Bradford Simmons's (brsimmons369) Blog

OK, OK I know I owe the IRS money for my taxes - can they come after me forever? The short answer is no - the IRS generally has ten years to attempt to collect the debt.Many laws contain a “statute of limitations” (SOL) - a period of time set out for action. For example in Massachusetts the law r...

OK I know I should have filed a tax return - but life got in the way…. Now the IRS has told me they prepared a “substitute for return” - what does this mean!The US tax system is referred to as a “voluntary” tax system - I know, hold the jokes. This means each person is tasked with determining if ...

So I owe taxes to the IRS and to Massachusetts. I provided a bunch of information to the IRS and they agreed to lower my tax debt through their Offer In Compromise program. I know that the IRS and MA share tax information. Does this mean MA will just settle my debt for less than I owe? Nope - the...

I filed my tax return - it showed that I owed money - I didn’t send in payment. Now the dreaded envelope arrives - it’s from the IRS. I finally open it…. Help what does it mean, what does this notice number mean?The IRS is notorious for sending out cryptic mail. In this post I’ll attempt to provi...

Help - the IRS is after me! I’m an employee - my taxes are taken out of my pay - my wife is self-employed - the government says we owe money due to some issue with her business - we field a joint tax return - am I on the hook? In most situations yes - however the IRS has a program it refers to as...

Marriage and taxes are inexorably intertwined. Let’s begin with the basics of tax returns and tax liability. Most individuals (those with sufficient taxable income) have a tax filing obligation.This is an individual obligation - even for married taxpayers. The default filing status for a married ...

You’ve filed your tax return - you have a balance due - the IRS has sent you all kinds of notices - now you’ve been told your account is in “collections” and that the IRS will attempt to seize your assets and garnish your wages.  You don’t have any assets to speak of and your income is spent each...

In our last post we discussed the concept of Reasonable Collection Potential - RCP. In this post we’ll get into some details relating to the rules around specific RCP amounts.As a refresher RCP is the key metric in evaluating potential options when dealing with your tax debt. It’s intended to pro...

Reasonable Collection Potential - RCP - is the key concept in dealing with the variety of tax debt solutions offered by the IRS. RCP is used by the IRS in evaluating your suitability for participating in various programs including: Installment Agreements - where your tax debt is paid off over tim...

Absolutely! Well not always….Before we begin let’s review a few things. When a tax return is filed that the IRS “assesses” the tax (make a record of the return filing). If the return reflects a tax due (total tax liability exceeds tax withholding and estimated tax payments) the IRS expects paymen...