The IRS loves to send letters telling you how much you owe, that they want to levy your wages, and demanding that you immediately contact them. It can seem like the IRS letter onslaught will last forever and follow you for the rest of your life. If only you could go to your mailbox without the fear and anxiety of having another IRS letter drop on you. But it does come to an end. The IRS are limited by law on how long they can write to you and try to collect. Specifically, Internal Revenue Code 6502, "Collection After Assessment," limits the IRS to 10 years to collect a tax debt. ... Read More
Protect your passport from the IRS: Responding to letter CP508C
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
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
Fear the IRS closing down your business? It’s not as likely as you think
You worked your whole life to get to this point, a business that belongs to you, making your own decisions, working your trade and sharing expertise. But then things suddenly got a little out of control, and you got behind paying the IRS. Maybe it started with one bad year, and you thought you could get a handle on it and get caught up soon. But tomorrow never came, and the damage continued to snowball year after year. Now the IRS is owed more than you can ever pay. And you fear losing your business and all that you worked for, and having nothing for retirement. Fear not, it ... Read More
Getting information from the IRS without waking the beast
You know you owed money to the IRS, but things have been quiet for years. You now want to know where you stand. But you don't want to wake the sleeping giant to find out. Fortunately, there is a solution: The IRS Practitioner Priority Service. The IRS Practitioner Priority Service is a phone line that the IRS has made available to tax professionals, like attorneys and CPAs, to ask questions about their clients' accounts. The nice part is that our calls to the IRS Practitioner Priority Service are made "under the IRS radar." The IRS representatives that staff the Practitioner ... Read More