by Fresh Start Tax | Oct 24, 2013 | Tax Help
For those of you planning to travel within the next year you better keep your eye on a bill that has passed the Senate and it could spell problems for taxpayers who owe over $50,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.
Now is the time to take action to resolve your Federal Tax Debt.
If this bill is passed as approved by the Senate and you owe over $50,000 including penalties and interest the State Dept. will not permit your travel unless your case with the IRS is in Offer in Compromise status, installment agreement status or you have a pending CDP.
You have a 38% the IRS will settle your case.
If you need to settle call us today and speak to former IRS agents who can settle your case if you qualify.
The proposed bill by Senator Boxer
A law buried in a proposed bill could prevent U.S. travelers who owe taxes from leaving the country.
According to a report that appeared in Forbes this past spring, Bill 1813 contains language that would allow the government to take passports away from travelers in debt to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The bill is currently pending in the House of Representatives. This is no laughing matter to travelers. If you are out of the country at the time of passage the State Dept, will allow you to come back in the US.
In March, the Senate passed Bill 1813, which was introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer. The bill is more than 1,000 pages long and mainly addresses the allocation of federal funds for transportation purposes.
But planted in the bill is an amendment that would permit the State Department to take away a person’s passport if he or she owes significant back taxes to the IRS.
Here’s what it says in section 7345 of the proposed legislation:
“If … any individual has a seriously delinquent tax debt in an amount in excess of $50,000, the Secretary shall transmit such certification to the Secretary of State for action with respect to denial, revocation, or limitation of a passport.”
According to the bill, your passport won’t be revoked if you pay your debt “in a timely manner” or if you need a passport for “emergency circumstances or for humanitarian reasons.” Note that the passport revocation only applies to instances of “seriously delinquent” debt of more than $50,000.
This isn’t limited to criminal tax cases or situations where the government fears someone is fleeing a tax debt.
1813 still needs to be passed by the House and then signed by the President before it becomes law. In the meantime, it’s something travelers might want to keep an eye on.
If you wait till last minute to negotiate your case this is given be problematic. Keep in mind everybody owing over $50,000 will be trying to do the same thing and IRS simply does not have the personnel to handle this new legislation.
The point, take your of your IRS debt now.
We are comprised of tax attorneys, certified public accountants, and former IRS agents, managers and tax instructors with over 206 years of professional tax experience.
Contact us today for immediate consultation to immediately and permanently take care of your tax debt if you owe the IRS.
Passports – Owe the IRS over $50,000 – You may NOT Travel – Tax Problems
by Fresh Start Tax | Oct 23, 2013 | Tax Help
2014 Tax Season to Start Later Following Government Closure
The Internal Revenue Service announced a delay of approximately one to two weeks to the start of the 2014 filing season to allow adequate time to program and test tax processing systems following the 16-day federal government closure.
The IRS is exploring options to shorten the expected delay and will announce a final decision on the start of the 2014 filing season in December, Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said. The original start date of the 2014 filing season was Jan. 21, and with a one- to two-week delay, the IRS would start accepting and processing 2013 individual tax returns no earlier than Jan. 28 and no later than Feb. 4.
The government closure came during the peak period for preparing IRS systems for the 2014 filing season.
Programming, testing and deployment of more than 50 IRS systems is needed to handle processing of nearly 150 million tax returns. Updating these core systems is a complex, year-round process with the majority of the work beginning in the fall of each year.
About 90 percent of IRS operations were closed during the shutdown, with some major work streams closed entirely during this period, putting the IRS nearly three weeks behind its tight timetable for being ready to start the 2014 filing season. There are additional training, programming and testing demands on IRS systems this year in order to provide additional refund fraud and identity theft detection and prevention.
“Readying our systems to handle the tax season is an intricate, detailed process, and we must take the time to get it right,” Werfel said. “The adjustment to the start of the filing season provides us the necessary time to program, test and validate our systems so that we can provide a smooth filing and refund process for the nation’s taxpayers.
We want the public and tax professionals to know about the delay well in advance so they can prepare for a later start of the filing season.”
The IRS will not process paper tax returns before the start date, which will be announced in December. There is no advantage to filing on paper before the opening date, and taxpayers will receive their tax refunds much faster by using e-file with direct deposit. The April 15 tax deadline is set by statute and will remain in place.
However, the IRS reminds taxpayers that anyone can request an automatic six-month extension to file their tax return. The request is easily done with Form 4868, which can be filed electronically or on paper.
IRS processes, applications and databases must be updated annually to reflect tax law updates, business process changes, and programming updates in time for the start of the filing season.
The IRS continues resuming and assessing operations following the 16-day closure. The IRS is seeing heavy demand on its toll-free telephone lines, walk-in sites and other services from taxpayers and tax practitioners.
During the closure, the IRS received 400,000 pieces of correspondence, on top of the 1 million items already being processed before the shutdown.
The IRS encourages taxpayers to wait to call or visit if their issue is not urgent, and to continue to use automated applications on IRS.gov whenever possible.
“In the days ahead, we will continue assessing the impact of the shutdown on IRS operations, and we will do everything we can to work through the backlog and pent-up demand,” Werfel said. “We greatly appreciate the patience of taxpayers and the tax professional community during this period.”
by Fresh Start Tax | Oct 23, 2013 | Tax Help
We are a local south Florida tax firm that specializes in IRS tax audits.
We have over 60 years of working for the Internal Revenue Service right here in South Florida in the local, district, and regional tax offices of the Internal Revenue Service.
We have worked as IRS auditors, IRS revenue agents, IRS revenue officer’s and IRS appellate agents. We have a tax attorney on staff for more complex issues.
With over 60 years of direct work experience at the Internal Revenue Service we are one of Miami’s, Ft.Lauderdale’s most experienced and affordable tax firms.
IRS Audit Statistics – The IRS Audit Lottery
IRS audit statistics pretty much stay the same every year.
There are very few variances that occur from year to year but when they do they are attributed generally to the availability of funding from Congress to the Internal Revenue Service which in turn effects available personnel to work IRS Audits.
IRS Tax Audit Statistics
The IRS audits about 1.1 percent of the individual tax returns.
143.4 million: Individual federal tax returns filed in 2011.
1.4 million: Individual tax returns examined by the IRS, resulting in notices being mailed or in-person audits.
90 percent: Tax returns audited in person resulting in a recommended change in taxes.
85 percent: Tax returns audited via mail resulting in a recommended change.
$15.1 billion: Amount of recommended additional taxes from the audits.
$16,851: Average recommended additional taxes per in-person audit.
$8,241: Average recommended additional taxes per mail audit.
Source: 2012 Internal Revenue Service Data Book
How to pick effective Tax Representation for a IRS Audit
There are several excellent local firms to choose from in the South Florida, Miami Fort Lauderdale area. We are loaded with tax professionals that can handle a IRS Audit.
Stay away from Internet Firms with bio’s. These companies are Lead Gen companies that sell your information to the highest bidder.
The three most important words to remember to find an effective tax representative for IRS tax audit is this: Experience,cost, results.
A good IRS tax representation firm should be able to let you know your exposure before going into an IRS audit.
If somebody is going ahead and represent your best interest for an IRS tax audit they should have represented hundreds of taxpayers, businesses,and corporations in the past.
They should have an extensive knowledge of the tax code, your tax return, the issues at hand, have an understanding of the IRS processes and systems.
An effective IRS tax representative will understand the IRS settlement procedures, understand how to get your case through the IRS closing system fast, effectively, and with minimal cost.
They should understand the IRS hazards of litigation theories to understand how far they can take your case.
An IRS office auditor.
Will conduct the tax audit at the local office. This is usually a lower grade IRS auditor that will spend very little time on your tax audit. They handle very simple audits.
They receive this audit from the IRS service center because your tax return generally fell out of the national norms.
They are there to find out why your tax return had a higher rating. Those are the issues they will audit.
IRS revenue agent.
Will handle more complex cases and those tax audits generally are at the place of business or at the tax professional’s office. We have had some of those audits last up to 3 to 6 months depending on the complexity of the audit issues. A revenue agent is a very seasoned IRS auditor and will dig a lot deeper.
If you feel you have nothing to fear or worry about on your tax return you should feel free to represent yourself however if there are some issues you are not sure of it is always best to have a professional person handling your case, they will save you time, worry and lots of money.
Check BBB rating
Always check out the professional firm that will be doing your work along with the bios of the person that will be doing your IRS tax representation.
In every single case check out the Better Business Bureau ratings and check to see if there are complaints on file.
Most credible companies will have an A+ rating by the BBB and their firm will have tax attorneys, CPAs, former IRS agents or enrolled agents handling your case.
We have over 60 years of direct work experience at the Internal Revenue Service in the local, district, and regional tax offices of the Internal Revenue Service.
You can call us today for free initial tax consultation we can review and assess your upcoming tax audit and let you understand how IRS will view your return and the processes that will take place.
Miami, Ft.Lauderdale – IRS Audit – Statistics, Representation by Former IRS, AFFORDABLE
by Fresh Start Tax | Oct 23, 2013 | IRS Tax Audit
IRS audit statistics pretty much stay the same every year. There are very few variances that occur from year to year but when they do they are attributed generally to the availability of funding from Congress to the Internal Revenue Service.
IRS Tax Audit Statistics
- The IRS audits about 1 percent of the individual tax returns.
- 143.4 million: Individual federal tax returns filed in 2011.
- 1.4 million: Individual tax returns examined by the IRS, resulting in notices being mailed or in-person audits.
- 90 percent: Tax returns audited in person resulting in a recommended change in taxes.
- 85 percent: Tax returns audited via mail resulting in a recommended change.
- $15.1 billion: Amount of recommended additional taxes from the audits.
- $16,851: Average recommended additional taxes per in-person audit.
- $8,241: Average recommended additional taxes per mail audit.
- Source: 2012 Internal Revenue Service Data Book
How to pick effective Tax Representation for a IRS Tax Audit
The three most important words to remember to find an effective tax representative for IRS tax audit is this: Experience, experience, experience.
If somebody is going ahead and represent your best interest for an IRS tax audit they should have represented hundreds of taxpayers in the past.
They should have an extensive knowledge of the tax code, your tax return, the issues at hand, have an understanding of the IRS processes and systems.
An effective IRS tax representative will understand the IRS settlement procedures, understand how to get your case through the IRS closing system fast, effectively, and with minimal cost.
They should understand the IRS hazards of litigation theories to understand how far they can take your case.
An IRS office auditor will conduct the tax audit at the local office while IRS revenue agent will handle more complex cases and those tax audits generally are at the place of business or at the tax professional’s office.
If you feel you have nothing to fear on your tax return you should feel free to represent yourself however if there are some issues you are not sure of it is always best to have a professional person handling your case, they will save you time, worry and lots of money.
Always check out the professional firm that will be doing your work along with the bios of the person that will be doing your IRS tax representation. In every single case check out the Better Business Bureau ratings and check to see if there are complaints on file.
Most credible companies will have an A+ rating by the BBB and their firm will have tax attorneys, CPAs, former IRS agents or enrolled agents handling your case.
At FST we have over 60 years of direct work experience at the Internal Revenue Service in the local, district, and regional tax offices of the Internal Revenue Service.
We are true tax experts for IRS tax audits.
IRS Tax Audit Statistics – How to pick effective Tax Representation for a IRS Tax Audit
You can call us today for free initial tax consultation we can review and assess your upcoming tax audit and lets you understand how IRS will view your return. Call us today for free tax consultation
by Fresh Start Tax | Oct 22, 2013 | Tax Help
Keep an eye on this one !!!
You better Settle your tax debt as soon as you can through the IRS offer in compromise.
You have a 38% the IRS will settle your case.
If you need to settle call us today and speak to former IRS agents who can settle your case if you qualify.
Owe over $50,000 to Uncle, you could have Passport Problems – Already passed by the Senate
Here’s a story to remind us that government processes can directly impact our travel plans:
A law buried in a proposed bill could prevent U.S. travelers who owe taxes from leaving the country. According to a report that appeared in Forbes this past spring, Bill 1813 contains language that would allow the government to take passports away from travelers in debt to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The bill is currently pending in the House of Representatives.
In March, the Senate passed Bill 1813, which was introduced by Senator Barbara Boxer. The bill is more than 1,000 pages long and mainly addresses the allocation of federal funds for transportation purposes.
But planted in the bill is an amendment that would permit the State Department to take away a person’s passport if he or she owes significant back taxes to the IRS.
Here’s what it says in section 7345 of the proposed legislation:
“If … any individual has a seriously delinquent tax debt in an amount in excess of $50,000, the Secretary shall transmit such certification to the Secretary of State for action with respect to denial, revocation, or limitation of a passport.”
According to the bill, your passport won’t be revoked if you pay your debt “in a timely manner” or if you need a passport for “emergency circumstances or for humanitarian reasons.” Note that the passport revocation only applies to instances of “seriously delinquent” debt of more than $50,000. This isn’t limited to criminal tax cases or situations where the government fears someone is fleeing a tax debt.
1813 still needs to be passed by the House and then signed by the President before it becomes law. In the meantime, it’s something travelers might want to keep an eye on.
