Offer in Compromise

Many taxpayers find themselves in a position where they can never payoff the IRS. It's mathematically impossible with all the Penalties and Interest the IRS continues to ADD every day. These old tax liabilities can prevent you from ever owning a house or car. The banks won’t even talk to you with a Federal Tax Lien on your credit report. The constant worrying about how to get on with life is never ending.

The IRS Program called Offer In Compromise allows you to pay the IRS a small amount (pennies on the dollar) and have them wipe out the total amount you owe them, including all penalties and interest. When the IRS accepts your Offer and you pay it, then ALL Federal Tax liens are removed.

It's best to have this procedure done by a professional who deals with it regularly for a number of reasons. If you offer too little, the request will be denied and you're back at square one. If you offer too much, you are paying more than you need to. By letting a professional negotiate an offer based on your particular set of circumstances, you will be paying the acceptable amount on acceptable terms and, most important, the offer is more likely to be accepted.

Wage Garnishment

A wage garnishment is issued by IRS and served on your employer requiring them to withhold a large percentage of your wages (in addition to the current tax withholdings) and pay it over to the IRS. This wage garnishment stays in effect until the tax balance is paid in full. Often the amount remaining that you receive in your paycheck is not enough to live on.

The good news is that wage garnishments can be released or at least modified if you take action. In my experience, there is generally some other problem related to the wage garnishment (i.e., unfiled returns, failure to communicate, defaulted payment plan, etc) that we can take care of. Both you and your employer would benefit from you getting this problem resolved (or avoided if you haven't yet been garnished).

If you have received certified mail from IRS, Levies and Wage Garnishments probably aren't very far behind. If you're self employed, your accounts receivable can also be levied.

Unfiled Tax Returns

People get behind in filing tax returns for many different reasons. Normally there is a powerful reason that the first missed return was not filed; depression, divorce, illness, misunderstanding of filing requirements, some other traumatic event, or a bad case of procrastination. After the first return is missed, there could be fear of discovery for later returns that keep you from filing for years. Whatever the reason, you may find yourself with one unfiled return or many unfiled returns.

You know that you have to get these returns filed. IRS may file them for you if you don't and believe me, the IRS's "Substitute for Returns" also known as "SFR" will most probably result in more tax being owed than necessary. When a return is filed from information available to IRS, which sometimes is nothing more than a guess, you could end up owing much more than you should.

In addition to all the tax, penalties, and interest, caused by unfiled tax returns, IRS could consider the failure to file as a criminal violation punishable by imprisonment. The good news is that if you want to get caught up on unfiled returns and become current with IRS, the chance of criminal prosecution is remote. The even better news is that I can help you get up to date in your tax filings. You won't even have to meet or talk to the IRS in most cases (unless you've already received a summons to appear).

Bank Levies

You say that your checking or savings account has had an IRS levy served on it and the funds were frozen for payment to the IRS in 21 days. In most cases the entire balance in the account is taken leaving you with absolutely no money in the bank.

Levies are one time hits on a bank account designed to "get your attention" that IRS is serious about getting paid their tax money. They cause grief to you leaving you without the cash you were counting on to pay your rent, utilities, food and other necessities. In addition to your inconvenience, the banking institution has to process burdensome paperwork and that certainly won't benefit your banking relationship.

You have to act quickly and precisely to clear this collection action! In most cases, a levy can be released if the IRS can be assured of getting paid the taxes due or if a real hardship is created by the levy. But remember, you only have a short time to make arrangements with IRS before the bank is required to pay the money over to them.

Tax Status Investigations

Many taxpayers know they have problems with the IRS but don’t have a handle on what exactly the problems are. Maybe there are some unfiled tax returns but the years not filed are unknown. Maybe there’s a balance owed but the IRS isn’t doing any collection action and you wonder if they are looking for you.

The Tax Status Investigation I offer gives you a sneak peek at your IRS records. By using either IRS TDS System which is available to me as an e-filer, or using Freedom of Information Act requests, I obtain your tax transcripts from IRS and report my findings to you. You will be able to see exactly what IRS agents see when they review your tax files.

Along with the transcripts I provide you with a Proposed Course of Action. This step-by-step recommendation of how to fix your problems once and for all outlines what needs to be done to completely and permanently solve your tax problems. Additional fees I would charge to assist you in the Proposed Course of Action are also discussed in the report.

Installment Plan

If you find yourself behind in tax liabilities, you can always borrow at the IRS Bank. The IRS has over One Hundred Billion dollars owed to them by individual and business taxpayers.

When you find that you can’t pay what you owe, the IRS will work out some type of payment arrangements. The IRS guidelines for what expenses they will allow each month are very stringent. But the bottom line is that you only pay the IRS what you can afford each month. For example: A taxpayer who owes the IRS $43,000 may only be paying $50 per month and a taxpayer who owes $16,000 may be paying $800 per month. How much you owe does not matter. The payment arrangements are based on how much you can pay. You must understand what the IRS guidelines allow BEFORE any contract is made with the IRS regarding monthly payments.

I can review a taxpayer's financial condition and can usually suggest the amount which the IRS will accept for a monthly payment before we contact the IRS. You must approve the monthly payment amount before we agree to anything with the IRS. The best time to handle an IRS payment arrangement is BEFORE the IRS levies your bank account or garnishes your wages. Come in for a FREE Consultation so that we can get started!

Payroll Tax Problems

Nothing can get a business shut down by IRS faster than delinquent payroll taxes. IRS gets very aggressive very fast when an employer pays other bills instead of paying over the payroll taxes to the government. Penalties for paying late and filing late can double the amount owed in a very short time.

If you owe back taxes you need a qualified CPA such as myself in your corner before the IRS approaches you about payroll tax problems. Without representation you could easily find yourself personally liability for the 100% "Trust Fund Recovery Penalty".

Think Payroll Tax Problems don't apply to you because you have no employees? Not necessarily. If you have independent contractors working for you and IRS decides to reclassify them to employees, you have some serious trouble.

Before you attempt to deal with Payroll Tax Problems on your own with IRS, give me a call. It could save you a lot of money, huge penalties, and enormous anxiety.

IRS Audits

The time away from your job and family is considerable when dealing with an IRS Audit. The worst part is that if you don’t comply, the cost of any changes by the Auditor can be more than your annual income with all the Penalties and Interest. I don't suggest that any Individual or Business meet with the IRS directly, in connection with an Audit. The IRS Auditors are trained to get more information out of you than you have to provide. They audit people and businesses all day long, every day! How are you supposed to WIN?

The first thing I recommend is that you don’t speak or meet with the auditor. Have an independent CPA handle all correspondence and meetings with the IRS. This puts the IRS on notice that you are serious about winning your audit. The preparation before the audit appointment is extremely important.

I handle IRS Audits by actually performing a pre-audit of your records in our office before the scheduled Audit Date. This way I can uncover any areas where your documentation is not adequate before the IRS Auditor looks at your records.

IRS Audits usually start with one year and then expand to other years as the auditor makes changes. Your goal must be "To stop the Auditors in their tracks on the first year being audited in order to prevent any additional changes in other years."

I will meet with the IRS Auditor in either their office or my office, BUT NOT in Your Home or Office. Our methods allow you to continue your business and personal life and let me deal directly with the IRS.

Penalty Abatement

The IRS assesses penalties to taxpayers for all kinds of reasons. The purpose of penalties is to punish taxpayers enough so they won't do the same thing again. Well, the penalty idea has gotten out of control. Taxpayers are being severely punished by tax penalties to the point of putting their families and themselves into extreme hardship.

What most people don’t know is . . . That many of these penalties can be reduced to zero. The IRS has guidelines which allow many circumstances where the taxpayer is relieved of all the penalties. Before paying all those penalties, you would be well advised to come in for a free consultation to see if you have the "reasonable cause" required by IRS to partially or completely abate the penalties. You want to get caught up with your taxes - why not let IRS help by abating some to those overpowering penalties. We can help you with your request.

Federal Tax Liens

Liens attach not only to real estate, but to all of your assets and they are certainly detrimental to your credit report. Many times they can be avoided if you act quickly. If it is already issued, let me help you develop a plan to get it released so you can gain back your financial freedom.

Collection Appeals

Taxpayers have the right to appeal liens, levies, and seizures proposed by the IRS to the Appeals Office. If the IRS has threatened you with the possibility of taking your wages or bank accounts or other property, requesting a Collection Due Process hearing and proposing a more reasonable solution to the problem may save you the pain and embarrassment of having your property confiscated by the IRS. The timing is critical in Collection Appeals to protect your rights.

IRS Appeals

IRS Appeals is separate from and independent of the division of the Internal Revenue Service proposing the action you disagree with. What they do is review and resolve disputes.

The most common reason to file an IRS Appeal is because of an Audit that results in changes to your income tax returns normally resulting in increased taxes, penalties and interest. If the IRS Auditor can not be persuaded by your facts in your case you have the right (within very strict time limits) to take your case to Appeals.

Don't lose this opportunity to present your case before Appeals when the Audit doesn’t produce the results you expect.

Innocent Spouse

If you still have unpaid taxes due to a spouse and it is not fair to make you pay it, you need to apply for innocent spouse relief. Even if you were turned down under prior tax law, it could still be available to you if you still owe the tax.

Expiration of Statutes

The IRS has 10 years from the date of assessment (usually close to the filing date) to collect all taxes, penalties and interest from the taxpayer. The taxpayer does not owe the IRS anything after the 10-year date has passed. As with all IRS rules, there are exceptions to this rule. Some examples are, if the taxpayer agrees in writing to allow the IRS more time to collect from them or if the taxpayer files bankruptcy during the 10 year period. In both of these situations the period for the IRS to collect is extended for a specific time. Taxpayers that are approaching this 10-year date should request copies of their IRS transcripts to verify the assessment date, so they can accurately compute when the 10-year statue to collect will expire. If the IRS is attempting to collect a tax liability which has expired under the 10 year statute, then the tax payer must inform the IRS in writing that they no longer have the right to collect this tax liability. If the taxpayer is correct, the IRS will write off the tax liabilities which have expired.