Our office provides personal, effective assistance to (would-be) taxpayers who are experiencing difficulty with the IRS. It is a fact that resolution of IRS problems is surprisingly achievable at this time.

Our firm's approach contrasts with that of certain companies who broadcast television advertisements promising to “take on the IRS” on your behalf. If you are in trouble with the IRS, you have certainly watched these commercials carefully, hoping they are telling the truth, but knowing hype when you hear it. Therefore, you may be in doubt about how much if anything of what they say is true. Basically, the situation is this. While there is no valid reason why these companies should be hyping their service in the way they do, nevertheless, there is some validity in what they are pitching -- the IRS really does have programs that can be very beneficial to taxpayers in debt.

In the real world, what these companies actually do consists of filling out and submitting to the IRS the extensive paperwork required to participate in these tax settlement programs. However, what they do in their advertisements is to puff up what they actually do, and in turn charge a puffed-up fee. Those who are drawn to their message to contact them are in trouble, and these companies know you are in trouble. When people in trouble they are frightened, under stress, desperate; this makes them vulnerable to being manipulated into overpaying for services. In any case, customer dissatisfaction with these companies is not uncommon; a word search pairing the name of any one of these firms with “fraud,” or “scam,” makes this very clear. The fee for our services can be set according to the sliding fee scale.

The key thing in all this is that there is a valid and valuable service to be rendered. As stated, the IRS does have programs which can be very beneficial for citizens who are in this kind of trouble with the tax collection agency. The paperwork can seem overwhelming and complex, and it takes some time to figure it all out. This fact enables those of us who have gained experience in the area to assist those who need immediate help. There is no great secret involved. The more conscientiously the paperwork is done, the better will be the result. Moreover, it is also true that the more personally your representative knows you and your situation, the more sincerely and genuinely he can advocate on your behalf in interpersonal dealings with IRS personnel; as a natural result, these personnel (most of whom are perfectly decent people) will be naturally inclined to see you as a fellow human being(s) who want to get this problem straightened out, rather than as a faceless, cookie-cutter application to be dealt with in a correspondingly impersonal way.

The most widely accessible and useful of the IRS's programs in this area is the Offer in Compromise (OIC) program. In very many cases involving hardship, it provides a way to substantially reduce your tax debt. Also, all IRS collection efforts will cease while your Offer is being processed (a period of approximately a year). As its name indicates, this program consists of you making a compromise offer to the IRS to settle your tax debt. To determine what is an acceptable offer, the IRS uses a formula. In a nutshell, that formula involves adding together your (non-exempt) assets, plus disposable monthly income times forty-eight (the number of maximum repayment period). In turn, the way "disposable" income is calculated involves subtracting from your income your monthly expenses. There are set "allowances" for expenses, and these are contained on tables. You can find much of what you need to know in this regard at the IRS’s website.

Generally speaking, if you owe the government a great deal of money, and are unable to pay it back, the fact that you have little or no money left after paying your necessary expenses will be borne out in your calculations, reflected in your submission to the Agency. It is often very worthwhile. If you feel that you do need assistance in coming to grips with your situation, please contact our office.