Jassen Bowman EA
Jassen Bowman EA

941 Marketing Challenge Day 1

Today kicks off the 2018 30-Day Marketing Challenge! The entire month of November, we’ll be focusing on daily marketing tasks — yes, even on Thanksgiving day — that you can utilize to grow the 941 representation side of your practice.

Most of the marketing tasks across this challenge will be short, usually 10 to 20 minutes. Some may be up to an hour.

If you actually follow through on all the activities across the next 30 days, I would expect the typical practitioner to pick up at least 2 or 3 tax resolution clients this month, equating to roughly $10,000 to $15,000 in new revenue. Even more important than that, however, if you stick with it for the full 30 days, you’ll develop the single most financially important habit a business owner can eve develop: The habit of daily marketing.

To start, you’re going to need to create a small piece of 941-specific messaging that answers the classic question, “What do you do?”

Commonly referred to as an elevator pitch, this is a concept that’s older than dirt, but sadly it’s one that very few tax and accounting professionals take the time to craft. The LAST thing that should ever leave your mouth when somebody asks what you do is, “I’m a CPA.” Even though most of the general public knows what a CPA is, that answer provides ZERO information about how you can help them, or whom they can refer you to, etc.

Your answer to this question should also not be, “I do taxes”, or “I’m an accountant”, “I do tax resolution. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong!

Your elevator pitch is what you use to communicate the kind of clients you’re looking for. It should be specific, and have a purpose. It should not be generic. You want people to be thinking about who they can refer to you when they hear your elevator pitch. You want them to evaluate their own life against your pitch to determine if they’re a prospect for you. Not everybody should be your client — this is a filtering mechanism.

Over the years, I had a few different elevator pitches. My oldest elevator pitch was very straightforward: “I help mom and pop small business owners with tax debts to screw over the IRS.” This was a message that resonated very, very clearly with my intended target market at the time.

A bit later in … Continue reading

Tax Resolution Marketing: 2018 Tax Lien Marketing Update Series

It’s 2018, and my tax lien marketing plan that generated $3.3 million in 2010 just ain’t cutting it anymore.

Why? Basically, two factors:

  1. There is now three times as much competition in the tax lien marketing game.
  2. There are now HALF as many federal tax liens being filed.

Don’t forget that the IRS files a Form 668-Y, Notice of Federal Tax Lien, on only about 5% of all tax debtors. There is still a statutory tax lien in place, as per 26 USC 6321. But due to budget constraints and kinder, gentler IRS procedures, the public notice tax lien just isn’t filed as frequently. In fact, take a look at these tax lien filings by year:

2009: 965,618
2010: 1,096,376
2011: 1,042,230
2012: 707,768
2013: 602,005
2014: 535,580
2015: 515,247
2016: 470,602
2017: 446,378

As you can see, lien volume has dropped by 59% since the peak.

These factors have contributed to a substantial shift in how one must do tax lien marketing. It’s still highly effective, but HOW you do it has changed.

To keep you abreast of these shifting marketing patterns, I’ve put together something a bit different: The Tax Lien Marketing Update Series.

This program will be a rolling series of webinars and print updates on what’s working now in the world of tax lien marketing. As I re-launch my own tax lien marketing efforts, mine data from my tax lien database service, combined with what I hear from my connections within the industry, I’ll be able to report back to you on the shifting changes in this critically important marketing channel for tax resolution.

This series will be complimentary to Diamond Tax Resolution Coaching members, and available for a modest annual fee for all others (the annual fee will NOT be auto-recurring, like a subscription, which I think will be more convenient for a service like this).

Click here to enroll in the Tax Lien Marketing Update Series.

[su_button url=”https://taxresolutionacademy.com/checkout/?rid=p98w11″ background=”#efbb2d” size=”12″ center=”yes”]Enroll Now[/su_button]

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How many Federal tax liens are filed each year?

The IRS files far fewer Forms 668-Y, Notice of Federal Tax Lien, than most tax professionals presume. In fact, the number of liens filed each year has been rapidly dropping over the past several years.

According to the annual IRS Data Book, here are the number of IRS tax liens placed on public record each year:

2009: 965,618
2010: 1,096,376
2011: 1,042,230
2012: 707,768
2013: 602,005
2014: 535,580
2015: 515,247
2016: 470,602
2017: 446,378
2018: 410,220

As you can see, the number of tax lien records filed by the IRS peaked in 2010 at just shy of 1.1 million. In the intervening eight years, annual lien filing volume has dropped a whopping 63%.

At the same time, however, the number of IRS Collections cases has been steadily increasing each year. In 2010, the IRS started the fiscal year with 9.6 million open tax debt cases. We started fiscal year 2018 with almost 14.1 million open tax debt cases, and increase of 45%. It’s interesting to note that the number of tax debt cases, and the dollar amount owed to the IRS, has skyrocketed during one of the strongest periods of economic recovery in American history. This clearly indicates that many small businesses and individuals have still been feeling the impact of the 2007-2008 crash many years after it happened.

So why has the IRS been filing fewer tax liens? There are a number of reasons.

First of all, the federal government has a statutory tax lien over any tax debtor, whether they file the 668-Y or not. Thus, it’s not actually necessary for the IRS to file the lien to take collections action. The filing of the lien merely perfects the government’s lien and establishes priority under state law.

Second, the service made changes in 2011 and 2012 under the IRS Fresh Start program. These changes increased the minimum lien filing threshold from $5,000 to $10,000 in most cases. In addition, expansion of Streamline criteria that allowed for the 668-Y to not be filed also came into play.

Lastly, we all know that the IRS has been under significant budget pressure for years. The IRS, just like anybody else, must pay a filing fee to the local county clerk and recorder or the Secretary of State in order to file the document. These fees are typically only $15 to $50, but across a million tax liens, that dollar amount really adds up. The Centralized Lien … Continue reading