Nicholas Hartney, E.A.©

*Ring *Ring..."Hello my name is blah blah, from blah blah Financial, we are calling you regarding a tax lien that has recently been filed, are you aware of that?" That's the first call.  If you decide to humor the telemarketer be prepared for the nature of the calls to become more and more aggressive.  If you eventually end up telling them to "take you off their list" or that you are on the no-call list ( Omni-Financial was the first telemarketing company in Colorado to be fined, 2001 Court Ruling Awards Consumer Monetary Reward After Suing Omni-Financial , for calling people on the do-not-call list and apparently hasn't learned their lesson as they continue to do so FCC Warns Omni-Financial ) you may still have difficulty getting rid of them. It reminded me of a scene from the 2005 film, The 40-Year Old Virgin where Trish, played by Catherine Keener mistakes Andy, played by Steve Carell, as a telemarketer and tells him off.  The audio can be heard

I find that working on a retainer is the fairest way to bill on tax representation as tax debt is analogous to lifting a rock off the ground-you never know what types of critters will be hiding underneath.  And unlike my competitors I do not over bill and only charge $175 an hour as compared to $250+ as most firms and tax attorneys charge. The work to handle most individual income tax debt cases averages $2000, payroll tax debt for businesses average $4000.  I do allow the fees to be split up.  To keep fees low it is important to provide me with requested information in a timely fashion (i.e. not missing IRS deadlines or providing me with the information the day of our deadline).   My Tax Preparation Fees are as follows: *Same price regardless of filing status (i.e. single, joint, head of household, married filing seperately, widow) *Add $100 for State Return and $150 for all prior years (prior to current year). Base Amount and W2s Only $125 For wage earners, no schedules.

This client owed over $65,000 and as you can see below the IRS settled for $5000 through their Offer in Compromise program.  This of course is not typical for every client.  The selling points for convincing the IRS to settle on this taxpayer's debt was his age (over 60), health issues (artery disease), and lack of assets and monthly disposable income. This taxpayer had hired the now defunct Tax Masters who had him on a $100 a month payment plan after he paid them to prepare an Offer in Compromise.  I stepped in and first had the IRS drop the installment agreement (i.e. monthly payment plan), then negotiated a currently not collectible status.  After that he was able to borrow $5000 from a friend (which we noted in the Offer in Compromise) and after 8 months they finally agreed to accept the Offer. If you need help with your back taxes please email me Email Nick

I failed to file tax returns to the IRS for over 10 years.  Finally, this problem caught up with me and the IRS levied my bank accounts, leaving me with absolutely zero amounts in my checking and saving accounts.  More, they garnished my retirement pay by an amount that would have only left me about $300 per month from the $3,000 I usually receive. Naturally, I was in a panic.  I had seen all the commercials on TV for tax resolution companies, but each one failed scrutiny via Google searches about complaints against them.  I didn't know what to do so I tried Googling for local tax resolution companies and found Nick Hartney's website, www.patriotresolution.com .    I checked his company out on the Internet and couldn't find a single complaint ... I gave him a call.   Here are the facts I've learned: 1.  You see TV commercial after TV commercial from companies promising to handle your IRS problems for "pennies on the dollar" and each is BS

In order to get the State of Colorado to accept an Offer in Compromise on your back taxes you will first need the IRS to approve one for the same tax periods.  Which makes sense.  Most states will strongly consider the acceptance of an Offer in Compromise once the IRS has agreed to one for the same periods.  Taken from the Colorado Department of Revenue's site (original site: here ) Offer in Compromise of Tax Liability Under certain circumstances the Department may accept a taxpayer's offer to settle their tax liability for less than the full amount due. Taxpayers who meet the following qualifications may initiate the process by submitting the documentation listed below. The taxpayer bears the burden of establishing the grounds for a potential settlement and has no legal entitlement to have any tax liability settled through an Offer in Compromise. Any submitted offer must reflect the taxpayer's maximum capacity to pay. The Department reserves the right to conduct

Today I was able to negotiate a partial payment installment agreement for a couple that owes over $140,000 in back civil penalty taxes (a trust fund taxed assessed against them for an old corporation which owed back payroll taxes) for $252 a month over the next four years (the time remaining on the collection statue).  The couple makes decent money, over $7200 per month which makes this a pretty decent deal for my clients. Although this is not considered technically an Offer in Compromise , it does allow the taxpayer to "settle" for paying approximately $12,000 on over $140,000 of tax debt, a whopping savings of over 91.5% of the total tax debt (when you consider IRS interest which is compounded daily on the civil penalty taxes-personal income tax debt also accrues penalties, but the trust fund recovery penalty in itself is a penalty so only interests accrues on the account). Now if my client comes up with around $12,000 or even a little less (by borrowing from friends

Watchdog: Growing IRS workload causing problems Government watchdog: Tight IRS budget, growing workload straining agency, hurting taxpayers By Alan Fram, Associated Press | Associated Press     WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service can't keep up with surging tax cheating and isn't sufficiently collecting revenue or helping confused taxpayers because Congress isn't giving it enough money to do its job, a government watchdog said Wednesday. To cope with its growing and increasingly complex tasks, the agency is relying more on computer software designed to weed out fraud, Nina E. Olson, the national taxpayer advocate, said in her annual report to lawmakers. But errors are abundant, creating even more work for the agency when taxpayers dispute its findings, the report said. In addition, it said the agency is increasingly relying on computer systems to evaluate tax returns that sometimes end up eroding taxpayers' rights, and people are having a h

The best way to obtain relief from a large tax debt on your business is to reorganize into another entity. This taxpayer owes nearly $70,000 however I was able to have the IRS agree to release the assets of the business to use in another business entity for $7231.  This startegy commonly referred to in the tax resolution industry as a "new-co" or new company formation will provide you with the most bang for your buck.   This strategy works if the assets in your business (including accounts receivable) are significantly lower than your federal tax debt.  I have represented hundreds of taxpayers using this resolution strategy.  My fee for a new entity start-up range from $2000 to $5000 depending on the size of trust fund portion of the payroll tax.  Contact me if interested at 720.340.4065.