Every month our Polston Tax team works hard to help assist our clients as they deal with their tax issues. Sometimes this means getting a levy released, a payment plan set up, or navigating an audit. Here are just a couple examples of the cases our team was able to close this month!
Case #1: Small business owners and self-employed individuals are more likely to be flagged for audit by the IRS. The IRS knows that the average taxpayer is unfamiliar with the tax laws, and they will use that to try and take advantage of you or even try to intimidate you during the audit process to get as much money as possible. When these clients originally came to our office, they had just been issued an Examination Report by an IRS Auditor who was proposing a massive balance owed by their business. The auditor was attempting to classify the business as a “hobby” – which would disallow our clients from being able to claim the vast majority of their business expenses. Things such as Cost of Goods Sold, Depreciation, and Car/Truck Expenses were all challenged by the auditor. Our audit team succeeded in getting the businesses classified as “For Profit” and were able to get almost all of the expenses allowed that the auditor was previously attempting to disallow. This was a painstaking process as the team had to go through hundreds of documents to pick out the necessary ones that were in relation to an office build-out that our client claimed for depreciation. With our team’s hard work and attention to detail, we were able to secure a settlement with the IRS – and ended up saving the client over $958,000!
Case #2: Bank levies are one of the most detrimental things that can happen to a taxpayer- and can be even worse for a business owner. Not knowing how you are going to get paid is horrifying, but no business owner would ever want to imagine being unable to pay their employees. Levy releases are possible to achieve with the IRS, but can be extremely difficult without a professional to fight for you. They are even more difficult with a Revenue Officer and it takes understanding the bounds they have to stay within in order to success-fully release a levy. Our next client was issued an IRS bank levy from a Revenue Officer for approximately $70,000. These funds were crucial to our client and without them, they would be unable to pay regular business expenses let alone their employees. Our team understood the urgency in the matter and not only went back and forth in communication with the Revenue Officer but also went directly to the Revenue Officer’s manager as we felt they were overstepping. Revenue Officers can be extremely aggressive in attempting to collect on any tax balances, but especially payroll taxes. They will do everything possible to get every penny they can from you and aren’t eager to release any levies they issue. The Revenue Officer indicated the client had an ability to pay $27,000/month which would full pay their balance in 5 months, but we knew this was out of reach for what our client could afford. We aggressively negotiated with this particularly ruthless Revenue Officer to secure an installment agreement for our client that was doable for them. Through securing this resolution, our team was also able to successfully get the $70,000 bank levy released and funds put back into our client’s account so they could keep their business going!
If you need help settling your tax liability 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!