Stand Up to the IRS Blog

You have a tax debt.  The commercials over the radio and on the T.V. advertising 80% reductions of your total tax debt sound exciting and hopeful.  It would be so nice if the IRS would settle for less than what you owe with a handshake.  Unfortunately, that just isn’t how it works.

You will hear a lot of things that aren’t true when you’re considering proposals from tax resolution companies that are falling over each other to earn your business.  Take couple of minutes to read what some of M&M’s competitors promise potential clients.  The statements below are just a few of the false promises that come out of our competitors mouths.

We will file for an Automatic Stay of Collection! – This is what happens when you file bankruptcy.  In most cases, bankruptcy is a last resort and you are usually better off resolving your tax debt through IRS channels.  Filing an Appeal may or may not keep the IRS from enforcing collection of the tax on you in the form of levies and seizures.  But as we’ve stated in a previous blog, Appeals may or may not be beneficial to your situation.

We will STOP ALL Penalty and Interest! – The IRS will charge you interest until you tax debt is paid in full.  No company out there will stop the IRS from charging you interest on your debt.  Penalties that have been assessed can be abated due to Reasonable Cause.  But for someone to tell you that they will stop all penalties from accruing and being assessed to your account is a flat out lie.  Remember, that sales person does not have Power of Attorney on file with the IRS and therefore cannot obtain any specific information about your case file.

IRS MUST prove intentional tax evasion to impose penalties! – Last week a client told me that a “consulting business” advised him that “the law was changed in the last few years, unless it was proven that intentional tax evasion had occurred that unfair penalties and interest could not be imposed.”  There is a penalty for non-compliance of your tax responsibilities.  It’s that simple.  If you file a tax return with a balance due late, you will likely face a penalty.  If you pay tax late, you will likely be assessed a penalty.

We GUARANTEE penalty relief! – Can’t be done.  No one can guarantee penalty relief when dealing with IRS back taxes.  If you hear this from a company, take them off your list immediately and throw their information in the trash.  They can guarantee that they’ll try their hardest for you to get the penalties abated, but that’s about it.  M&M has been helping struggling taxpayers remove penalties from their tax debt since 2005 and we’re good at it.  Our largest penalty savings for a client was over $1 Million.  We are very good at taking your specific circumstances and matching them up with the Internal Revenue Manual, increasing your chances of success. But, we cannot guarantee penalty abatement for any of our clients.

We have relationships with ALL IRS offices! – There are a lot of IRS offices out there.  In Illinois alone there are 14 local offices.  Within each of those offices are a number of employees whose job it is to collect back tax debts.  There are more than a thousand tax liens filed each day.  It takes a workforce of thousands of people to collect the massive amounts of back tax debts owed in the United States.  This statement is starting to sound a little ridiculous, isn’t it?

We will STOP ALL liens! – It is IRS standard procedure to file a tax lien when a substantial amount of back tax is owed to the government and request for payment has been ignored.  If you owe the government money, a tax lien will likely be filed with your local recorder of deeds or Secretary of State’s office.  In addition, if your phone is ringing off the hook with tax resolution companies, then you already have a tax lien filed.  Furthermore, stopping a tax lien often takes an Appeal.  Remember our blog about IRS Appeals and whether or not they’re good for you?

We can STOP personal assessments! – This is geared toward business owners that owe employment tax.  The IRS standard procedure is to assess the Trust Fund portion of a business employment tax debt to the Responsible Individuals of said business.  It is rare that the IRS will not assess this portion of the business tax to the responsible individual.  The sure fire way to avoid a personal Trust Fund assessment is to pay this portion of the tax debt in full.  M&M attempts to link the personal assessment to the business’s monthly payment plan, which we set up, so that the IRS will not expect a monthly payment from the individual.  This allows the business to pay back its own debt.

We all know that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is too good to be true.  As much as we want to believe, especially during tough times, facing the facts about our situation and moving forward based on those facts is a much better game plan.  When you owe a back tax debt to the IRS or state, it’s important to see through the buzz words and phrases used by sneaky salesmen trying to get into your bank account.

Call M&M for a no pressure, no B.S. consultation.  We’re confident we can help you.  We don’t pressure or tempt with a pie in the sky quick fix.  M&M’s Tax Resolution System has worked for hundreds of struggling taxpayers since 2005 and it can work for you today.