What Type of Documentation Will I Need in an IRS Audit? So when you get your initial audit notice there's usually an information document request that is attached to that notice or you'll be instructed to contact the auditor and they'll send you a document request based on that initial conversation so document requests generally swing one of two ways there the document requests where the auditors put time and thought into and then their document requests that serve as what we call fishing expeditions where they just throw everything in the kitchen sink into the document request generally speaking audits are focused on one of two things. They're either income side audits or their expense side wallets because typically people will either under report income or the overstate expenses but they won't do both if you see a a document request that contains income items and expenses it could be a sign that the auditor is engaging in a fiction fishing expedition or it could be that they genuinely want to see both your income and your expenses depending on why your return was selected for audit which the auditor may or may not tell you that'll be a good indication of what they're gonna ask for so for example most people if I ask them honestly probably could tell me why they think their return was selected for audit because the returns that get selected for audit you usually contain some method of error and most clients deep down are generally aware of it if they're not aware of it. Then there might be some cause for concern but generally speaking they're going to be focused on the substantiation of expenses they're going to be focused on substantiation income and some interplay between those two and that'll give you an idea of what documents that you're gonna.