There is this saying that there\’s nothing more certain in life than death and taxes. So it is really no wonder that many taxpayers are seeking IRS relief. It is quite common for some taxpayers to be struggling with back taxes, unfiled tax returns and audit penalties so they need to find some sort of IRS relief.

One of the ways to seek a solution to your tax debt is to seek help from a professional. You can even seek assistance from the IRS if you do not want to hire a professional accountant or tax professional to help you with your tax debt. Before seeking help, you may want to know that there are many options and tax debt relief available to you. My best friend, Lucy, had a really serious tax debt that you could not pay down. Instead of ignoring it and thinking it could disappear, she faced it head on by looking at the various options available.

You see, Lucy owed a lot in back taxes and unfiled tax returns. So she was really desperate in seeking for a back tax debt relief.Not everyone may be able to or can afford to pay their IRS tax debt in full and Lucy was also one of them. One of the options she was looking at was an offer in compromise (OIC). This offer is a sort of agreement with the IRS for you to settle the tax debt at a lesser amount than owed. It is similar to a debt settlement except that you are settling with the IRS either with a lump sum payment or an installment plan agreed to by the IRS.

The OIC, however, is only available to those who are eligible for it. For example, the taxpayer must be in financial hardship and unable to repay the debt within the specified timeframe, the IRS has to collect the debt. Lucy did not qualify for this option and furthermore, she was rather turned off by the fact that most OIC applications are rejected. You may try this method if you have a competent tax professional with a good track record in successfully negotiating for OIC for its clients.

So, Lucy went in search of another option for IRS tax relief. Her tax professional recommended that she try for an installment agreement instead. Under this agreement, she will need to make a monthly payment to the IRS debt until you have paid up the full balance you owed to IRS. This method is usually reserved for those who do not qualify for the OIC and for those that the IRS feel, is able to pay up all of their tax obligations. This method will allow the taxpayer to spread out the repayment of their tax debt up to 5 years. However, if you have accumulated tax debts of more than $25,000, you may not get the option of paying the debt over a period of five years. You may even try a partial payment installment agreement where you only make a monthly payment to pay for a portion of the tax debt.

My pal, Lucy, finally decided on getting into an agreement to partially pay through an installment agreement. There are many other types of tax debt relief which you may want to discuss in detail with your tax professional.

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Category: Finances
Keywords: irs relief, back tax debt relief, irs tax relief