Jassen Bowman EA
Jassen Bowman EA

2021 Will Almost Surely See a Spike in TFRP Cases

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 … Continue reading

IRS announces Taxpayer Relief Initiative to help those financially impacted by COVID-19

The IRS is following up on their People First Initiative from summer 2020 with some new administrative program changes to make life a little easier for taxpayers that owe back taxes and are not in a position to immediately repay those tax debts. While these are not new programs, the IRS is attempting to make it easier for taxpayers to take advantage of the existing programs, by increasing access to relief.

Under this new initiative:

  • Taxpayers now have 180 days to pay tax debts on a short-term payment plan, up from 120 days.
  • For taxpayers already paying on a previously accepted Offer in Compromise, the IRS is now offering some flexibility on the payment terms of that accepted offer.
  • Individuals with an existing payment plan on a tax debt will automatically have new tax debt balances tacked on to their existing payment plan.
  • As per March 2020 changes to the Internal Revenue Manual, certain individuals with income tax debts less than $250,000 no longer need to submit financial documentation in order to obtain a payment plan. This option is only available via call center staff, not cases that are assigned to field agents.
  • For individuals that only owe 2019 tax debt, and owe less than $250,000, the IRS may agree to not file a Notice of Federal Tax Lien (NFTL) against the taxpayer.
  • IRS is now allowing some individuals with existing Direct Debit Installment Agreements to use the IRS website tool (Online Payment Agreement) to modify their payment plan to lower their monthly payments.

If you owe back taxes to the IRS, you may qualify for these simplified options to take care of your tax problem.… Continue reading

Tax resolution marketing lessons from the 2020 Trump & Biden presidential campaigns

Online Lead Follow Up

When you generate a new lead on your website, what do they receive, and how quickly do they receive it?

As you may recall from last week, I made equal, token donations ($5) to both of the main presidential election campaigns, in order to study their marketing processes.

As I eagerly awaited that first email from both campaigns, the day started to grow long. After several hours, I checked my spam folder, but alas, nothing was there.

More hours passed. I was hoping to include some commentary in last Friday’s email about marketing messaging in those initial follow ups from the campaigns, but eventually I had to hit “send” and go on with my day.

Even well into the evening, I kept checking my throwaway email account, expecting something. But, nay. Nada. Zilch. Nanimonai.

Neither campaign could possibly know that I was just doing it for marketing research. Could they? Was my name on some database that they check against to determine whom to email? For all they know, I could be a future million-dollar donor.

The emails finally did come. One campaign sent it at 6am Saturday morning, the other at 8am.

Wow. A full 24 hour delay. Fascinating.

Perhaps there is some secret psychology that I don’t know about. It certainly is possible. But in my 20+ years of marketing online, there have always been a tiny number of fundamental principles, one of which is: Follow up immediately with every lead.

The entire point of the information superhighway is to make information more readily accessible. Speed of information delivery is what the Internet does best — that’s why it was built. People searching the web want immediate access to whatever it is they’re looking for. Technology has exacerbated the human desire for instant gratification. I want my dopamine, and I want it now!

This was a huge engagement failure on the part of both presidential campaigns, and I hope that you’re not making the same mistake on your website.

I have a tax resolution boot camp to teach this morning, so I need to make this short. So I’ll leave you with three rules for your online lead generation:

1). Thou shalt have lead capture on your website.
2). Thou shalt offer a “widget” to entice lead signup.
3). Thou shalt deliver said  “widget” and a marketing offer in an immediate automated reply email.

Blunt … Continue reading