The recent recession has caused many people to have a more difficult time paying their taxes. Subsequently many people owe back taxes to the government. Sometimes the amount that you owe may be too big for you to be able to afford to pay in one lump sum. When such unfortunate occurrence happen to my friend Billie, it was best for her to seek legal representation to protect her interest when she was trying to pay her IRS debt. She may have felt like she had the verbal ability and tenacity to represent herself when negotiating with an IRS officer. However, she had to remember that even if she may be a good orator she may not necessarily be knowledgeable in regards to tax laws and regulations.

Tax attorneys may be her best bet when dealing with IRS officers regarding her IRS debt. The IRS may be a very formidable legal adversary so it would be to her advantage to seek the help of legal professionals who are trained to deal with IRS officers. Tax attorneys generally have the experience and knowledge to effectively negotiate back taxes with the IRS and may be more up to date with new legislations and federal mandates that can seem too overwhelming for many people. It probably would have taken Billie a much longer time to study these laws on her own and she may even run the risk of misinterpreting the provisions behind such laws. This is why it was advisable that she hired a qualified professional to act on her behalf to be able to successfully negotiate a good deal on her back taxes.

Even though Billie hired a tax attorney to handle her back tax problem, she still needed to keep herself abreast of everything that is going on especially the communications that go back and forth from her attorney’s office to the IRS and vice versa. This is especially important so that she was be able to provide all the personal documentation that is required in order to provide the IRS with a clear picture of her finances. Her attorney even needed to interview her to gain a clearer perspective of her situation as well. That way, her attorney was able to present a reasonable cause for her failure to pay her taxes on time. Of course, she was not able to negotiate a reduction in the amount she owed the IRS because they were more likely to waive only the penalties and still insist on full payment from her.

Billie’s attorney was also useful when it came to filing back taxes. Generally she may be expected to do so once an agreement has been reached on whether she was allowed to pay her taxes in installments or if she would be required to pay her back taxes in one lump sum. Of course, she may negotiate to pay in installments but generally the IRS may only allow this if her tax debt is less than $25,000. She may even have tried to compromise by agreeing to pay a partial lump sum payment provided that the IRS would allow her to pay the balance in installments. Once an agreement was reached and her attorney would proceed to file her back taxes she then continued to make the payments as agreed between her and the IRS officer she negotiated with.

Owing the government money is never a good thing because they may also act as creditors and keep harassing you to pay your back taxes immediately. However, they are not heartless so you may still be able to negotiate with them to enable you to pay for your taxes in a method that you can afford, like Billie did.

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Category: Finances
Keywords: irs debt, back tax problems, filing back taxes