A group of tax professionals who have deep and diversified tax experience, a passion for technology, and the desire for helping others. We created Bullseye Tax Relief as a platform for helping businesses and individuals with their tax problems.
Sometimes an individual underreports his or her income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Whenever the IRS discovers that this has occurred, it will investigate all parties involved, including spouses if the two have filed a joint tax return. If a spouse can prove to the IRS that he or she did not deliberately act in the underreporting of income, that individual may apply for Innocent Spouse Relief. Innocent Spouse Relief relieves that individual from paying any taxes, penalties and interest on misreported or underreport items on the tax return for which his or her spouse is ultimately responsible for. It applies if your spouse or former spouse omitted or improperly reported items on the joint tax return without your knowledge. The IRS will determine whether you will be relieved of the responsibility for all or a portion of the amount after they approve your request for relief. You must file the form for Innocent Spouse Relief (IRS Form 8857). Per the IRS, Innocent Spouse Relief only applies to individual or self-employment taxes. It does not apply to business taxes, household employment taxes, individual shared responsibility payments or trust fund recovery penalty employment taxes. There are a number of conditions for qualifying for Innocent Spouse Relief:
There are several terms that need clarification:
Furthermore, the IRS will also determine whether or not it is fair to hold you liable for the return. The following criteria are some examples that the IRS will consider:
Claiming Innocent Spouse Relief requires the assistance from a tax professional. Bullseye Tax Relief can offer help with all sorts of tax problems. We are an expert in tax resolution. Call us today so that we can guide you through the process or even determine if claiming an Innocent Spouse Relief is the best option for you. The post What is Innocent Spouse Relief? appeared first on Bullseye Tax Relief. Via https://www.bullseyetaxrelief.com/what-is-innocent-spouse-relief/
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As stated in earlier blogs, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has several different tools for collecting a tax debt. Another tool is the Bank Levy. Here, the IRS freezes your bank account and collects whatever money is being held in that bank account. If you do not have enough money to pay your tax debt in full, the IRS will resort to another collection tool, such as garnishing your wages or earnings or attaching a lien to one or more of your properties. There is no escaping death and taxes! Wait a minute. Actually, there are a couple or tax resolutions available to you. You can request a Bank Levy Release that will free your bank account from the IRS so that they cannot seize the money held there. First, after several letters from them, you will receive a Final Notice of Intent to Levy. If you do not respond and attempt to pay your tax debt via install agreement or payment in full, the IRS will place bank levy on your bank account(s). You have only 30 days to respond to the Final Notice of Intent to Levy before the IRS seizes the money. The IRS can levy all checking accounts and saving accounts attached to your name at any bank. As the name implies, a Bank Levy Release frees any bank account from a bank levy imposed by the IRS. This means that the IRS can no longer seize those monies to pay your tax debt. There are several methods in obtaining a Bank Levy Release. Here is a list of them:
There are several other circumstances whereby the IRS may not proceed with imposing a Bank Levy. Here is another list:
Fortunately, you are given a 22-day grace period after the expirations of the 30-day time frame to respond to the Notice. This means that your monies in your bank account are frozen or set aside instead of being taken immediately. During this 22-day grace period, you may request that the bank levy be released. You must prove or do the following:
Keep in mind that your tax debt or assets are liable to be levied again if you do not pay off your tax debt once the bank levy is released. Once you have received a Final Notice of Intent to Levy, you must immediately consult a tax professional to avoid further complications and liability. We at Bullseye Tax Relief are ready with a variety of tax problems solutions. Just give us a call and we will assess your situation to determine if a Bank Levy Release is your best option. Come back and visit us for more information on tax problems help. The post Free Your Bank Account with a Bank Levy Release appeared first on Bullseye Tax Relief. Via https://www.bullseyetaxrelief.com/free-your-bank-account-with-a-bank-levy-release/ As stated in earlier blogs, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can attach liens and levies against your personal and/or business assets to collect a tax debt. It can also attach a wage garnishment to your wages and earnings through your employer if you do not establish an installment agreement to pay the tax debt with them. However, obtaining a Wage Garnishment Release will stop the IRS from taking any part of your wages or earnings to satisfy your tax debt. Just as the IRS can place a tax lien on your business, a wage garnishment is like a tax levy in that the IRS has a right to your property, i.e., your paycheck. Your employer is instructed to withhold a portion of your paycheck and send it to the IRS to make payments against your tax debt. If you are a business with a wage garnishment notice from the IRS for one of your employees, call us for advice on this payroll tax resolution. Wage garnishments are serious. They can affect not only your gross wages or salary, but commissions, bonuses, retirement benefits, disability payments, and VA and social security benefits. Before garnishing your wages, the IRS will send you several notices reflecting the amount you owe in taxes before garnishing your wages. The IRS will garnish your wages if you do not attempt to pay off your debt in full or enter into an installment agreement with them. The IRS will NOT notify you that it is garnishing your wages but will directly issue a notification of garnishment to your employer. Your employer will then in turn notify you that your wages are being garnished. As the name implies, a Wage Garnishment Release “releases” your wages from garnishment by the IRS. You must request a wage garnishment release from the IRS. Here are several main reasons that the IRS will consider before releasing your wages from garnishment:
By amending or filing any missing or incorrect tax returns, you can also reduce the amount of collections owed. By having a tax professional review your tax returns for any missed deductions, you may also reduce your tax debt. The rules and fees that the IRS must follow do not make wage garnishment an ideal method for obtaining full payment of your tax debt. Since it is burdensome, the IRS is reluctant to release a wage garnishment once it is imposed since you were given warning via several notices. Consulting a tax professional who can evaluate your specific tax situation and advise you on how to proceed is your best course of action, especially if you have received a notice of garnishment from your employer or your wages are already being garnished. Call us today at Bullseye Tax Relief so that we can help you avoid a wage garnishment or release one if one has already been imposed. The post A Wage Garnishment Release Frees Your Wages from the IRS appeared first on Bullseye Tax Relief. Via https://www.bullseyetaxrelief.com/a-wage-garnishment-release-frees-your-wages-from-the-irs/ There is one more method of negating a tax lien against a property. A Tax Lien Withdrawal removes the Public Notice of Federal Tax Lien from an asset. This makes it easier to sell or refinance a property or asset. Remember that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) places a tax lien on property and/or assets when you fail to pay your taxes. This means that you cannot refinance or sell the property to which a tax lien has been attached. The IRS can place a tax lien on personal property for a tax debt owed by your business. Attaching a tax lien to personal property is one tool the IRS uses to impose a Trust Fund Recovery Penalty and collect a tax debt. However, if you enter into a direct debit installment agreement with the IRS regarding this tax debt, you may be eligible for a Tax Lien Withdrawal. There are two options for eligibility for a Tax Lien Withdrawal: For Option 1: The lien has been paid off and the property released from the tax lien so that the IRS is no longer prioritized regarding it. Criteria is as follows:
For Option 2: Direct debit installment agreement allows for the filing of a tax lien withdrawal. This includes converting a regular installment agreement into a direct debt installment agreement in which installment payments are directly paid from your bank account. Criteria is as follows:
There are other considerations for eligibility for a tax lien withdrawal:
The most important eligibility requirement for any Tax lien Withdrawal is entering into a Direct Debit Installment Agreement since installment payments are paid directly from your bank account. You can simply set this up online through the IRS website. You must also provide documentation to support your application for a tax lien withdrawal. Furthermore, you must list the financial institutions you would like notified of the withdrawal of the tax lien. Applying for a tax lien withdrawal may be the best option for you if are wanting to sell your property and there is a public notice of federal tax lien on your assets, which renders them undesirable to buyers or creditors. Give us a call today to consult with a tax professional about your situation as to whether a Tax Lien Withdrawal is advantageous for you. The post A Tax Lien Withdrawal Releases Your Property appeared first on Bullseye Tax Relief. Via https://www.bullseyetaxrelief.com/a-tax-lien-withdrawal-releases-your-property/ As stated in earlier blogs, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has several tools they use to collect back taxes owed: liens, levies, wage garnishments, etc. As the saying goes: there is no escape from death and taxes. The IRS has several means of protecting their interest in the event you fail to pay your tax debt in a timely manner. The IRS has the power to place a Federal Tax Lien against all of your assets and properties: financial, personal, business and/or real estate. Federal tax liens vary depending upon each individual situation and case. By failing to pay the IRS timely, a lien will be attached to all of your current and future assets until the offending tax issue is resolved. Furthermore, the lien can develop into a levy which empowers the IRS to seize any of your assets to pay your tax debt if you do not address a tax debt in a timely manner. Assets include vehicles, personal properties, jewelry, coin collections, real estate properties, stocks, bonds, cash, bank accounts, even bitcoin. Resolving your tax debt prevents a lien from being assessed or resolves one that has already been attached to any of your properties. It is called tax lien discharge. A discharge removes the tax lien from the specific property to which it was attached, but not to every tax lien. A discharge is specific to which property is affected. Once a tax debt is satisfied, the IRS grants a tax lien discharge if it accepts your request for discharge. The IRS will issue you a Certificate of Discharge which will allow you to sell, refinance or “retrieve” the property that had the tax lien attached to it. Anyone wishing to sell or refinance a real estate property with a tax lien attached to it should apply for a Tax Lien Discharge. Otherwise, you will have difficulty in selling or refinancing the property since the tax lien remains with the property until it is discharged. Although the new owners would not be subject to paying the tax debt, the IRS would still be able to place a lien against the property and seize it. Most potential buyers would not want this liability and so the tax lien would likely discourage any buyers. Applying for a tax lien discharge requires completing forms regarding the appraised value of the property, its description and the basis for a discharge. The IRS must be satisfied that granting the tax lien discharge would not jeopardize their interest in the property. In other words, the IRS would still be paid the amount owed without the use of a tax lien. The IRS would consider the following in granting a tax lien discharge:
Once the IRS approves your application for a tax lien discharge, they will send you a Certificate of Discharge for that property. You can then:
However:
Since this process is complicated and any mistakes may make the situation worse, it is advised to consult a tax professional. Call us today so that we can determine your best options. More tax resolutions will be discussed in the coming blogs, so please visit us again. The post Tax Lien Discharge Reverts Property Back to You appeared first on Bullseye Tax Relief. Via https://www.bullseyetaxrelief.com/tax-lien-discharge-reverts-property-back-to-you/ So, you owe the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) money for taxes. You do not have the money so you decide not to pay any amount toward the debt. After all, it you do not have money, the IRS cannot collect, right? WRONG! The IRS has the power to place a Federal Tax Lien against all of your assets and properties, whether they are financial, personal, business and/or real estate. This is the government’s way of protecting their interest in the event you fail to pay your tax debt in a timely manner. Federal tax liens vary depending upon each individual case and situation. If you fail to pay the IRS timely, a lien will be attached to all of your current and future assets until the offending tax issue is resolved. Furthermore, if you do not address a tax debt in a timely manner, the lien can develop into a levy which empowers the IRS to seize any of your assets to pay your tax debt. Assets include cars, personal properties, real estate properties, stocks, bonds, cash, monies in your bank accounts, even bitcoin. Since April 2018 all three credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) stopped reporting liens on their credit reports. This means that Federal Tax Liens should not affect your credit scores regardless of whether or not the lien has been satisfied. However, this does not mean that no one can determine if you have any liens against you. There are other consumer reports on which tax liens may appear since liens are public records. Moreover, the IRS must follow a procedure for collections of a tax debt before mailing out a notice informing you that a tax lien has been filed against you. They will: 1) assess the amount of taxes owed by examining a filed tax return and 2) send a tax bill to your last known address. If you do not respond to the bill notice, the IRS will send out a lien notice. The best way to avoid a federal tax lien is to pay your amount of taxes in full. If you have trouble paying the entire amount due to financial stress, the IRS offers a multitude of payment options to avoid liens, levies, and other forms of collections. Some options are:
However, if you have already received a Notice for imposing a Federal Tax Lien against you from the IRS, do not panic. Aside from paying the entire tax debt to the IRS, there are other options:
Whether you have already received a Lien Notice from the IRS or you believe you may receive one shortly, DO NOT IGNORE IT! Call us immediately to review your options before a bad situation becomes worse. Continue to visit our website to learn more about tax problem resolutions. The post Federal Tax Liens Ensure Collection of Tax Debt appeared first on Bullseye Tax Relief. Via https://www.bullseyetaxrelief.com/federal-tax-liens-ensure-collection-of-tax-debt/ The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows you, the taxpayer, to pay your tax debt in affordable monthly installments in which you determine the amount. These are called Installment Agreements. They are extremely helpful in affording the taxpayer time to pay their tax debt without the IRS forcing payment through liens, levies, wage garnishments and other collection tools. Of all the installment agreements available, the Partial Payment Installment Agreement (PPIA) affords the best of both worlds to the taxpayer. The taxpayer 1) makes affordable installment payments of his/her own choosing over a set period against the tax debt and 2) after that set period of time, the IRS considers the tax debt paid even if the full amount of the tax debt has not been paid. The IRS usually sets a time period of two years. You must provide full financial disclosure indicating your wages, assets, and expenses to the IRS. If you cannot afford a regular installment agreement and it is unlikely that you can pay the full amount of your tax debt, then the PPIA may be the most beneficial course of action for either you or your business. The eligibility requirements for the Partial Payment Installment Agreement are similar to the Offer in Compromise. The IRS must determine that:
So, if an Offer in Compromise and PPIA are similar, why are they both available? Due to its lack of finality, the IRS is more likely to accept a PPIA because they can review your ability to pay off your tax debt annually. If your ability to pay your tax debt in full increases, then the IRS can collect the full amount before the statute of limitations expires. This is a better outcome for the IRS since it can possibly collect a larger amount than it can with an Offer in Compromise which is final once negotiated and agreed upon. With an Offer in Compromise, the IRS can only collect what it negotiated to collect even if your financial situation improves. The statute of limitations is the time frame in which the IRS can lawfully seek payment for your tax debt. Usually, the statute of limitations for the IRS to collect a tax debt is 10 years for the date the debt was originally assessed. Once the statute of limitations expires, the IRS cannot collect the tax debt, interest, and penalties from you, even if you can afford to pay the tax debt. Although you can negotiate a Partial Payment Installment Agreement on your own with the IRS, the question is: why would you? The application process involves the submission of many forms, is complicated and you can be out negotiated by the IRS agent. If you are not eligible for an Offer in Compromise and you cannot afford a regular installment agreement, then a PPIA may be best for you. Let a tax professional from Bullseye Tax Relief assist you. We will discuss all your options and direct you to your best option. Our following blogs will continue discussing other tax relief resolution options. The post Pay a Portion of What You Owe with a Partial Payment Installment Agreement appeared first on Bullseye Tax Relief. Via https://www.bullseyetaxrelief.com/pay-a-portion-of-what-you-owe-with-a-partial-payment-installment-agreement/ Even the best of intentions does not always materialize. You completed and filed your federal income tax return, but suddenly you realize that you do not have the money to pay the tax amount due. Now what?! Do you not file the tax return? Do you send the tax return without money? Lucky for you, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has several options for you to pay the tax amount owed and file your tax return on time. One of these options is the Installment Agreement. If you cannot pay the full tax amount owed to the IRS in less than 120 days, the IRS allows you to pay your debt down into monthly installments. This allows you to pay down your tax debt while incurring less penalties and interest since the amount owed would be smaller. It also allows you to avoid wage garnishments, bank levies, tax liens and collections. Furthermore, paying against your tax debt will demonstrate your “good faith” to the IRS. The IRS allows you to determine the amount your minimum monthly payment will be based upon what you can afford. However, they do encourage you to pay as much as possible to avoid additional fees, penalties, and interest. If you offer the IRS an offer that they believe is too low or if you neglect to inform them of the amount you wish to pay monthly, they will simply take the total amount of tax due and divide it into 72 monthly payment installments. If you meet certain IRS criteria for an installment agreement, you or your business may be guaranteed eligibility for an installment plan. Even better, the IRS does not require you to complete a financial statement or verification for a Guaranteed Installment Agreement. Here are some of the criteria you must meet for a guaranteed installment agreement:
If you owe $50,000 in tax debt or less and do not qualify for a Guaranteed Installment Agreement, you may be eligible for a Streamlined Installment Agreement. Typically, this type of plan does not require you to complete financial statements or submit verification. The criteria for this type of plan are:
The IRS has installment agreements for small businesses too. An In-Business Trust Fund Installment Agreement is best for small businesses that owe $25,000 or less in tax debt. Typically, this type of plan does not require you to complete financial statements or submit verification. The criteria for this type of plan are:
Each installment agreement discussed here have certain requirements, so it is best to consult a tax professional. Call today so that we can help you navigate the complex criteria. Our next blogs will further discuss options for dealing with the IRS and your tax debt so please visit us again. The post How Installment Agreements Can Help appeared first on Bullseye Tax Relief. Via https://www.bullseyetaxrelief.com/how-installment-agreements-can-help/ Sometimes life just gets the best of you. Your taxes are withheld from every paycheck, but you do not file your tax returns. Sometimes you forget to pay your taxes on time as a self-employed worker. Sometimes you withhold payroll taxes but forget to deposit these monies with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on time … or you “borrowed” from those monies to pay important business expenses. It is not that you are deliberately “dogging” your tax obligation. It is just … life gets in the way. The IRS can add interest and penalties to your tax obligation, making life a little rougher. The above situations are real life but can cause a lot of tax problems. Fortunately, the IRS has some helpful solutions. One such tax resolution is Penalty Abatement Relief. In the case of businesses, it is called Trust Fund Recovery Penalty Abatement or TFRP Abatement. The IRS offers this concession when life gets in the way of fulfilling tax obligations. They allow the penalties to be waived using three different types of penalty relief:
So, what are these relief options and how do they help with payroll tax and/or my tax debt? Let us discuss them one by one. First, there is reasonable cause. As defined by the IRS, reasonable cause is based on circumstances and facts particular to your situation. You must establish that you followed all procedures to meet your tax obligations but were unable to meet them due to certain circumstances. According to the IRS, financial hardship does not make you eligible for a reasonable cause waiver; however, the circumstances leading to that financial hardship may. Some examples are natural disaster, fire, death, the inability to obtain records, serious illness or an unavoidable absence of a taxpayer or immediate family member. Second, First-Time Penalty Abatement (FTA) rewards those who have typically met their tax obligations in the past but for whatever reason did not meet their tax obligations this time around. This type of abatement relief is offered to those who did not meet their tax obligation on a single return. The only other criteria are that you must not have received a penalty within the past three years on a specific type of tax return. So, to recap the eligibility for First-Time Abatement:
Third, a statutory exception places the fault of your dilemma on the IRS itself. You asked the IRS advice and your received incorrect information which you acted upon and thereby received a penalty. You will have to prove this so have the following information at the ready:
If indeed you are eligible for any of these waivers, the IRS will reduce or remove the penalties and therefore the interest charged will be reduced. Before contacting the IRS on your own, consult a tax professional. A tax professional will determine what option applies to your situation and how to approach it. Our following blogs will continue to discuss tax resolutions. Stay tuned! The post Penalty Abatement Relief appeared first on Bullseye Tax Relief. Via https://www.bullseyetaxrelief.com/penalty-abatement-relief/ As stated in previous blogs, there are several tax resolutions options available to taxpayers that are unable to pay an outstanding tax debt. Besides an Offer in Compromise discussed earlier, there is another tool to help alleviate the stress in resolving a tax debt that is being pursued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It is called “currently non-collectable” or CNC. Just what is a currently non-collectable and how does it help me? Well, first of all, there are two requirements:
What are the benefits of having “currently non-collectable” status?
This does NOT mean that the IRS will not assess the account with interest and penalties or withhold any refunds. Those actions continue. If the IRS determines that at any point from 10 years to the date that your account was assessed as Currently Non-Collectable and that your financial situation had improved, then the IRS can collect that tax debt. However, if your financial situation never improved within those 10 years, then the IRS will likely write off the tax debt, interest, and penalties. So, who is eligible for Currently Non-Collectable status? Any taxpayer that can demonstrate that he or she is unable to pay off his/her tax debt without causing either financial hardship or resulting in the inability to cover basic living expenses will qualify for Currently Non-Collectable status. Proof must be given through bank statements or other documentation that wages and/or assets cannot be collected without triggering financial hardships. Basic living expenses include healthcare, housing, transportation, utilities, food and clothing. Furthermore, the IRS must determine eligibility for CNC status using the following criteria:
The Currently Non-Collectable status is one of the tools that the IRS uses to help those with tax problems for which no other option, such as an Installment Agreement, is available. Once on a Currently Non-Collectable status, taxpayers must continue being up-to-date with their tax filings, otherwise they will lose their CNC status. This will result in a bad situation becoming worse. Filing tax returns and paying any amounts owed on time is extremely important. Do not hesitate calling us for assistance with your tax resolution problems. We are happy to help! The post What is Currently Non-Collectable? appeared first on Bullseye Tax Relief. Via https://www.bullseyetaxrelief.com/what-is-currently-non-collectable/ |