Jim Payne's Tax Blog in Gainesville, FL

I represent taxpayers in Gainesville and the state of Florida who have tax issues with the IRS.   The IRS uses a series of notices to incentivize taxpayers to pay them. Here is a cheat sheet to understanding where you stand in the collections process by Notice Number: Balance Due Notices: CP161 R...

I represent taxpayers in Gainesville and the state of Florida who have tax issues with the IRS.  SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME, the IRS's official policy was that any future failures to pay taxes timely would result in the automatic default of any existing payment plan. In my experience, the IRS ha...

I represent taxpayers in Gainesville and the state of Florida who have tax issues with the IRS.  The IRS suspended the majority of their automated collection letters at the beginning of COVID. The COVID emergency was declared ended last May, but the IRS has been slow in ramping up its computer-ge...

I represent taxpayers in Gainesville and the state of Florida who have tax issues with the IRS.  You got a call from a company that claimed you were entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in refunds for retaining your employees during COVID. The result certainly sounded great, and the solic...

I represent taxpayers in Gainesville and the state of Florida who have tax issues with the IRS.  The IRS announced on 9/14/23 that it would no longer be processing new Employee Retention Credit refunds. This was due to the unprecedented amount of fraud in these claims. The level of fraud is not m...

I represent taxpayers in Gainesville and the state of Florida who have tax issues with the IRS.  Payment Plans at the beginning of my career, were a huge effort requiring financial information to be provided and long talks with condescending or out-and-out rude IRS Revenue Officers. Those days ar...

I represent taxpayers in Gainesville and the state of Florida who have tax issues with the IRS.  That all-important first step in getting out of an IRS mess is to do an analysis of the IRS Account Transcript. This transcript shows all the transactions by tax year, starting with the assessment for...

The IRS really hates businesses that fail to pay their payroll taxes for good reason. The government ends up paying for these failures twice. First, they never get the money. Second, they end up having to credit the employees with the withholding and potentially pay refunds on the money they neve...

If you owe the IRS money, you might be considering an Offer-in-Compromise (OIC) as a way to settle your tax debt for less than the full amount you owe. This is the so-called "pennies on the dollar" approach you hear in ads. While an OIC can be an excellent way to resolve your tax debt, it’s essen...

Darren Guillot, Deputy Commissioner, Collections and Operations Support announced on January 20th that the trial policy of allowing installment plans without requiring financial information for tax debts up to $250,000 is now permanent.Why is this a Big Deal?The requirement to provide financial i...