If you have tax troubles that haven’t been addressed, it’s time for you to see a tax professional and get to know your options. I wanted to highlight a success story of a client who did just that. For the sake of this post, I’ll call him Bill.
I remember his face, clear as day. Panicked is the only word to describe it. At the time, Bill was my newest client but he was nervous, because his hand was clammy when I shook it. Bill was holding a copy of my newsletter, The IRS Times & Inquirer and some of the stories about people being sent away to prison for cheating on their taxes had him scared. He pointed to a particular story about a doctor who was sent to the big house for six months for underreporting his income. “Six months in prison!” Bill asserted. I urged him to calm down, and got him a bottle of water. I asked him to tell me his concerns about the IRS tax issues he was facing. Bill explained that his business had gone under as a result of the economic recession and due to some bad tax advice, he not only owed back taxes to the IRS, but was worried that not everything had been reported. He hadn’t willfully cheated on his taxes, so prison wasn’t a concern. What overwhelmed Bill was the thought of paying the IRS tax debt he owed. “My debt just seems insurmountable,” he told me.
Fast forward to today, the good news is Bill is on the road to tax recovery. Here are some of the strategies we employed in his case:
- We reviewed his previous returns, corrected errors, and then presented our case to the IRS.
- We told tax agents that Bill wanted to come clean and wanted to get out of tax debt.
- Our negotiations with the IRS resulted in entering him into an Offer in Compromise agreement that significantly reduced Bill’s tax debt giving him the fresh start he needed.
The truth is, Bill’s story is not uncommon.
While it’s true that there are many, many examples of people who are sent to prison or fined tens of thousands of dollars for not paying their taxes — or, worse, cheating on their taxes — there are the examples like Bill’s that you do not hear about. There are examples of people who have made mistakes, owe huge sums of money to the IRS, and through careful negotiations with the help of a qualified tax professional, are able to eliminate their tax debt and move on to an easier-breathing chapter of their lives.
I’m reminded of Bill’s story, because last month, millions of Americans filed their taxes. Many of these taxpayers won’t think twice about their returns. Some will get refunds; others will pay a modest amount, perhaps. But there are many Bills out there — people who file their taxes with dread, people who have IRS tax debt, people who are afraid that one day soon the taxman will knock on their door. For them, this uneasy feeling won’t go away until they address their tax problems.
If you are a Bill, it’s time for you to see a qualified tax professional to get the tax relief you need.
Michael Rozbruch is a Certified Tax Resolution Specialist, a member of the American Society of IRS Problem Solvers and a Maryland CPA. You can contact him at 866-477-7762 to obtain a free subscription to his newsletter titled The IRS Times & Inquirer.
