When two people sign a joint return, the IRS can collect the entire balance from either one of them. Not half each. All of it, from whichever person it can reach. That rule is called joint and several liability, and it is why someone who never earned the income, never saw the return, and in…
People look for an Offer in Compromise calculator because they want one number before they commit to anything, and that is a reasonable thing to want. The problem is that the calculation depends on figures the IRS applies rather than figures you supply, and most online calculators quietly substitute your household budget for the IRS’s…
Form 433-A runs to several pages and asks for things a short payment-plan form never touches. Every bank account. Every vehicle. Life insurance cash value. Retirement balances. Anyone who owes you money. People open it and assume the level of detail means they are in serious trouble. Sometimes that is true. More often it means…
People search for the IRS hardship program expecting to find an application form. There isn’t one. What exists is a status the IRS can place an account into called Currently Not Collectible, and it does something narrower than the name suggests. It stops the IRS collecting. It does not cancel what you owe. For someone…
The IRS is sending tens of thousands of CP59 notices to taxpayers every week right now. If one just landed in your mailbox, you are not alone. A CP59 notice tells you the IRS has no record of receiving a tax return for a specific year. It wants that return filed. The notice itself is…
