If you ask anyone in our Resolution department at IRSMedic, we will tell you that the New Year is a perfect time to address new or lingering tax issues. However, so many of our eventual clients don’t reach out to us for help until the middle of the year, or later, until they have to because the IRS did something nasty like levy their bank accounts. Waiting sometimes limits your options for resolution.
While you may owe taxes for prior years, each new year starts as a blank slate in the IRS system. Therefore, it is the perfect opportunity to start building a history of compliance that will help in resolving your past liabilities.
Are you a perpetual late filer?
We advise our resolution clients to prepare their tax returns as soon as the year begins, especially if we know the tax return will have a balance. This is important because the new liability needs to be assessed in order to have it included in your resolution. In addition, filing timely (even if you haven’t in the past) may garner some good-will from the IRS when they review your case.
Tax preparers, accountants, and CPAs become super busy during tax filing season. Oftentimes, the downward spiral starts with the filing of an extension, which leads to a late payment or non-payment of taxes, which leads to giving up, which leads to another year of no dealing with your tax problem. The New Year is a great time to engage a reputable tax preparer and/or bookkeeper who can give your returns their undivided attention before they are flooded with requests. It also gives them the time necessary to explore various tax savings opportunities – or resolve unexpected issues – without being under the gun to meet a deadline.
The current tax payment trap
One of the most difficult hurdles our clients have to overcome is catching up on missed estimated tax payments, or under-withholding. As the year goes by, the chance of catching up on missed payments becomes less likely, mainly because at a certain point, climbing back out of that hole may require a lump sum to be paid to the IRS. There comes a time when catching up becomes financially impossible, and incurring a new liability is inevitable. In our experience, a case will progress much more smoothly when tax payment compliance is still attainable within the current tax year.
Do you want to be having the same New Years’ resolution next year?
One of the greatest benefits of quitting a nasty little habit like smoking is that once you do, you no longer have to make another New Years’ resolution to quit smoking! Wouldn’t it be great not to have to make another resolution next year that you will finally get a tax issue behind you?
It could be a real possibility that your tax liability is manageable now, but it may not be as manageable (or affordable) next year. No matter how bad you think things are, one of the sayings around here is wait…you might find that “Rock bottom” has a basement.
If you knew exactly what to do, you could do it, right?
Let’s be honest. Resolving a tax problem can be extremely stressful for you and your family. And even more terrible is the feeling of taking steps and failing. Starting off on the right foot and limiting unnecessary road blocks to success can take the sting out of the process. If you knew for 100% certain the exact steps you needed to take, you probably would right? The problem is you don’t know what steps to take.
If so, perhaps the best place to start is with our our great new affordable service, Total Tax Diagnosis. You’ll learn everything you need to do to find the best outcome for your case, for a very low cost. You may find that your problem doesn’t require the help of a tax firm. You may find that it does (and we are pretty awesome, btw). Learn more of the Total Tax Diagnosis here.
Or, contact us at 888-727-8796 or info@irsmedic.com to schedule your free, confidential consultation. If you need to hire us, we’ll let you know. But? If you don’t need to hire us we’ll let you know that too.
