You've made it - reached account resolution with the IRS by entering into an installment agreement to repay your taxes. You may have had to negotiate with a local IRS Revenue Officer, or over the phone with the IRS automated collection service. Maybe, you had minimal negotiations, made possible by qualifying for a streamlined installment agreement, which the IRS will automatically grant if you owe under $50,000 and can repay it in 72 months. Make your payment every month, and the IRS will leave you alone. But there are conditions to the installment agreement - it is not enough just to ... Read More
Dealing with the IRS Automated Collection Service? Know what to expect.
The IRS has two main sources of carrying out its work in collecting taxes: local Revenue Officers and its Automated Collection Service. When you get that call or letter from IRS collections, it's important to know who you are dealing with - and what to expect. The IRS Automated Collection Service - commonly known as "ACS" - is a series of IRS call centers staffed by IRS collection employees. You will never see or meet an ACS employee face-to-face; all of their work is conducted by telephone. And the vast majority of telephone work conducted by ACS is responding to inbound calls, not ... Read More
Know the IRS warning signs of levy or seizure: IRS Letter 3174, New Warning of Enforcement
When working with an IRS Revenue Officer, there are two warning signs that levy action is imminent. The first sign is the IRS Final Notice of Intent to Levy. This notice is required by law (Internal Revenue Code 6331) and provides a 30 day right to stop levy action by filing an administrative appeal. The appeal puts resolution in the hands of an IRS settlement officer (as opposed to an IRS enforcement officer). This is known as a collection due process appeal because levy action cannot occur until you have exhausted your rights to review. And if you cannot reach resolution with a ... Read More
An IRS letter that you want to receive: Case Closed – Currently Not Collectible
There are many options to resolve an unpaid tax liability - you can agree with the IRS to make monthly installment payments, reach a settlement with an offer in compromise, eliminate the taxes in bankruptcy, or have the IRS place your account in currently not collectible status. Let's focus on currently not collectible. Currently not collectible status occurs when the IRS agrees that you cannot afford to repay the debt, and doing so would create an economic hardship on you. It is forbearance by the IRS, a break from enforcement that can last years. To obtain currently not collectible ... Read More
Understanding Federal tax liens: How they work, when they expire and why they can be refiled
The Internal Revenue Code does not make it easy to understand how Federal tax liens work. Hopefully, that is what I am here for. The starting point to understanding your tax lien is to know that it lasts for the amount of time the IRS has to collect from you – 10 years. After the 10 year statute of limitations on collections expires, the IRS is required to release the lien. To accomplish this on a wide scale, the IRS inserts language into the lien that makes it “self-releasing.” That means it is automatically released when the 10 years is up. This “self-releasing” aspect of a tax ... Read More