IRS appeals/tax court help

[nanomug]

What is the name of your state? California
We are in the midst of a mess with the IRS. Last year the IRS questioned deductions from our 2002 tax return. Our tax person is an Enrolled Agent and would be handling the inquirey. We signed the papers (power of attorney) for her to do so. The IRS did not receive them or acknowledge receipt of them for months. Several copies were sent/faxed. We had requested that the case be moved to the local IRS office and received no response. In the meantime the IRS decided closed the case and said we owed money. As the deadline approached for appealing to Tax Court, the IRS had not recognized the power of attorney or our requests to move the case to a local office. We then filed with Tax Court and received confirmation of the filing. Now the IRS appeals wants to review the case and they say "it is in both of our benefits to settle". They have set a date and time to do so. They have asked for a phone number where we can be reached and documentation of the deductions. We have the documentation and in researching this issue found other deductions that were not included (donations of goods with reciepts) that the amount is far greater than we had thought. We did find an error on the tax form with the charity cash and charity non cash numbers reversed.
I have no experience with the IRS appeals. What should we expect and how should we prepare?

[Snipes5]

Your EA should really be telling you all of that...

It is common for the IRS NOT to want to go to Tax Court.

Your EA should prepare the documentation addressing the questions the IRS is asking, and possibly an amended return, showing the increased deductions.

YOU should actually not say or do anything at the meeting. That is what you are paying the EA to do.

Snipes

[nanomug]

The matter has been solved and never made it to a meeting. Our EA submitted our information; IRS Appeals court reviewed the material and called our EA saying that there were some things they would disallow and they were not worth adjusting the return so they are leaving the return as is. We are waiting for the official letter which will require that we agree to their ruling.