filed — claiming the refunds still open to you, mitigating the penalties and interest where the facts allow, and restoring your compliance. However many years behind you are, the first step is the same, and it is a phone call.
Faster than feels comfortable — enforcement runs on published steps, and several of them carry response windows and hearing deadlines that close whether you answer or not. What representation does is step into those windows while they are still open: your account is reviewed, the IRS deals with us, and the resolution path your facts support — a collection agreement, penalty relief, a hearing — is put in front of enforced collection. We cannot rewind a deadline that has already passed. That is exactly why the first call is free.
Yes. IRS representation is federal practice. We are based in Summerfield, North Carolina, and we work with taxpayers and tax firms nationwide by phone, email, and text — audits, collections, and controversy do not require you to sit in our office, and most of our work never does.
Before anyone negotiates, we find out what the IRS actually has on you. In an account review, the firm contacts the IRS, interviews your account, and reviews your issues, penalties, and enforcement status — our reviews generally go back 18 years. You learn what the IRS believes you owe, what it has already done, and what it can do next. Most resolution mistakes are made in the dark; the review turns the lights on. Tax firms order them for their own client cases, too.
Yes — Tax Firm Consultation is one of our eight services. Jim consults to other firms on the work he has spent a career systematizing: client management for controversy cases, IRS notice monitoring, and processes that reduce representation risk. He also teaches this material — including a four-hour offer-in-compromise workshop and NATP’s Introduction to IRS Representation. Bring us the case that is keeping you up at night.
Stage three: Maintain Compliance. A resolution only holds if you stay current — filings made, payments made, estimates kept up. And we do not simply wish you luck: after resolution, we monitor your IRS account weekly, at no charge, so a new balance or notice surfaces within days, while it is still small enough to fix cheaply.
Tell us what the IRS has done so far. We will tell you where you stand, what happens next if you wait — and the path out, in plain English. If we are not the right firm for your problem, thirty minutes is enough for us to say that too.
Free Consultation Call (336) 253-8266
NEW CLIENTS · ONE PER INDIVIDUAL OR BUSINESS · BY APPOINTMENT · NO OBLIGATION
