5 Things You Should Know About the IRS

As a member of the Cincinnati Bar Association, it was exciting to see my article about solutions to today’s IRS collection problems as the cover story in March’s monthly bar journal.   
Here is a brief overview of the article - 5 Things You Should Know About the IRS:
(1)     The offer in compromise program is not as advertised on television.
(2)     IRS seizures of houses, personal [...]

IRS statute of limitations on collection: Be careful, these actions will extend it.

Tax problems do come to an end – the IRS has 10 years to collect a tax debt.  
But be careful:  The time the IRS has to collect can be unknowingly extended by you. 
The decisions you make in attempting to resolve your tax problem can impact when it ends.  As your collection statute gets closer to expiring, carefully think through the [...]

Offer in compromise: Think twice if the statute of limitations is almost up.

I often have clients who are very focused on an offer in compromise.  But before we plunge in, the first thing I do is check on how much longer the IRS has to collect the tax.
Here is why:
1.     An offer in compromise extends the timeframe the IRS has to collect by amount of [...]

I owe back taxes to the IRS. Now what? Part II of II

In addition to (1) offers in compromise, (2) bankruptcy and (3) uncollectible (See Part I, above), here are three more solutions to owing back taxes to the IRS:
4.      Statute of limitations on collection.  The IRS has 10 years to collect unpaid taxes – starting from when the IRS puts the tax liability on [...]

Why does the IRS ask on Form 433A if you have lived out of the country six months in last 10 years?

It is always important to understand what the IRS is asking, and why.
Resolution of most collection cases involves providing answers to IRS questions about you.  The questions are asked on an IRS financial statement, known as Form 433A.    
One question the IRS asks:  Have you lived out of the country for more than six [...]

Collection of IRS withholding taxes against business owners and managers

The IRS takes the decision to use employee tax withholdings to pay business operating expenses rather than the IRS quite seriously.  The owners and managers of the business who make these decisions will find the IRS coming not only to the business, but to them, to recover a portion of the withholdings.  
This is an [...]

IRS statute of limitations – without waking the IRS

A client came in today with an older tax liability that appeared to have only two years left on the IRS statute of limitations on collection.  The client had not heard from the IRS in years.
A statute of limitations is the time the IRS has to do something.  For IRS collection cases, it is the [...]

Is there such a thing as a “hardship status” with the IRS?

If you cannot pay your delinquent taxes because of an economic hardship, the IRS can suspend collection efforts against you.  This does not mean your debt is forgiven; just that the IRS will defer collection and not take your wages or bank account.
Internal Revenue Service Policy Statement 5-71 permits hardship status on IRS accounts, as [...]

When is the IRS prohibited from taking collection action? Part II

Here are five more situations in which the IRS is barred from taking collection action against you:

When the timeframe to collect the liability has expired.  The IRS has 10 years to collect a liability from the date it puts the liability on its books. When the 10 years is up, the tax is cleared from [...]

When is the IRS prohibited from taking collection action? Part I.

The list of when the IRS cannot take property is fairly extensive, so I will do this in parts to break it down simply. Here is Part I of when the IRS is prohibited from taking collection action:

When there is insufficient equity in the property.  There must be sufficient net proceeds from the sale to [...]

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