01  What is Tax Relief?

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Tax Relief is a process where the goal is reducing a tax liability that the IRS has determined you or your business owes. This amount may also include penalties and interest assessed by the IRS. Our company, Tax Relief Assistance, LLC, works with you to assess your situation. If need be, we file any missing tax returns or amend returns that are needed to being you into compliance. We then assess your financial situation and ability to pay the IRS liability. Based on the results of that analysis, we may be able to reduce your tax liability, get penalties removed or reduced, and reduce or even stop your monthly payments to the IRS.

 

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 02  How can Tax Relief Assistance help me?

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First and foremost, one of our Enrolled Agents at Tax Relief Assistance will have you sign a Form 2848 Power of Attorney form which will allow that Enrolled Agent to represent you before the IRS. So, we deal with the often-intimidating agents and processes of the IRS, all the while keeping you informed of the progress of your case. Second, we have extensive knowledge of tax law and the experience of resolving many cases with the IRS on behalf of our clients.

 

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 03  What is an Offer in Compromise?

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An Offer in Compromise (OIC) is an agreement between the IRS and the taxpayer to settle the taxpayer’s liability (debt) for less than the total amount owed. There are three categories of OIC’s but 95% fall into the category of Doubt as to Collectability. This essentially means that after reviewing the taxpayer’s current and projected financial situation, the taxpayer does not have the assets or income to pay their debt in full within the IRS’ 10-year statute of limitations to collect the debt. The OIC is based on a formula, and requires an initial 20% payment to be sent with the OIC application to the IRS.

 

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 04  How are you compensated?

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Like any professional service corporation, the client pays for our services. After we meet with you during the free 30-minute consultation, we can ascertain if yours is a potential case where our services may benefit you in reducing your liability or intervening to reduce or cease collection by the IRS.

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Should you decide to retain us, we will outline an hourly rate or fixed fee option in our Engagement Letter.  We require an initial fee equal to 25% of the total fixed fee at the start of the engagement and a credit card or prepaid Visa card that can be billed monthly for remaining amount as monthly payments over a mutually agreed upon number of months.

 

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 05  Why should I use Tax Relief Assistance versus my CPA or an attorney?

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We do not recommend using your CPA if he was the preparer of your tax return. The reason being that your CPA is subject to due diligence standards by the IRS and agrees that he conformed to those standards in the preparation of your return(s). So, your CPA is going to be looking to protect himself before the IRS, which may conflict with what is in your best interest.

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Using an attorney would be significantly more expensive for you and unless the attorney specialized in tax law, he/she would not be as knowledge as a TRA Enrolled Agent.

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 06  Can I go to jail for owing back taxes?

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Since we do not have “debtor’s prison” in this country, taxpayers typically do not go to jail for owing back taxes they cannot pay. I say “typically” because if a taxpayer commits fraud, is part of a criminal conspiracy, or lies to an IRS Revenue Officer they may be subject to jail time along with fines.

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In the past few years, the IRS’s largest problem has been dealing with identity theft. The thieves that get a taxpayer’s personal information including Social Security number will file a false return claiming tax credits to get large refunds. This usually happens as soon as the tax filing season opens up for e-filing of returns. When the actual taxpayer who own that identity and SSN then tries to e-file his or her return, it is rejected because a return under that SSN has already been accepted by the IRS. When the IRS catches those perpetrators, they definitely do jail time!

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 07  Can you guarantee me I will get a tax benefit by using your company?

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No, and you should be wary of any firm offering tax resolution services that advertises they can guarantee a result. There are numerous reasons taxpayers get into tax trouble. Some problems are as simple to fix as filing an amended tax return, but most are much more complex and involve employing the best tax resolution strategy for the client.

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Often, the tax liability assessed by the IRS is correct, but the taxpayer has not paid what he owes and penalties and interest have continued to accrue on top of the amount of tax due. Usually, the IRS is about to or has already levied the taxpayer’s bank account and put liens on his assets. In addition, if the taxpayer is employed his wages are probably also being garnished. What we at Tax Relief Assistance do is negotiate with the IRS to get to a payment solution that allows the taxpayer to make payments they can afford, and if the taxpayer complies with those payments, the IRS will often release the levies, liens and garnishments. This allows the taxpayer a new start where they can maintain a bank account, start to rebuild credit, and in many cases avoid bankruptcy.

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 08  How quickly can you begin work? The IRS is knocking at my door!

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When we can start truly depends on how serious the taxpayer is about resolving their case. During our initial meeting, if the taxpayer has decent records and copies of correspondence from the IRS it will make it much easier to determine how we can help. If the taxpayer has poor records and we have to request all the background information from the IRS it will take 7-10 business days.

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If the taxpayer’s situation is an emergency, such as the IRS has sent a Final Notice of Intent to Levy, we can get involved as soon as the client decides to retain Tax Relief Assistance, signs a Form 2848 Power of Attorney, and pays the 25% retainer fee. In such a case, we could conceivably call the IRS to stop the levy and allow our company the time to prepare the appeal.

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09  How much do you charge for your services?

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The hourly billing rate for one of TRA’s Enrolled Agents is $150.00/hr. We also offer a fixed price per case that we base on our estimate of the work and time involved. This usually works out best for the taxpayer because they know their total cost upfront. We still internally track hours worked on each case should the taxpayer ever desire to know.

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10  How does your process work?

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There are three main components to our Tax Relief Assistance process:

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1. Discovery – this component involves the gathering and investigation of the taxpayer’s data and the transcript analysis where Account Transcripts, Wage & Income Transcripts, and Tax Return Transcripts are obtained from the IRS and reviewed.

2. Compliance – involves the filing of any missing tax returns, forms or schedules with the IRS to bring the taxpayer into compliance. This must be done before the IRS will even discuss tax resolution negotiations.

3. Resolution – there are several tax resolution strategies that can be utilized to help taxpayers but the most common are Offer in Compromise, Installment Agreement, Currently Not Collectible, and Penalty Abatement.

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11  Can I use Tax Relief Assistance for both my Federal and State tax issues?

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Yes, we are able to represent taxpayers for their state tax issue as well as their federal tax issues. The resolution options for state taxes, however, vary by state and are not as broad as the federal tax resolution solutions.

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12  What is an Enrolled Agent?

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An Enrolled Agent is a tax practitioner that has passed three Special Enrollment Exams (SEE) administered by the Internal Revenue Service. The three exams extensively cover individual tax law; Business tax law; and Representation, Practice and Procedures. Once the tax practitioner has passed the exams, the IRS awards him the Enrolled Agent designation

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In order to maintain the designation, an Enrolled Agent must complete 72 hours of continuing tax education every three years with a minimum of 16 hours earned per year, two of which hours must be on Circular 230 Ethics. A licensed Enrolled Agent is able to represent taxpayers from all 50 states before the IRS on federal tax matters.

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To learn how and Enrolled Agent differs from a CPA or an attorney please see the following article link: Understanding Tax Return Preparer Credentials.

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