The client and his spouse have had trouble with the IRS for several years, going back to the early 2000’s. They had worked with several different accountants and CPA’s, all of whom gave them conflicting, or outright bad advice, with regards to their taxes and the management of their real estate business. In the midst of this, the wife has been battling severe medical issues which further took the attention away from the management of their taxes, and relied on their accountant to report their taxes correctly. However, after several years, they found out the “accountant” was severely unqualified, and made a bigger mess of their taxes than they could have imagined. Their case had been assigned to an IRS Revenue Officer, who immediately took excessively aggressive action against them, issuing multiple tax levies, and even threatening them with seizure of their home. In his troubled state, the taxpayer sought the help of Dickmann Tax Group to force the agent to stand down, protect them from the IRS aggression, and negotiate a settlement against the tax debt, stating, “If you can get this worked out with them, I’ll buy you a nice hot cup of coffee as thanks!”
The team at Dickmann Tax Group immediately secured enforcement holds against the account and started working to correct the prior tax records and debt reported against the clients. In our review of the account, we determined that several of the tax periods were subject to forgiveness due to the expiration of the collection statute. The IRS only has a limited time to collect the debt due, and our analysis of the account showed that several of the clients’ debt periods, roughly $166,000 worth, should have previously expired. However, the IRS was stating there was another year before the statutes lapsed, but had no legal grounds or explanation as to why. The associate reached out to the Taxpayer Advocate department to argue the mistreatment of the account and demand the statute correction, to which the Advocate concurred our assessment was correct, made the adjustment to the account, and the debts were removed, saving the taxpayer thousands in the process.
Needless to say the client was elated, quote, “That’s worth more than just a cuppa coffee!!!” Dickmann Tax Group continues to work with the taxpayer to correct the prior tax record for the periods still under collections, and negotiate a settlement that they can reasonably afford.
Obviously all tax situations are different, however if you would like to learn more or schedule time to discuss your own tax issues, please click here and we would be happy to assist you.