IRS..Payment arrangements on back taxes?

Question

I owe 45K in back taxes to the IRS, I have been negotiating with their collection agency and offered to make 100 monthly payments, they reviewed my expenses and told me I need to pay 800 a month, so I appealed it, they sent it to a 3rd party to review. I just got a letter saying they reviewed and i still have to pay 800 monthly. the letter states that I can request an appeal they gave me until august. they say they will garnish my check and file a levy against me if i dont appeal. Should I try to appeal again on my own ( i have to send a letter) with the IRS or go straight to a tax lawyer and have them handle the situation? how long does the appeal take? if i appeal on my own and lose, is it too late to hire a tax attorney at that point?. serious answers only please

Answer 1

"Ms Angel" gave some good advice, but not all of it was accurate. I agree with her that there isn't any point in hiring a tax lawyer. They don't have the ability to do any more than you've done already. If you owe over $25,000 in assessed taxes, penalties and interest, the IRS has to base your payment on the financial statement. I

t's been noted that they don't allow all expenses, such as credit card payments. They will allow them all if you can pay the entire accrued balance off in 5 years, but that's not possible at $100/month. I assume that you have a fairly large amount of expenses that the IRS isn't allowing you. One option the IRS can offer is to allow you to pay a minimal amount (even as low as $25) for a year to allow you to pay down some of your non-allowable debt. After a year you would then be required to pay the full $800. Presumably, though, this would have been offered you already. One of the purposes of the independent review process is to ensure that all options have been explored.

By the way, the "partial pay" agreement mentioned in the other post is actually what you would be getting under the present agreement under consideration.

Answer 2

Don't hire a tax lawyer they will be told the same thing you are being told.  you will be in worst debt because you will owe the tax lawyer and IRS.

IRS apparently reviewed your form 433-F collection information statement and found you can pay $800 keep in mind IRS does not take credit card debt into consideration.

Divide the amount you owe by 60 months and that is the minimum payment IRS will accept.  IT would be better for you to try to obtain a loan and pay off IRS.  IF you can't then you must pay IRS the $800 per month.  IRS will garnish your wages if you don't pay.  DON'T IGNORE THE IRS.

YOU can request an installment agreement which is call Partial Pay Installment Agreemnt which IRS will give you more than 60 months to pay off your debt, but you must agree to make estimated tax payments for future years.

Please just offer something work with the IRS yourself, don't hire a tax lawyer they will do the same thing you can do for free  You have already submitted form 433-F Collection Information Statement and the lawyer would want to do the same and get the same results you did.  Please don't waste your money on them, work with the IRS yourself, things in your home will be tight but at least you are paying off one debt instead of two.

Answer 3

Considering the amount of money you owe and that you have tried unsuccessfully on your own to negotiate, it seems that you should definitely hire an attorney at this point.  Personally, I think I would have hired an attorney immediately.

Good luck.