Tax Debt Settlement Help

The IRS is one of the largest federal organizations that has direct control over your money. They can garnish wages, withhold your pay, and file liens and judgements against you if you do not pay the taxes that you are calculated to owe. If you have gotten behind in your taxes, you may be facing an insurmountable tax debt and wondering how you can deal with it. You may also have heard about debt settlement companies that will help settle your credit card and unsecured charge debt, and you may be wondering if there is tax debt settlement help available as well.

Tax Debt Settlement Options

There is one avenue which the IRS provides for tax debt settlement, known as an offer in compromise. What this means is that:

You file a Form, Form 656, with the IRS and provide reasoning for the fact that you cannot pay your tax debt
You offer a reasonable amount of money in settlement to make the debt go away.

This form is very complex, and while you can fill it out yourself, you may not have a good chance of receiving a settlement this way. The IRS knows that they can wait for you to repay the money in full over time, so they are not known for making settlements of tax debt.

Tax Debt Settlement Companies

One option for tax debt settlement help is to consult a tax debt settlement company. These companies may or may not use attorneys or trained accountants who will fill out the offer in compromise and track it through the process for you. One potential issue here is that most of these companies charge a fee, which may or may not be higher than you would pay for a lawyer, and will certainly be more than you would pay to do it yourself. However, you may have a better chance of success, again because these companies know the system and are familiar with the process of dealing with the IRS on these matters.

Getting Help

Another option for receiving a settlement of tax debt from the IRS via an offer in compromise is to consult a tax attorney who will examine your situation and help file the paperwork for you, as well as work with the IRS to negotiate a potential settlement. This method works because the attorney is well versed in the tax code, and may already have a working relationship with the IRS from previous cases, so he knows the ins and outs of the procedure and how to negotiate the best possible tax settlement. You may be concerned about attorneys fees, but the money you spend could translate into substantial savings on your tax bill.

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