IRS Problems In Minneapolis, MN

Collection follows a sequence of letters, and each one starts a clock. After a tax is assessed and not paid, the IRS sends bills, then a final notice of intent to levy. Under sections 6320 and 6330 of the Internal Revenue Code, a notice of a filed tax lien or of an intended levy generally gives you 30 days to request a collection due process hearing, which is the moment to propose an installment agreement, an offer in compromise or another alternative, and to preserve the right to go to Tax Court.

A federal tax lien under section 6321 attaches to everything you own, and a Notice of Federal Tax Lien recorded with the county puts the public on notice. A levy under section 6331 is the actual taking: a bank account, a receivable, or wages, where a continuing levy takes part of every paycheck until it is released.

Yes. Payroll taxes withheld from employees are held in trust for the government, and if a business does not pay them over, the IRS can assess the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty under section 6672 personally against the owners and officers responsible for paying them. Those taxes generally cannot be discharged in bankruptcy.

A business can also owe the state for income, sales or withholding tax, and a state revenue department has its own collection tools and its own deadlines. We look at the whole picture, federal and state, business debt included, before recommending a route.

The first step is reading exactly what the notices say: which tax years, which amounts, which deadlines, and what the IRS has already done. Then come the numbers, your income, expenses and assets, because every IRS option is judged on what you can actually pay. With those two in hand, you get a plain recommendation and the work of dealing with the IRS begins.

Every IRS notice and letter you have received, with the envelopes, your tax returns for the years in question, proof of income, recent bank statements, a list of monthly expenses, and any lien or levy notice.