IRS Offers In Compromise

Wonderful news from the IRS

Individuals and businesses who owe over $10,000 can avoid paying the IRS in full and avoid bankruptcy. The new IRS Fresh Start Compliance Program is in place, which allows you to settle with the IRS on your delinquent tax bill by paying an agreed amount much less than your original debt. The program utilizes an Offer-In-Compromise. This allows you, if delinquent, to offer the IRS a smaller amount than what you actually owe and gives you an opportunity for a completely NEW START! If you owe $10,000 or more to the IRS, contact a licensed tax professional at Don Fitch Accountancy, a Certified Public Accounting firm specializing in IRS tax negotiation including Offers-In-Compromise.

Overview of the Offer in Compromise Solution

Step 1:

Once you have hired Don Fitch Accountancy (“DFA”) to represent you, DFA begins to gather information and to analyze your tax situation. DFA will contact the taxing authority on your behalf and determine at what stage your file is in the collection process.

We will also attempt to obtain additional time for you to comply with any requests for information or payments. We will keep you informed of all contacts with the taxing authority.

Step 2:

After we have determined the amount of your tax liabilities and the status of any collection activities, we begin to collect financial information to present to the taxing authority.

We will need your help at this critical stage. Without your timely cooperation, we will not be able to effectively represent you. We will ask you to complete financial information forms and to provide us with supporting documentation for the information on the forms.

For example, if you indicated that you are paying rent of $750 per month, we will ask you for copies of your rental receipts or canceled checks. You should begin to collect as much of this information as soon as possible.

Step 3:

Once we have compiled your financial information we will prepare an application for an Offer-In-Compromise to be submitted to the taxing authority. When the application is completed, we will schedule a meeting for you review and sign the documents. We will then submit the application to the taxing authority.

Step 4:

After the application has been submitted to the taxing authority, we will continue to respond to questions asked by the taxing authority. We may ask you for additional information to answer these questions. The most important thing to remember about this stage of the process is to be patient. It can take several months for the taxing authority to review and respond to your application.

Step 5:

If you have applied for an Offer-In-Compromise, the Internal Revenue Service will notify us that a final conference has been scheduled.

If you own a home, the conference may take place in your home. If you rent, the conference may or may not take place at another location, such as the IRS office or our office. The conference will take approximately two hours.

Once a final conference is scheduled, we will give you detailed information on what to expect and how to act during the conference.

Step 6:

After the final conference, we simply wait for a decision from the taxing authority.

As noted above, it may take the taxing authority six months (or longer) to process your application. Once the Revenue Officer assigned to handle your case makes a recommendation, he or she must submit the recommendation to his or her superiors for review and approval. Depending upon the amount of tax you owe, the recommendation may be required to be approved by several levels within the IRS.

Step 7:

Once the taxing authority makes a decision, you will receive a letter indicating that a decision has been reached. If your application for an Offer-In-Compromise has been approved, you will be given various agreements to sign and will be asked to make arrangements to pay any balance remaining on the offered amount. If your application for an Offer-In-Compromise is rejected, we will discuss the benefits, if any, of filing an appeal.