What's the difference, and which one is more likely to wreck your week? A correspondence audit is the lighter version: the IRS reviews your return by mail, asking for proof of specific items like deductions, income, or credits. A field audit is the heavy artillery: an IRS revenue agent shows up at your home, business, or accountant's office to dig through records in person. One is usually narrow and document-driven. The other is broader, more intrusive, and far more likely to expand into other years or issues if the agent smells blood.

The practical difference is leverage. In a correspondence audit, the fight often comes down to whether you can produce clean records by the deadline in the IRS notice. Miss documents, ignore the letter, or send a sloppy response, and the IRS can assess more tax, plus penalties and interest. A field audit gives the government a front-row seat to how you actually operate, which can lead to bigger adjustments, referrals, and deeper scrutiny.

That matters in any claim where income is a live issue. If you are pursuing a personal injury case and claiming lost wages, tax returns and audit findings can help or hurt your credibility. A field audit uncovering unreported income or bad bookkeeping can hand the other side ammunition. A correspondence audit is usually easier to contain before it snowballs into a broader tax dispute or appeal.