- What is your current address?
- What are your home and work telephone
numbers?
- Where do you work?
- Where do you bank?
- If you owe money, are you prepared
to pay the balance in full?
After you have given this information.
The IRS will seek to extablish a time by which you agree
to be in compliance. Your failure to comply will result
in wage or bank levies. Levies can not be made unless
a tax has been assessed and notice of intent to levy has
been issued. If the IRS has prepared returns for you or
you have had examination adjustments, a balance due may
exist. Notice of intent to levy may have been sent to
an old address. The law requires the taxpayer to notify
the IRS of any address changes. If you have moved often
and have not filed for some time, a legal notice of assessment
may have been issued. Those amounts are legal and are
collectable.
When you contact the IRS you will
be required to give them your social security number and
current address. You may use a change of address form
8822. If the IRS has a different address the correction
will take place at the time of the call or the notice.
At the time of contact you should determine if any balances
are due. If there are balances, request an account summary
so you can determine to what year the balances apply and
what transactions took place. If you do not have copies
of tax returns use form
4506 to request copies.
If you find you have balances due,
do not dispute them with the telephone representative.
Wait until you receive the account summaries. If your
balance is under $10,000 and no returns are due, request
a payment plan. You should be prepared with the information
on form
433-A. If you are self employed you will need to prepare
form 433-B. You will need a year-to-date income statement
for your business.
Do not dispute the amounts the IRS
says are due. Setting up an installment plan is not an
agreement as to the amount due. The amounts due can be
adjusted, by filing returns, amending returns (limited),
or penalty forgiveness. The establishment of a payment
plan will protect you from further collection action.
A federal tax lien may have already
been filed. If not already filed, the IRS will often file
a tax lien as part of a long term payment plan, or when
the balance is over $10,000. All tax liens will appear
on your credit reports until released. These liens affect
only your credit and real estate sales.
Missing or
government filed tax returns
The IRS will not establish a formal
payment plan until all tax returns have been filed. IRS
may give you additional time to file the missing returns.
IRS is not required to stop collection action while you
are preparing missing returns. It is vital to follow-up
on all dates established. If not collection action will
begin immediately.
When you determine that returns are
due you can request income reports and copies of your
W-2 forms. If you get W-2 information in report form or
by phone, you will need to attach form
4852 substitute for W-2 to your tax return. The information
may or may not have state withholding data on the record.
If there are no balances due, your
pace can be slower, and any pending refunds will be frozen.
Late returns with balances due must be paid. Later returns
with refunds filed more that three years late are not
refundable. There are new rules for payments made with
extensions.
If the IRS representative agree to
help you obtain missing information, get as much time
as possible. There is often a long delay in getting forms
and information. Additional time may have to be requested.
The IRS telephone representatives have limits on the amount
of time they can grant.
If you need tax forms you can get
them by calling 800 829-3676 or by downloading from the
internet. Prior years are only available from IRS. You
can download FileTax Organizers
in PDF format.
Telephone Guidelines
- Be courteous, don't raise your
voice. The telephone representative is giving you information
they have on their computer screen.
- If the representative is unduly
harsh or requires payments that you can not afford,
politely ask to speak to a supervisor for a review of
the actions taken.
- If you really can not stand the
attitude, hang up and call later, or the following day.
There are some tough cookies at the IRS.
- Verify all due dates at the end
of the conversation and write them down. Put the dates
in your calendar, the IRS did!
- Three days before the due date
call and request more time if needed.
- Don't refuse to give the IRS representative
information they request. They have a legal right to
ask for information.
- Get a motivational
Poster for yourself.
