Home / Illustrative Tax Scenario Evidence Lab
An illustrative taxpayer discovers a possible issue in returns prepared in earlier years.
Fictional, illustrative planning scenario. It does not describe a client, completed engagement or verified savings.
A new advisor sees a missing schedule but has not established what was previously reported.
Reconstruct the history before selecting a correction procedure.
Collect filed returns; workpapers; source records; correspondence; year-by-year issue list. Match each document to the relevant entity, property and reporting period. Then choose the decision below that matches the question you need to resolve.
Test the conclusion against an unresolved owner or reporting entity.
Distinguish a model input from verified books.
Expose the different dates the illustration depends on.
Test whether the example confuses an obligation with an actual payment.
Identify the cost pool the example actually analyzes.
Review what other people actually do in the fact pattern.
Test the example against the treatment already reported.
Build the comparison the headline leaves out.
Identify the steps required after the recommendation.
Add the costs necessary to execute and maintain the proposal.
Keep federal and state questions visible as separate inputs.
Extend the illustration to a possible sale, exit or later owner cash need.
Use the following primary guidance to frame the questions. The worksheet organizes facts; it does not replace analysis of the relevant year, ownership, elections or state treatment. Record the applicable period, confirm the source version and retain the preparer's written conclusions with the supporting documents.
Published 2026-10-09. Prepared by AE Tax Advisors as an educational record-collection resource.
Resolve the related evidence question before carrying a planning assumption into implementation.