Polston Tax’s Top Closed Cases of 2019

In 2019, our firm helped hundreds of clients resolve their tax issues. Our tax attorneys and case managers worked hard to negotiate payment plans and resolutions that would help our clients end their tax problems and possibly save money. In 2019 our firm closed around 1,077 state and federal tax cases. This included helping 51 clients get their state licenses renewed so they could get back to wor. We also negotiated 20 Offer in Compromises for our clients. All of this hard work allowed our firm to save our clients a total of $18,473,720.92 in 2019! Here are just a few of the cases we were able to resolve for our clients in 2019!

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Owning a business is one of the most common ways to get into tax trouble, especially if your business goes under. Our next client owned their own construction business but had to shut it down due to the business going bankrupt. After the bankruptcy, our client had a hard time finding a job and had barely worked for the past couple of years. Due to not working, our client was not able to afford his home and was forced to sell it. After going over our client’s financials and talking to him about what type of resolution would be ideal for him, we decided to try and secure an Offer in Compromise for our client. Because our client had minimal income and didn’t have a lot of equity, our team was able to get an Offer in Compromise for only $5!!! This not only helped our client end their tax problems, but it saved him over $90,000!!!

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Our next client used to run a trucking business and fell behind on his taxes which created a tax liability of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Luckily, some of his balances expired due to time limits and he was able to get himself into Currently Not Collectible Status. This client came to us because he wanted to get rid of the liens the IRS had kept on his property when he went into CNC status. After going through our client’s financials, we realized after bills and expenses, our client had a monthly disposable income of $0. With that information, we submitted an Offer in Compromise to the IRS and waited. After a few months, the Offer Specialist tried to speak to our client, instead of us, to get financial information he could use against our client. Luckily, our client called us immediately and we contacted the Specialist. After some tough negotiating, we were able to secure an offer for our client and saved him over $150,000!

One way many taxpayers incur their tax debt is through an IRS audit. An IRS audit can be used to look for unclaimed income or extra in-come the IRS can tax. Our client was ahead of his taxes until the IRS audited him and assessed extra tax balances. Our client was retired but had previously owned a business. Our client came to us with a tax lien and years of unfiled tax returns. Before we could get a resolution, we first had to file his unfiled returns. Once he was in compliance, we were able to appeal the lien and get it removed. It was shortly after we got the lien withdrawn that our client’s wife was diagnosed with cancer. This dropped our client’s income drastically as the wife could no longer work. The IRS then levied our client’s Social Security due to nonpayment. Our attorneys were not only able to temporarily put our client in Currently Not collectible status and get the levies released, but they were able to get over $15,000 in penalties abated for our client! We then got all the necessary paperwork from our client and filed an Offer in Compromise. A few months later, we received a notice from the IRS saying our OIC was rejected. Our attorneys appealed the rejection and were able to prove the expenses for our clients. The IRS then approved an OIC for $85, saving our clients over $160,000!

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Receiving retirement money is one of the main reasons our clients get into tax trouble. Either our clients take the money out prematurely or they receive the payments but don’t pay the taxes on them. For instance, one of our clients was paid his retirement in one large lump sum payment. Despite the large payout, our clients did not pay any of the taxes on their income. Due to this and claims he made on his tax return, our client was audited. The auditor assessed additional tax balances and penalties on our client and disallowed almost all of his expenses. Our client tried to fix the problem, but the attorney he hired told him he wouldn’t be able to resolve his case and his accountant stopped returning his calls and never gave him his documentation back. Our client came to us desperate to get this resolved. After going through his financials, we realized our client barely had any money to live on, let alone pay the IRS. We provided documentation to the IRS of our client’s inability to pay and we able to secure Currently Not Collectible status for our clients and saved them over $178,000.

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Taxpayers are usually audited when the IRS thinks they are hiding income, lying on tax returns, or taking incorrect tax deductions or tax credits. Our client came to us after being audited and getting assessed a large liability due to the audit findings. He had owned a flooring company and was being threatened with a levy due to not filing his tax return. While filing the returns for our client, we had him make Estimated Tax Payments so that he was in compliance with the IRS. We then filed an Offer in Compromise so our client could resolve his tax issue. After providing substantiation to the IRS and aggressively negotiating for this resolution, they approved the Offer and our client saved $136,000!

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Our first client had recently gotten divorced and came to us wanting to take care of the tax debt the couple had incurred while together so that they both could move on. When he came to us, our client already had a wage levy and was desperate to get his tax problem taken care of so he wouldn’t lose any more income. After retaining our office, our client was let go from his job and no longer had any income. Because the IRS could no longer garnish his wages, they placed a lien on the home he owned. Due to our client’s loss of income and inability to pay any type of monthly payment, our office determined the best resolution was Currently Not Collectible (CNC) status. This would mean our client wouldn’t have to make any type of payment and that the IRS would not garnish his wages while he was in CNC status. After crunching the numbers and aggressively negotiating, the IRS agreed to place our client into CNC status, and we were able to save him $210,000!

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Owning a business is one of the easiest ways to get into tax trouble. For instance, our clients were self-employed and owned a hair salon. They came to us after they were threatened with a bank levy by the IRS. After retaining our firm, our first step was to look at our client’s financials to see what resolutions would work best for them. We wait-ed until the IRS assigned a revenue officer so we could attempt to get a resolution. The wife had recently lost an income source, which brought our clients monthly disposable income down. The revenue office asked to meet with our tax attorney and clients to go over the financials we had submitted. The officer inquired about several expenses and why they were necessary. We were able to substantiate all the expenses which allowed the officer to place our clients in a payment plan that saved them over $173,000!

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Missing tax returns can turn into large tax liabilities, especially if you don’t file for several years. Our next client didn’t file for several years and ended up owing over $100,000 to the IRS. He owned a trucking business but didn’t have the time to do the taxes. When we took over the case, the IRS hadn’t assigned a revenue officer to the case, so we took the time to go over our client’s finances. They had a tax liability for their trucking business and for them personally. Our clients decided to close their business as it was no longer profitable, so we were able to use this to help push for a better resolution. The revenue officer looked over the financials and agreed to place the clients into a payment plan for their personal liability and then place the liability attached to the business into Currently Not Collectible status. This saved our client over $172,000!

The IRS will try to tax as much of your income as possible. This includes retirement payouts, stock dividends, and lawsuit winnings. Our client had previously won a lot of money in a lawsuit case and did not know how to properly pay the taxes on the winnings. He ended up with a large tax liability and came to us for help when the IRS threatened him with a tax lien. We first helped our client get into compliance with the IRS as he had several missing tax returns and the IRS would not let us negotiate without him being in complete compliance. We also made sure our client was making his Estimated Tax Payments, so he didn’t incur more tax debt. Our team determined he was a good candidate for an Offer in Compromise as he had little income and very high expenses. We filed the OIC and waited to hear from the IRS. After 9 months, the IRS told us they needed proof of his high expenses. We were able to prove and substantiate his expenses and the IRS approved his offer, saving him over $600,000 and resolving his tax issues once and for all.

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Sometimes the IRS will want to come to meet you at your home or business to assess your assets and see if you are hiding any income. Our client had been audited and we were working with them to settle the tax debt that came from the audit. The Revenue Officer overseeing their case asked for an in-person meeting at our client’s home. We came to the meeting to protect and represent our client from the Revenue Officer. After the meeting, we disclosed our client’s financials to the officer and decided to file an offer in compromise. We filed the offer and waited almost a year before the Offer Specialist got back to us. After providing substantiation for our client’s expenses, the Specialist came back with a very high offer amount. Our team aggressively negotiated with the Specialist and was able to bring the offer amount down by over $10,000! This ended up saving our client over $389,000 and solved their tax problem once and for all!

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If you receive royalties or other income that isn’t taxed by the distributor, you need to make sure you are setting money aside so that you have money to pay the taxes due on that income. Our client, unfortunately, didn’t know that he would have to pay taxes on his oil royalties and ended up owing over $100,000 when he filed his taxes. He didn’t have enough money for the taxes he owed and ended up getting hit with penalties and tax liens. Our client came to us because he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to renew his license and wouldn’t be able to work. We looked over our client’s financials and realized his income had dropped drastically and he no longer received any royalties. We determined how much money our client had after all his monthly living expenses and went to the IRS to try to negotiate a payment plan with that number. After providing substantiation for all his expenses, we were able to secure a $25/mo Partial Payment Installment Agreement for our client which saved him over $177,000!

If you need help settling your tax debt with the IRS or State, call Polston Tax Today! Our team of Tax Attorneys, CPAs, Case Managers, and Tax Accountants will help you get the best resolution possible and solve your tax problems once and for all! Call 405-801-2146 or click below to schedule a free consultation!