Federal Tax Debt Relief

There’s nothing less pleasant than owing the IRS money. Find out how PriorTax can help.

Most people who are late on their taxes find there’s nothing to worry about. In fact many get a refund. But for an unfortunate few, late taxes mean crippling debt that seems impossible to pay off. These problems, however, are not insurmountable.

Scary as it might seem, the IRS is a reasonable organization willing to work out a solution that works for you. In order to get results, however, you have to know how to navigate the tax code and the IRS bureaucracy.

That’s where PriorTax comes in. Our experienced professionals can work with you and negotiate with the IRS to make your tax burden more manageable. Here’s what we can do:

Stop Collections

The first thing we’ll do is stop collection of your tax debt while we negotiate a solution. We can issue a Stay of Collections which will stop IRS tax liens, levies, and seizures. This includes negotiating a full or partial release of IRS wage garnishment so that you can start making money again.

Negotiate an Offer in Compromise or Installment Agreement

We may be able to make your tax debt more manageable through an Offer in Compromise that forgives some of your tax debt outright, settling your tax liability for less than the full amount you owe.

Recent changes have made Offers in Compromise available to even more taxpayers. However, they are generally reserved for people struggling to pay their bills. The IRS will look through your income and assets to make a determination about your ability to pay.

If you still can’t pay your tax bill all at once, we may be able to help you set up an installment agreement that breaks it up into manageable monthly payments.

The IRS recently raised the installment agreement threshold from $25,000 to $50,000, making it much easier to apply for an installment agreement if you owe less than $50,000 as the IRS. They have also increased the maximum time to pay from five to six years.

Reduce IRS penalties

A big pieces of the tax debt puzzle is penalties for failing to file and/or pay. Any effective tax debt resolution plan will seek to minimize these penalties to the extent possible.

PriorTax may be able to arrange a penalty abatement that reduces the fees you owe the IRS for not filing your return on time or not paying your tax debt. This is especially true if your tax troubles are due to circumstances beyond your control, such as the destruction of your house.

You are especially likely to receive penalty relief if you fall into one of the following categories:

• Wage earners who have been unemployed at least thirty consecutive days during the last two years.
• Self-employed individuals who experienced a 25% or greater reduction in business income due to the economy.

Generally penalty relief is reserved for low- and middle-income taxpayers. Married filing jointly taxpayers with an AGI greater than $200,000 and single, married filing separately, head of household, and qualifying widow(er) taxpayers with income greater than $100,000 may be less eligible for penalty relief.

To find out more information about our tax resolution services or contact one of our tax specialists please visit our tax resolution services page.

Photo via woodleywonderworks on Flickr.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013 at 9:56 pm and is filed under Tax News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.