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Tax Problems and Controversies- IRS, California, International & MultiState -
After a tax dispute has run its course (whether
you participated and took the matter to appeals and tax court or ignored
communications from the IRS) and the tax has been assessed, if you do not pay after five letters have been sent by the service center,
the debt is referred to an Automated Collections Site (ACS). If the service has
enough information on you, notices and IRS tax liens and levys (wage
garnishments and bank levies) can be sent
from there.
If there is not enough information, the case is
sent to a Field Revenue Officer. These people interview those living around your
last known address and employer, and basically try to determine where you are
and what you have.
After you are found, the collections proceedings begin. The IRS can place tax liens against your home and levy your bank account and paycheck (sometimes referred to as a wage garnishment).
After the tax has been assessed,
you can file an IRS offer in compromise, asking to settle the tax debt for
pennies on the dollar under certain circumstances. The basis for the reduction can be:
Click here for additional information on the IRS Offer in Compromise program. The Internal Revenue Service has an appeals system for taxpayers who do not agree with the results of an examination (IRS tax audit) of their tax returns or with other adjustments to their tax liability. In addition to examinations, many other things can be appealed. Among them are penalties, including the trust fund recovery penalty, rejected Offers in Compromise, employment tax adjustments, IRS tax liens, levies (wage garnishments and bank account levies), seizures, abatement of interest and other claims. By hiring tax attorney Chris Rusch, you can be assured that your appeal will be most persuasive because I am familiar with the IRS and know how to present your appeal with proper legal arguments and tax authority. When you disagree with the findings in Appeals, I can argue your case to the United States Tax Court. You will receive a "90-Day Letter" which provides you with up to 90 days to file a petition with the Tax Court and have your case heard by a judge. If you miss the deadline, this opportunity is lost! At this stage, you need a very experienced tax attorney to represent you before the Tax Court. By engaging my services, you can be assured that your petition, case at hearing and legal briefing will be most persuasive because I know how to present your case with legal arguments and case law. You have 30 days from the date of the Notice Of Levy issued by the Internal Revenue Service to pay in full or to find another solution. Ignoring this notice or doing nothing will only make matters worse. I can analyze your situation to find the best course of action for you and avoid the levy. Once the 30 days has passed, the IRS does not have to give any further notice before seizing your assets, including the money in your checking accounts, savings accounts, and your wages. By securing a temporary freeze on collection activity, I will have time to review your situation and determine the best course of action. For many taxpayers, this could lead to an Offer in Compromise. Click here for information on an IRS Offer in Compromise. The Internal Revenue Service is not limited to civil enforcement of the tax laws. It can, and often does, impose criminal charges leading to a conviction, fines and imprisonment
If any of these events happen to you, you should engage the services of the Law Offices of Chris Rusch. The sooner I become involved in the process, the sooner I can limit your exposure, liability and risk. I will also obtained copies of whatever records your bank turns over to the IRS and work to quash summons for information, utilize all available legal privileges and defenses to protect some of the financial records, and providing the best responses to an investigator's questions and requests for documents in a civil audit with criminal implications. I CAN HELP! In some cases, I have been able to stop the Criminal process before charges were filed. Click here for additional information on Criminal Tax Matters. Tax Liens: When your taxes are not paid, the Internal Revenue Service can establish an IRS tax lien against all of your assets. This gives the IRS the legal right to collect taxes from your assets, which includes just about everything you own. The IRS tax lien can be against you, your spouse, or your company. An IRS tax lien against you and your company could lead to a seizure of your accounts receivables. At this point everything you own is just one short step away from becoming the property of the United States Government. If you owe taxes and have been notified of a tax lien being filed against you, it is time to take action. I can temporary halt these actions and can help you keep your assets and get out of trouble with the Internal Revenue Service. Bank Levies: Bank Levies are the IRS's way of getting your immediate attention. What they are saying is we have tried to communicate with you but you have ignored us. Levies are used to seize your checking accounts, savings accounts, autos, stocks, bonds or anything else you own. By securing a temporary freeze on further collection activity, I will have sufficient time to analyze your situation and determine the best course of action. For many taxpayers, this could lead to an Offer in Compromise. Click here for information on an IRS Offer in Compromise. Click here for our article on protecting your assets from lien and levy. One way the Internal Revenue Service will seek payment of an outstanding balance is to take a share of your wages until your tax liability is paid in full. After the IRS takes their share, there usually is not enough left over to pay the rent, car payment, buy groceries or pay the rest of your bills. By securing a temporary freeze on the wage garnishment, I will have time to analyze your situation and determine the best course of action. For many taxpayers, this typically leads to an IRS Offer in Compromise. Click here for information on an Offer in Compromise. Non-Filed / Delinquent Returns For years you haven't filed any tax returns. While the Internal Revenue Service has not yet notified you, they will catch up to you sooner or later. As computers become more sophisticated and the sharing of data becomes more commonplace, time is ticking down. The IRS may seek to impose a criminal fines and jail for failure to file tax returns. Then, if you do file, the tax returns must be accurate and truthful because if false returns are detected by the IRS, a fraud referral to the Criminal Investigation Division will be generated. If you haven't been contacted by the Internal Revenue Service already, it may be possible to file your returns without criminal penalties. I can help get you current with your tax return filing obligations and then analyze your situation to determine the best course of action and minimize the chance of any criminal investigation and the possibility of a safe harbor by filing before an inquiry begins. Once the returns are filed, if you can not afford to pay the bill it may be able to be settled for pennies on the dollar with an IRS Offer in Compromise. I can review your entire situation and tell you in advance whether you qualify for and Offer in Compromise before the returns are completed! Click here for information on an IRS Offer in Compromise. You filed a joint return with your spouse, which under examination by the Internal Revenue Service resulted in an understatement of tax. Generally, married taxpayers who file jointly are both liable for the full amount of tax due. However, if you can show that when you signed the return you did not know, or had no reason to know, of the understatement, or there were certain erroneous items reflected on the return, the IRS may grant you relief from paying the tax. By analyzing your situation, I will determine whether you would qualify for innocent spouse relief. Click here for your Tax Payer's Bill of Rights. The employer that you worked for or are currently working for has been delinquent in paying its employment taxes to the IRS. To the extent that these taxes represent that portion withheld from the employees' wages (i.e., trust fund taxes), the IRS can assess and seek collection from "responsible persons" in their individual capacity for the amount of the unpaid trust fund taxes. Potential responsible persons could be officers, partners, corporate directors, shareholders, bookkeepers or employees of a business. If the IRS has classified you as a responsible person, you will be held liable for the outstanding trust fund taxes. By allowing me to analyze your situation and determine the best course of action, I will formulate a strategy to prevent the assessment from being made at all, or to settle the liability. This must be done before you go to the "responsible person interview" that the IRS will require. The Internal Revenue Code authorizes the abatement of penalties imposed by the IRS for failure to file tax returns, for failure to pay tax, and for other penalties, if the failure is due to reasonable cause, and not willful neglect. Forgiveness of penalties is decided on a case-by-case basis. Generally, if you exercised ordinary business care and prudence and was, nevertheless, unable to file the return on time, the delay is considered due to reasonable cause. Also, a failure to pay may be due to reasonable cause if you exercised ordinary business care and prudence, yet could not pay the tax liability. If the IRS determines that failure to pay or failure to file was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect, the penalty will not be assessed. You would still be responsible, however, for the underlying tax owed plus interest due. Let us seek abatement of your penalties due to reasonable cause and get a reduction in the amount you owe. If you cannot pay all that you owe now and you do not qualify for an IRS Offer In Compromise, an installment agreement may be your next best option. Installment agreements allow you to make monthly payments and stop IRS collection actions. The amount of your installment payment will be based on the amount you owe and your ability to pay. In many cases, my clients never pay their tax bill in full, even though they did not qualify for an Offer in Compromise. The IRS has only 10 years to collect from you and can only take a portion of your income after your reasonable expenses. This means that, in many cases, the 10 year collection statute will expire before the debt is even close to being paid off. Click here for Offer In Compromise so that we may determine if you qualify for an OIC. If not, we can use this information to determine your estimated monthly installment payment. Collection Due Process Appeals Collection Due Process (CDP) Appeals are available if you receive one of the following notices:
Whenever any of these notices are issued, you have up to 30 days to file a request for a CDP Appeal. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Appeals Officer will issue a written determination letter. If you agree with this determination, both you and the IRS are required to live up to the terms of the determination. If you disagree with the CDP appeals decision, it can be appealed to a court; however, whatever the Court rules will be binding on both you and the IRS. Let me get you through this appeals process and resolve your IRS collection problems.
Civil Tax Problems
As taxpayers increasingly engage in activities that involve the United States and one or more other countries, more of the civil tax issues raised by the Internal Revenue Service involve U.S. international tax law — an extraordinarily complex web of U.S. federal tax law and income, gift and estate tax treaties. I assist my clients with all aspects of these international tax issues at every administrative level and in litigation before the Federal courts.
Civil tax controversies involving U.S. international tax issues include:
Criminal Tax Problems
I also represent clients that are the subject of, or are considered witnesses in connection with, international tax criminal investigations.
Criminal tax proceedings involving U.S. international tax issues include:
Click here for additional information on Criminal Tax Matters. Click here for more information on the defense of offshore credit cards.
Click here for more information on international tax for business.
Click here for more information on international asset protection.
Click here to schedule a confidential appointment by email or call my direct line at (619) 557-0587. I will personally answer your call and and determine what steps are needed to resolve your tax issue.
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