Wednesday, October 30, 2013

IRS Tax Penalty?

Have you been assessed an IRS tax penalty? Did you pay your tax return late, fail to pay your tax, failed to remit tax deposits timely, or simply don’t know what to do when it comes to your IRS tax penalty? Good news, we are going to give a brief overview of the first time abatement clause as it relates to IRS tax penalty issues.
All too often a taxpayer may only fall behind for one year, owe a few thousand, pay it off, along with a $400 or $500 IRS tax penalty. In other situations, an employer may fail to remit federal tax deposits timely, or maybe fail to remit one deposit timely.  Most cases with first time offenders, the IRS will waive some of the IRS Tax Penalties relative to the case. The case described below is a huge win for us as it relates to IRS tax penalty issues.
In this particular case I have a client who accrued IRS tax debt while she was married. The debt was accrued in direct relation to her ex husband’s business income. None the less, she filed jointly and was assessed the liability. We called the IRS and discussed several concerns about the IRS tax penalty. First and foremost, when was it assessed? How much in IRS tax penalties are we looking at?  Finally, the IRS asked what are we ultimately going to do to get the debt resolved? A few other important factors to think about in the case were; has the taxpayer ever accrued an IRS tax penalty previously, more importantly, in the past 3 years? Has the taxpayer been current and compliant since the IRS tax penalty was accrued? Fortunately, we were able to give the IRS all the right answers.
Luckily, my client, who owed $71,000 at the time of the call, qualified for the first time abatement.  I was able to successfully abate over $10,000 in IRS tax penalties on the account under both the first time abatement clause as well as the reasonable cause criteria. Again, we are still working toward an overall settlement, however, it was a nice victory. There were no prerequisites other than those mentioned above. We didn’t have to set up a payment plan, or promise to pay the debt in full. We simply asked for an abatement of the IRS tax penalty in question.
If you or someone you know has IRS tax penalty issues, please call us directly at 720-398-6088 or visit our website at www.highlandtaxresolution.com for more information!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Government Shutdown Ends Effective Immediately!

The government will reopen effective immediately. The Senate agreed to pass the bill to extend the debt ceiling for an additional 90 days or until January 15th. Obama will sign the bill as soon as it lands on his desk tomorrow and furloughed workers are to report tomorrow. Thus, the government shut down will end effective immediately. 

Enjoy!


For more information feel free to call me at 720-398-6088 or check out my website at www.highlandtaxresolution.com

IRS Tax Lien Removed!

We had a client who came to us with a smaller IRS tax issue and an IRS tax lien on her credit report. She had several goals in mind as it related to the IRS tax lien and the removal of the IRS tax lien.  One of her primary goals was to repair her credit.  In order to do so we needed to work quickly on the IRS tax lien removal in order for her to initiate the process of repairing her credit.  When dealing with removing an IRS tax lien there are several items needing to be completed:

- First and foremost we set up a payment plan for the debt to be paid over 72 months - this is called a streamlined agreement 

- Secondly, we set up the plan to be paid via direct debit installments, therefore the IRS would actually go in and debit the account on the date we selected for payments to be made 

- Finally, we applied for a lien removal once we were sure the payment plan was set up and we had at least applied for direct debit program 

The process from start to finish took about 8 months. However, we were able to successfully implement the removal of the IRS tax lien and now our client is on her way to getting her credit repaired. Her secondary goal is to purchase a home.  Once her credit is repaired, she will qualify for a loan, and thus get herself into a home.  She was very pleased with our work and is one of the testimonials on our website at www.highlandtaxresolution.com.  The IRS tax lien can be removed, however, there are several steps to take in order to get there. We were very pleased with the results and more than happy to share. 

If you are in need of an IRS tax lien removal and are unsure on how to go about getting the IRS tax lien removed call us at 720-398-6088 or check our our website at www.highlandtaxresolution.com

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Government Shutdown and the Effects on the IRS

IRS has announced on its website (irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Operations-During-The-Lapse-In-Appropriations) that its operations have been scaled back due to the government shutdown. However, it emphasized that taxpayers must nonetheless continue to meet their tax obligations as normal.
Background on the shutdown. Due to the House and Senate's failure to pass a short-term spending bill to keep the government funded, the government was shut down on October 1. In the days leading up to the shutdown, the House passed several versions of the spending bill, each of which contained a provision that would eliminate funding for, delay significant provisions of, or otherwise make changes to Obamacare. The Senate, in turn, rejected the House-passed versions of the bill and repeatedly sent a "clean" version of it back to the House.

The government shutdown will continue until Congress can reach an agreement.

Effect on IRS operations. The shutdown affects nearly all governmental agencies, including IRS. In anticipation of the potential shutdown, the Treasury Department had released its 63-page long "FY2014 Shutdown Contingency Plan (Non-Filing Season)" for IRS on September 27. On October 1, IRS issued a release on the shutdown's effect on its operations. Highlights follow.

 *   Keep filing returns and making deposits on time. Individuals and businesses should keep filing their tax returns and making deposits with IRS, as required by law. Individuals who requested a 2012 income tax filing extension should file their returns by Oct. 15, 2013, and all other tax deadlines-including those covering individuals, corporations, partnerships, and employers, as well as payroll taxes-remain in effect. IRS will accept and process all tax returns with payments, but will be unable to issue refunds during the shutdown. IRS encouraged taxpayers to file electronically since most of those returns are processed automatically, noting that the processing of paper returns will be delayed until full government operations continue.

 *   No in-person or live phone assistance. No live telephone customer service assistance will be available during the shutdown. However, most automated toll-free telephone applications will remain operational. IRS walk-in taxpayer assistance centers will also be closed. IRS's website will remain available, although some of its interactive features may not be available.

 *   Certain appointments presumed cancelled. While the government is closed, people with appointments related to examinations (audits), collection, Appeals or Taxpayer Advocate cases should assume their meetings are cancelled. IRS personnel will reschedule those meetings at a later date.

 *   Automated notices will continue. IRS won't be working any paper correspondence during the shutdown, but automatic notices will continue to be mailed.


Please keep an eye out for more information. You may find additional information at www.highlandtaxresolution.com