I just got off the phone with the IRS, who is threatening to seize my bank accounts. They want me to make $185 a month installment payment on what I owe, and as a condition, to also make a $287 per quarter payment of estimated taxes.
This is just incomprehensible to me. I suppose I’m going to have to dig up a CPA who will fix this for me, and I have no idea how to pay for that.
It’s not easy being poor in America.
I know what you’re going through, it’s happening to me. If you’re poor, the IRS comes after you for your much-needed pennies. If you’re wealthy and can afford the right accountants, you can steal unlimited amounts. Is this a great country, or what?
First of all, sorry for your misfortune.
There are two rules in the United States that the 99% must understand and live by…………or else.
1) Don’t screw with the IRS. They don’t write the tax laws, that would be Congress, but it’s their job to enforce the law.
2) Be damn sure that you understand those parts of the law that apply to you.
If you’re an independent contractor (you don’t pull a company paycheck) then you must file a quarterly form and send in the required tax. (SSI and Medicare as well.)
If you run into trouble with the then IRS, hire a company which specializes in tax settlements. Most of the time the IRS will settle for 20 cents on the dollar.
If your tax troubles are severe then file for bankruptcy, liquidate your assets and wait for the IRS to forgive the debt (it might take a few years).
Freedom isn’t free. Except for the 1% of course.
The only time I had any questions from the IRS, this was way back in the Clinton years, the ones I talked to really seemed to try very hard to be pleasant, reassuring, and helpful. I was very surprised.
Now, I gather, they’ve gone through big layoffs with another 13,000 or something staring them in the face. Morale is in the toilet. And no doubt the ones desperate to hang on to their jobs hope that pinching other people’s pennies will help them. A mess.
It’s kind of useless to say “hire a tax lawyer out of all the money you don’t have.” But if it were me, I’d have no idea what else to do. How utterly horrible to have all this stress dropped on you!
Morale is in the toilet. And no doubt the ones desperate to hang on to their jobs hope that pinching other people’s pennies will help them.
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They do not work on commission, and it is illegal to rate their performance using ROTERs (results of tax enforcement… somthing with an R). And they don’t get bonuses anymore, ever since Obama decided to break their negotiated union contract, so even if they were measuring those things, it wouldn’t make any difference. So there is no incentive for the employee to lean on anyone harder than they should.
Other than not making enough money, Susie’s problem is simple. She needs to pay $300/quarter so that she doesn’t end up owing taxes next year or the year after (that’s only a $100/mo), and she needs to pay $185/mo to pay off what she already owes. She doesn’t say how long that installment plan goes, but if she is paying $600/quarter on old taxes, that sounds like she is more than a year or two behind.
My advice: pay the current, quarterly payments first and try to start staying current. Then pay what you can on the old taxes. The first time you owe taxes again on a new year (with all new late payment penalties added), that will default any installment agreement you get, and it will default any “pennies on the dollar” offer in compromise scheme some radio scheister tries to sell you. So if you are going to default, default on paying the old taxes (there is a 10 year statute of limitations on those). Also, those pennies on the dollar scheisters won’t get you any better deal than you could get just calling the IRS yourself on the phone (of course the quality of the phone reps you talk to varies wildly, so if you get someone stupid, make an excuse and call back until you get someone halfway intelligent). So use the money you would pay them and pay your taxes instead. Only idiots go to those guys. They pay a lot of money to them, and then they are in just as much or more trouble in 6 months or a year.
You’re supposed to be a journalist. So use your research skills on how those offers-in-compromise and installment plans work and currently-not-collectible stuff too. And don’t be a silly helpless girl who acts like she can’t understand numbers when she gets in trouble.
If you can navigate the health insurance crap, you can handle the IRS problems.