One of my favorite things about taxpayer representation is that it is a recession-proof business.
In fact, on the IRS Collections representation side of things, it’s a business that booms during a recession. Despite the ’07-’08 recession throwing me into bankruptcy, I was incredibly fortunate to then stumble into an industry that was poised to take off like a rocket.
In much the same way as back in 2008, small businesses today are suffering. Hundreds of thousands of small business owners are being forced to make painful decisions, right now, about what to do with their limited capital. Since they often fail to understand the long-term consequences, they frequently opt to stop paying their payroll taxes during times like this, to instead pay suppliers and employees. That’s just the reality of the situation for them to continue operating right now.
But, of course, today’s missed Federal Tax Deposit (FTD) is tomorrow’s Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP) assessment.
Most of the new 941 tax debt cases being created right now won’t really start being worked by SB/SE Collections until mid to late 2021. That’s just another reality of the current situation. By then, those tax debtors will have accumulated 4 to 6 quarters of 941 liability.
Are you going to be ready and able to represent such tax debtors next year?
To help you get started in this arena, on Dec. 10 at 10am PST I’ll be presenting the next installment in our Sweeping Overview series of CPE classes, covering the TFRP. This class will be a 1-hour, big picture overview of a variety of TFRP representation concepts. To create this class, I’m literally extracting specific slides from the PowerPoint decks that make up the much deeper 8-hour TFRP arc contained within our CTR™ curriculum. So, just like the rest of our Sweeping Overview courses, this class is exactly that: A sweeping overview of basic, high level concepts. These classes are really intended for those tax professionals that have zero prior exposure to the topic, but they’re also a good “knowledge check” class for experienced taxpayer representatives.
Course objectives for this class are:
- Recognize the role of the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty in the IRS Collection process.
- Describe the IRS trust fund investigation process.
- Identify the most common defenses against TFRP personal assessment.
- List the steps in the TFRP appeals process.
Registration for this class is only $10, and seating is limited to the first 100 registrants. This will be my second attempt presenting a CPE class on Zoom, which I now think I’ve figured out how to use. So you might want to tune in just to see if I crash and burn again. 🙂
For complete details and to register, wander over yonder:
To your success,
~Jassen Bowman, EA, CTR™, NTPI® Fellow
P.S. If you’ve already attended our other TFRP classes, you really don’t need this one. If you’re an Academy member, you also don’t need this, as you have access to the on-demand versions of other classes. This class is not part of the CTR™ curriculum.
