Nicholas Hartney, E.A.©

Its hard out here for a tax collector.  List of paid holidays IRS employees receive off: January 1          New Year's Day January 17        Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. February 21      Washington's Birthday April 15             District of Columbia Emancipation Day May 30              Memorial Day July 4                 Independence Day September 5     Labor Day October 10        Columbus Day November 11     Veterans' Day November 24   Thanksgiving Day December 26   Christmas Day  

We all need a break from dealing with the stress of dealing with the IRS (whom after dealing with for the past decade I view as part of the Criminal Justice System-since the criminals seem to be the ones running it!) and my favorite show to get my mind off taxes is AMC's Breaking Bad. When I need a break from the stressful task of representing taxpayers from the IRS I get to escape by watching my favorite show of all-time, AMC's Breaking Bad. If you have not heard of it here is the synopsis:  An underachieving chemical engineer working as a high-school chemistry teacher is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and decides to go into business of manufacturing methamphetamine (crystal meth) with the goal of raising enough money to support his family before he dies.  It is a nice way to escape the daily stress of dealing with tax debt (or like me, from other people's tax debt :), here is a clip from the show:

"Why was a tax lien filed?" or "Can you abate the penalties?" are the two most common concerns I hear from potential clients.  While others (sales people) have no problem telling you that they will remove the tax lien and get rid of the penalties I will attempt to explain to you where the rubber meets the road. If you owe the IRS more than $25,000 there is going to be a tax lien filed, period.  You can appeal the initial notice of federal tax lien but that doesn't prevent it from being filed.  It can be withdrawn if you are successful in appeals.   If you owe more than the threshold amount of $25K good luck with that.     The IRS takes the position if you did the crime you must do the time.  That time is in the form of both the filing of a tax lien as well as penalties and interest.  While abating penalties is much more likely than releasing a tax lien if you owe more than $25,000, it certainly is not a given.   You must demonstrate reasonable cause existed

They seen the flashy TV commercials of Patrick Cox's side profile telling taxpayers with back tax debt "We Solve Tax Problems".  They had been hoping that the claims of tax help were true. They took a leap of faith and decided to hire Tax Masters so long that they could feel help was there and they could start to sleep better at nights.  They would soon be awakened when their bank accounts were levied and no one from Tax Masters were calling them back.  Then they did their homework and found sites like mine.  They contacted me and found out the truth how there are many scams in the tax debt representation industry, with Tax Masters being the biggest of them all. How companies can continue to operate like this is beyond imperceptibly.  Here is a synopsis of one man's experience of using Tax Masters . Paying Tax Masters $4000 to prepare and negotiate an Offer in Compromise .  After several months went by and not Offer was submitted the taxpayer gets hit with a IR

TAX CHANGES AFFECTING BUSINESSES For owners of small businesses and their workers, there are some key provisions in which to pay attention. The major ones include: tax credits; excise taxes; and penalties. But whether a business will be affected by them depends on a variety of factors, such as the number of its employees and the amount of their wages. I.     Tax credits to certain small employers that provide insurance. The new law provides small employers with a tax credit (i.e., a dollar-for-dollar reduction in tax) for "nonelective contributions" (an employer contribution other than an employer contribution under a salary reduction arrangement) to purchase health insurance for their employees. The credit can offset an employer's regular tax or its alternative minimum tax (AMT) liability. Small business employers eligible for the credit. To qualify, a business must offer health insurance to its employees as part of their compensation and contribute at l

  Click here for updated 2018 Post  The first question many clients ask me is, "were you able to get the IRS (and/or State) to waive any of the penalties or interest?" The frustrating thing for me is that many people ask this before we even have an agreement in place to resolve the back taxes.  Talk about putting the carriage before the horse!   If you are looking to hire someone to prepare a Penalty Abatement request for you, please fill out my questionnaire and I will advise you what I believe your chances are to qualify and will provide you with a quote if it appears you have a reasonable shot of convincing the IRS to abate some/all your penalties. The bottom line is that many people think they are special and deserve a break but obviously that is not the case.  There is no magic wand that is used to abate penalties and the majority of interest can not be abated at all (only the interest that is related towards the penalties, the other interest

The Social Security (FICA) tax consists of two parts: 1. Old-age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (Social Security) and 2. Hospital Insurance (Medicare). The trust fund portion of withholding tax consists of the income tax withheld and the employee portion of FICA. To figure the amount of the trust fund of any particular period you will need to look at the IRS Forms 941 or 944 (most businesses file quarterly 941 taxes). 1. Go to Line 3, income tax withheld from wages, tips and other compensation. Take 100% of this amount.  2. Next go to Line 5d (to sum of 5a + 5b +5c) and take 1/2 of this amount. 3. Add steps 1 and 2 and there you have it, the total trust fund amount. If you paid a portion of the tax due it will be a little more difficult to determine how much of those taxes were applied towards the trust fund portion as the IRS will apply a portion towards the non-trust amounts (employer matching portion of FICA).   This taxpayer has a trust fund balance of $14,59