Offers-In-Compromise (OIC)

Among the majority of Accounting firms in the Chico and Red Bluff area, Offers-In-Compromise (OIC) is our unique niche. We receive referrals to our office of “tax problem” clients from other accounting and law firms in the area because we have the proven reputation of getting results for our clients. Today, taxpayers have few options to resolve tax problems besides the glut of “1-800 tax firms” that you have often seen too much of. These firms are anxious to take your $3,000 – $5,000 retainer before really knowing anything about your unique situation.

Too often we have to try and repair these unfortunate situations when these “companies” are no longer returning you phone calls or emails. Normally this is not the result of them not being qualified, but rather due to the fact that they did not communicate with their client to see if they really qualified for tax relief and to what extent they could help.

Our approach is very different. We won’t take you on as a client to try and resolve your tax case until we complete our due diligence on your particular situation.

We analyze financial information as well as evaluate what you owe for what type of tax (payroll or income tax), whether you are an individual or business entity. We will have you do some leg work to help us best evaluate your situation; but if you want “easy” call the “1-800 firms”.

This is a growing area in our practice since the IRS has made it easier to get relief through provisions of the tax code. In the early years of the IRS, if you owed a tax debt that you could not pay, taxpayers were often subject to seizures, levies and liens, whereby the IRS could come in and seize whatever property they wanted and garnish your wages until the debt was paid, which was often never.

In 1996 the IRS added code section 7122 to tax law creating “Offers-In-Compromises” (OIC) as a way to relieve taxpayers of tax debts that they could never payoff through the liquidation of assets or wage garnishments. Now a taxpayer could go through the process of voluntarily listing all assets they owned, (at liquidation value) and show what they make monthly, less expenses and determine how much of the tax debt they could realistically pay. In 2014, the IRS made it even easier to get an OIC approved by lowering the number of years they looked at as to your future income stream as part of the OIC formula from five years to two. In the past they would look at your ability to make payments over five years but only gave you two years to pay off your offered amount, which was impossible without help from family or others. Now the two periods match, dramatically increasing the likelihood of an acceptable OIC.

If you would like us to assess you as a candidate for becoming one of our Offers-In-Compromise (OIC) clients, we have provided a link to IRS Form 433-F, “Collection Information Statement”. This is a fillable form that you can complete and save, then send to us via our secure client portal. This form will give us a basic understanding of any assets you have and your ability to make payments. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f433f.pdf