The first problem many people run in to is that they don’t understand that everything they say to any IRS employee is being memorialized. It is possible that IRS personnel could mistake what a person says, which could even result in an indictment for making a false statement to a federal officer. If you’re already a year or two behind, why risk getting into more trouble by interfacing with the IRS yourself?

Tax law is an extremely complex field. For more than 100 years now, tax lawyers have been finding ingenious ways of helping their clients avoid tax, and the tax writers have come up with equally ingenious ways of eliminating those loopholes. With all that legislation on the books, it takes somebody who specializes in tax law and keeps up with it on a regular basis to know what to do when the IRS comes calling.