Tax Planning Attorney
Many taxpayers fail to deal with the IRS right away when the taxpayer receives notices from them. It is common for taxpayers to show up to a law office with boxes of unopened notices from the IRS. Usually this continues for a long period of time until the taxpayer cannot handle the stress and anxiety of the IRS notices any longer.
What should taxpayers not do?
Taxpayers should not contact any company that is advertising nationally. The IRS has done a good job of shutting many of these companies down, but there are still a lot of predatory companies out there. This is harsh advice that may hurt some actual good companies, but there are too many cases of abuse from the predatory companies. Usually these companies advertise that if you owe more than $10,000 to the IRS to call them. There is no reason for this $10,000 to exist, except for the fact that the company is going to ask you to give them $10,000 to assist you with your IRS liabilities.
A lot of clients at law firms have paid these companies a lot of money and were provided very little actual assistance. Often, there is no work actually completed, or some work may even be against the taxpayer’s best interest. For example, one time a taxpayer showed up and his other company was trying to get a payment plan setup with the IRS. A lawyer looked into the case, and the IRS was no longer allowed to try to collect for the majority of the balance owed. The predatory company was going to agree to extend the period of time that the IRS could collect from the taxpayer.
What should taxpayers do?
Taxpayers should contact a local CPA or attorney, like a Montana tax planning attorney from Silverman Law Office, who has experience in dealing with the IRS. If that is not an option, the taxpayers should contact a local taxpayer clinic. These clinics are set up to assist low-income taxpayers, however, these clinics have trained many attorneys on how to deal with the IRS. Thus, if you do not qualify for assistance, the clinic will know of attorneys who can assist you.