The IRS can be a Nasty Nasty Bunch of People!

Have you ever been in a position of owing money to the IRS? Did you explain that you couldn’t pay the debt but you would do your best to get it resolved over the next few years?

Did you begin paying the best amount you could afford only to be unable to maintain the payments? Did your explanations fall on deaf ears and demands were made that were impossible to comply with? Do you know that only 25% of Offers in Compromise are ever accepted by the IRS?

There’s an art to taxpayer representation to the IRS, and the best advice is:

DON’T EVER REPRESENT YOURSELF TO THE IRS!
The IRS will have no sympathy for you and you will end up agreeing to a much larger tax and penalty than if Michael A. Minelli or another experienced representative represented you.

The following are a few examples of well intentioned people attempting to deal with the IRS without proper representation.

BUSINESS MAN THOUGHT THE ACCOUNTANT HE HIRED WAS WORKING FOR THE IRS
A business man was referred to me who hadn’t filed a tax return (neither personal nor business) in over 10 years. He owned a very successful residential home construction business and was contacted by the IRS when a tradesman said he worked for the businessman and didn’t get a 1099 at year end. The business man admitted to the IRS caller woman that he hadn’t filed a personal or business tax return in many years and wanted to ”pay up” & get this monkey off his back. He offered to bring $40,000.00 that afternoon to the IRS and start the process of correcting his mistake which he did. During the weeks that followed the IRS woman asked him many questions that he answered thinking she was helping him correct his mistake and get legal.

The IRS also recommended he find a local accountant to help him file past tax returns. This accountant suggested he deposit another $25,000.00 and then another $25,000.00. Eventually the business owner thought (not true) that the accountant he’d hired to help him was working for the IRS; he also discovered (when I got involved) that the IRS agent was asking questions that could be answered two ways, one to the IRS’s advantage and one to his advantage and because he didn’t know which was which he was getting deeper & deeper in trouble.

When I got involved the first thing I did was file a Power of Attorney for me to represent the business man and stop the IRS agent from asking the business man questions (as a matter of fact I required the IRS agent to write all questions and submit them to me and I’d answer them in writing on behalf of the business man.

The following April I prepared tax returns (business & personal) that requested the IRS refund $26,000.00 of the deposits he made and all back tax issues were settled.

OHIO FINES WOMAN $500.00 FOR NOT FILING TAX RETURN FOR A $2.00 REFUND!
I was referred to a woman who didn’t file her Ohio tax return because she had a $2.00 refund and didn’t want to pay to prepare the return. The Ohio Department of taxation fined her $500.00 for not filing an Ohio tax return. I told her how to avoid the fine.

IRS FINES A TRUSTEE OF PENSION PLAN $19,000.00 FOR ERRORS ON 5500 FILING!
I had a client who received a fine for disqualification of his Defined Benefit Pension plan due to the actuarial assumptions made by the actuary for his plan. The assumptions were legal and the IRS was attacking DB Pension plan for individual businessmen. The client was experiencing a very emotional time in his life and wanted to pay the fine to be rid of the IRS; I asked him not to and let me handle the response to the IRS which he did. Within 6 weeks he received a letter from the IRS saying the fine was cancelled and the review was closed without adjustment.

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