Licensed IRS audit representation — from the first notice to the closing letter.
Flagship service IRS Audit Representation Personal representation by an enrolled agent who spent 8+ years as a Revenue Agent and 15+ years as an Appeals Officer. See how it works →Behind-the-scenes audit consulting and AI tools for the professionals who carry the case.
Consulting IRS Audit Consulting For CPAs, tax attorneys & enrolled agents: your client, your name on the door — Appeals-grade strategy behind you. How consulting works →13 custom AI apps for licensed tax professionals — trained on proprietary data, built by the practitioner who uses them.
Flagship app Tax Advisor 360 25+ core functions across preparation, audit representation, appeals navigation, and quality control — Socratic guidance with stated confidence levels. Meet the suite →Thirteen apps. One standard: the way Appeals would read it.
Book a Live DemoIRS Tax Controversy · Enrolled Agent Representation
You don’t have to read the IRS alone. This practice is led by an enrolled agent who spent 24+ years inside the Service — 8+ years as a Revenue Agent building audit files, 15+ years as an Appeals Officer deciding them. The person who used to sit on the other side of the desk now sits on yours.
Representation for taxpayers · Consulting for CPAs, tax attorneys & EAs · 13 custom AI apps
STATUS FILE OPEN — EXAMINATION
READER REVENUE AGENT
QUESTION CAN EVERY LINE BE DOCUMENTED?
STATUS PROTEST FILED — APPEALS
READER APPEALS OFFICER
QUESTION DOES THE RECORD SUPPORT SETTLEMENT?
STATUS CLOSING ON THE RECORD
READER THE FILE ITSELF
QUESTION IS THE RECORD COMPLETE?
Every stage has a reader. We write for all three.
Start where you stand
Sterling Tax IQ does two things with one 24-year IRS career — it represents people under audit, and it equips the professionals who represent them. Pick your door.
For taxpayers under audit
A notice arrived, and the IRS is asking questions you shouldn’t answer alone. We step in as your licensed representative — the Service deals with us, and your file gets built by someone who has written files like it.
For CPAs · Tax attorneys · EAs
Your client is under audit — or your practice needs controversy-grade tools. Get behind-the-scenes consulting from a former Appeals Officer, and 13 custom AI apps built by the practitioner who uses them.
The signature walkthrough
Every audit case is read twice — once by the IRS, once by your representative. Sterling Cunningham has been both readers. Advance the case and see each stage the way each side sees it.
A general walkthrough of how an audit case moves — not advice on any specific case
Stage 1 of 3Examination
The IRS side
A Revenue Agent builds the file issue by issue: income tested against the records, deductions tested against documentation, every answer written down. What isn’t documented doesn’t exist — and the file is written to be read later, by Appeals.
Your side
We build your side of the file to the same standard: records organized to the issue, responses that answer the question asked — nothing volunteered, nothing missing — written by someone who spent 8+ years writing these files.
The IRS side
An Appeals Officer isn’t re-auditing you — they’re deciding whether the Service should settle rather than litigate. They weigh the protest, the record, and the hazards of litigation on both sides. A thin file settles thin.
Your side
15+ years deciding those settlements. We write the protest to the standard Appeals actually applies: facts organized, law attached, hazards weighed the way the other side weighs them — before they do.
The IRS side
The case closes on the record that was made: agreement, concession, or a statutory notice of deficiency that starts the Tax Court clock. Nothing new gets built at this stage — the file speaks.
Your side
We close at the strongest point the record supports. And we’re plain about the boundary: Tax Court belongs to attorneys and admitted practitioners — if your case belongs there, we prepare the file your attorney takes in.
For taxpayers
When you’re under audit, the IRS gets a professional reader of your finances. You should have one too — one who has been theirs.
Once we represent you, the IRS deals with us. You stop being interviewed and start being represented.
Every response assembled the way the examining agent — and later, Appeals — will read it: organized to the issue, documented, complete.
Examination first, then Appeals if the record earns it — with settlement analysis at every step, run to the standard the other side applies.
If a case belongs in Tax Court, we say so plainly and prepare the file for the attorney who takes it in. No surprises, no overpromising.
The record
Examined returns and built the files that Appeals later reads.
Managed the agents doing the examining.
Settled cases on their facts, their law, and their hazards — for 15+ years.
Led an Appeals team; managed nationwide Appeals programs.
Taught the work inside the Service and helped shape the guidance behind it.
Five years analyzing business systems — the bridge from the IRS playbook to the AI suite below.
For CPAs · Tax attorneys · Enrolled agents
Audit consulting for the professionals who carry the case: behind-the-scenes strategy from a former Appeals Officer — protest standards, settlement analysis, and a second read of the file before the IRS reads it again.
Your protest read the way Appeals will read it — strengths, gaps, and hazards flagged before it’s filed, not after it’s answered.
An examination going sideways gets a stage-by-stage read: what the agent is building, what Appeals will need, and what to do next — in that order.
The same playbook, productized: 13 custom AI apps for licensed professionals — appeals, litigation support, trust fund recovery defense, and more.
Meet the suite →The AI suite
Thirteen custom GPTs for licensed tax professionals — each trained on unique proprietary data, each built around the way the IRS actually works a case. Meet eight of them:
Flagship app
25+ core functions spanning tax preparation, audit representation, appeals navigation, quality control, and professional practice management — with Socratic-method guidance that states its confidence level on every answer.
Start a free trial16 core functions — protest preparation, CDP navigation, Tax Court petition guidance.
16 core functions of appeals and litigation support, built for the practitioner’s side of the case.
Appeals reasoning, structured — the decision path an officer walks, laid out step by step.
13 core functions — Form 4180 interview prep, Letter 1153 protest, CDP, and refund litigation strategy.
16 core functions — IRC §469(c)(7) real-estate-professional qualification, passive activity losses, audit defense.
Due diligence guidance for preparers working under the 6695(g) penalty standard.
AI tax discharge guidance for bankruptcy attorneys and tax professionals.
Five more apps complete the suite of 13. Book a live demo for the full catalog and a walkthrough.
Pricing, in the open
Published prices, no quote games — the same table we publish everywhere:
For tax preparers
For bankruptcy attorneys & tax pros
For CPAs, attorneys & EAs
For CPAs, EAs & tax attorneys
For licensed tax professionals
Representation and consulting are engaged case by case — book a live demo and we’ll scope yours.
The practitioner
Sterling F. Cunningham spent 24+ years inside the Internal Revenue Service. He examined returns as a Revenue Agent for 8+ years, then settled cases as an Appeals Officer for 15+ years — and managed both sides of that work, as a Revenue Agent Group Manager and an Appeals Team Manager, teaching it as an instructor and shaping it as a policy analyst.
Between the Service and this practice, he spent five years as a Senior Business and Systems Analyst — the bridge that turned a career of IRS procedure into the practice’s second product line: custom AI apps that put the playbook in other professionals’ hands.
Today he does two things with that career. He represents taxpayers under audit, personally. And he equips CPAs, tax attorneys, and enrolled agents — with consulting, and with tools — to do the same for their clients.
Book a Live DemoQuestions, answered straight
Yes. Enrolled agents are authorized to represent taxpayers before the IRS — in examinations and in appeals. At Sterling Tax IQ, that representation is backed by 24+ years of service inside the agency itself, including 8+ years as a Revenue Agent and 15+ years as an Appeals Officer.
Don't answer it alone, and don't ignore it. The examination is where the record gets built — and the record decides everything that follows. We step in as your representative, take over communication with the IRS, and build your file the way it will be read.
We'll tell you plainly. Practice before the U.S. Tax Court is limited to attorneys and to practitioners admitted to the Court. If your case belongs there, we prepare the complete file — the record, the protest history, the analysis — for the attorney who takes it in.
Behind the scenes, under your name. We review the file, the protest, and the strategy against the standards Appeals actually applies — and you keep the client relationship and the credit. Book a live demo to talk through a case.
Thirteen custom GPTs built for licensed tax professionals, spanning audit representation, appeals, litigation support, trust fund recovery defense, real estate, due diligence, and bankruptcy discharge. Each is trained on unique proprietary data and runs with enterprise-grade security on CalStudio (Amazon Bedrock).
Yes — the suite is available on a free trial for licensed tax professionals. Individual apps run $49–$269 per use, with named tools like IRC 6695(g) Due Diligence at $99 per use and IRS Bankruptcy Tax Discharge at $249 per use. Bundles of multiple apps run $176–$495 a month.
Book a live demo. We'll look at where your case — or your practice — stands, and tell you honestly whether we're the right help for it. You can also call (601) 207-0355 or email [email protected].
The closing entry
Book a live demo, call, or write. If you’re under audit, the clock in your case is already running — the sooner the file gets a second reader, the more that reader can do.
STERLING TAX IQ · (601) 207-0355 · [email protected]
Outcomes in any IRS matter depend on the facts, the law, and the record of the individual case. No specific result is promised — what we promise is a file built to the standard of the people who will read it.