The IRS has the power to take your wages, bank accounts, house, and even your retirement account. Additionally, they have the power to restrict your travel. Maybe you are getting ready to travel overseas on a business trip, or have a long-planned trip abroad to visit friends or family members. Maybe you are overseas now and want to return to the states. If you owe money to the IRS, your travel plans can be in jeopardy. Internal Revenue Code Section 7345 allows the IRS to revoke, deny, and limit your passport if you have unpaid taxes. To notify you that they want to take away ... Read More
How to avoid IRS Form 433A financial disclosures
A local IRS collection agent, known as a Revenue Officer, has contacted you, possibly with a surprise visit to your home or work. The Revenue Officer has been assigned your IRS debt for collection, and is about to launch a full investigation into your finances. Or, maybe you are getting up the nerve to give the IRS Automated Collection Service a call, prepared to discuss your debt and make payment arrangements. Either way, at the core, the IRS wants to know how they can get paid. They will want the following information: Where you bank, and how much is in the account. Name of ... Read More
Your IRS agent: Not always the “Bad Guy”
IRS agents - are they as bad as you think they are? Receiving a demand letter from the an IRS Revenue Officer on a Friday can ruin your weekend. Preparing to call and speak with an agent of the IRS Automated Collection System can splinter your nerves. Responding to an IRS auditor's investigation of your tax return can make your pulse run and mind wander with anxiety. An IRS Revenue Officer once told me "I am not a bad guy, but just the face of the bad guy." They have families, children, hobbies, friends outside of work, and take vacations. They are just like you. And, like you, ... Read More
IRS allowable living expenses: Collection guidelines you need to know
You want to repay the IRS, and have a number in mind of what you can afford monthly, but will the IRS accept it? Well, maybe. It all depends on how your monthly living expenses match up to IRS budgeting guidelines. The IRS calls these budgeting guidelines "allowable living expenses" (also referred to as "collection financial standards"). Allowable living expenses can be rigid, as the IRS has their own standards for your living expenses - they will need you to budget in an effort to increase the amount you can repay them. That's right: the IRS will not necessarily accept your ... Read More
How your living expenses can doom an IRS offer in compromise
You want to the get the IRS off your back, and are considering an offer in compromise. After all, at the end of each month, after you pay your bills, you have little money left to pay the IRS back. Settlement seems logical, right? Hold on, not so fast. The IRS may not give you full credit for all of your living expenses, and calculate that you can pay them more than you actually can. This is because the IRS limits living expenses as part of their offer in compromise analysis. In other words, the IRS will put you on their budget, and disregard yours. If your living expense ... Read More