"Owe the IRS?" commercials

BinFrog

"I owed over $30,000 and paid a fraction of it"

Does this bug anyone else? I'm sorry, but if you owe tax money, you need to pay it. It's ok to work out a payment plan, but I hate how these commercials advertise that they can settle your debt for pennies on the dollar. But I guess that's the American way. Why own up when you can weasel out of it? Ugh.

riffrandall

BinFrog wrote:

"I owed over $30,000 and paid a fraction of it"

Does this bug anyone else? I'm sorry, but if you owe tax money, you need to pay it. It's ok to work out a payment plan, but I hate how these commercials advertise that they can settle your debt for pennies on the dollar. But I guess that's the American way. Why own up when you can weasel out of it? Ugh.

Easy, there. When you have an easy (or E-Z) tax return to file, it seems pretty cut and dried, but when you get into a situation where you have a very complicated tax return that involves investments, buying & selling real estate, a personal business, and even overseas currency.. and if you might have made an error in your taxes back in 2003, and it took the IRS 5 years to find it... and then you have penalties (at 100% of your estimated tax) and interest compounded over time- it can get pretty hefty.
Believe me, the IRS will get their money, most people just don't know how easy it is to settle with them without the interest & penalties. That's what those ads are for.
You definitely don't need to hire a lawyer to settle with the IRS, either. Most times all it takes is one or two phone calls.

(I'm a former financial advisor, that's how I know this. I'm not speaking from experience as an IRS deadbeat.)

Jason P

The IRS gets what is wants. The commercials are run by crooks that are preying off the weak and confused.

Wobbie

My mother-in-law owed a buttload of taxes. She's a self-employed hairdresser, who is clueless when it comes to money.

We submitted an "offer in compromise" to the IRS. I think we got her off the hook for about 25 cents on the dollar. It is possible. It seemed like the IRS was realistic enough to know that something is better than nothing. They were threatening to seize property and all that. My mother-in-law never would have dug herself out, any other way.

nick1977

These ads are very misleading. No one can get out of taxes for "pennies on the dollar." If they owe $30,000, they might get out of it for $20,000, but there is no way the IRS will accept pennies on the dollar. I help people with tax problems, and many people have gotten burned by these companies.

Get_Right

I am expecting a bill for interest and penalties any day now

I will most certainly try to negotiate it down-absolutely nothing wrong with that

and if the IRS comes a calling and the amount is large
see a lawyer or a CPA
period

Wobbie

nick1977 wrote:

there is no way the IRS will accept pennies on the dollar.

they accepted 25 pennies per dollar, from me!