Jassen Bowman EA
Jassen Bowman EA

Paralegal Assistant Training Program

“Free Up Your Time To Work On The Most Important Aspects Of Your Practice By Training An Assistant To Handle Certain Tasks”

Everybody has heard it before: If you want to make $100 per hour, you have to stop doing $10 per hour tasks.

Let’s face it: If you are a licensed tax professional and want to grow your practice, then you have to utilize your time effectively. Is filling out a Form 433-A the most effective use of that time? Probably not.

At some point in the growth of your tax resolution practice, you are very likely going to hire an assistant. Your first assistant will likely be more than just a paralegal, more than an administrative assistant, and more than a sales/marketing assistant, but rather all three at the same time.

A paralegal assistant working with you on tax resolution cases can be a tremendous asset. By typing up IRS forms, preparing letters and faxes to clients and Revenue Officers, and working with clients to secure financial records, you become free to spend more time focused on negotiating successful tax resolutions, conducting new initial consultations, and working on marketing to grow your practice.

A sales/marketing assistant can assemble and send new client proposals, send out marketing pieces, field questions from prospects, and cold call new business prospects.

This training program covers aspects of both sales/marketing AND tax resolution. This program is meant to take a reasonably intelligent and competent person off the street and train them to be your key to freeing up your time to conduct tasks that are more valuable to the growth of your practice.

The program is broken up into 10 distinct units, covering tax resolution, file handling, financials, and more. The program is meant to be comprehensive enough to teach your new assistant everything, but flexible enough to fit into your existing way of doing business.

Training Outline

Unit 1 – Tax Liabilities (Where The Problem Comes From)

Overview of IRS Collections and Tax Problem Resolution
Tax Types & Tax Forms
Federal Tax Deposits
Penalties and Interest

Unit 2 – Tax Resolution (How The Problem Gets Fixed)
Options Available to Resolve Tax Problems (Concepts and Terminology)
-Loans
-Installment Agreements
-Guaranteed
-Streamline
-Regular
-Partial Pay
-Currently Not Collectible (Status 53)
-Offer in Compromise Program
-New Company Formation
-Levy Releases
-Liens: Discharge, Subordination, Withdrawal

Unit 3 – IRS Forms Overview

Understanding that the IRS is a forms-driven bureaucracy
2848 (POA)… Continue reading

Evaluating Your Tax Debt Relief Options

When it comes to resolving your tax debt, you have a number of possible routes you could take. In this article, I’ll go into some of the pros and cons of each option so that you have the information you need to make the best decision for yourself.

Do It Yourself Tax Resolution

Probably the route most people take, doing it yourself seems like the obvious or only choice for most people and small businesses. Simple tax debt problems that only cover a year or two, especially cases where the tax debt is under $10,000 (or under $50,000 if it’s only income taxes) are fairly easy to resolve with only a few phone calls (one phone call, in some cases).

If you can follow written instructions, are good with forms and paperwork, and have your personal financial paperwork in good order, then representing yourself is neither difficult nor time consuming. You need to be able to read and understand IRS notices and publications and forms, and keep good financial records for yourself.

Here’s a quick test: If you file your own tax return every year and have no problem doing so, then you can probably represent yourself. If you struggle with doing your tax return, even if you use step-by-step software, then you might want to consider getting help with the situation. If you have tax debts other than personal income tax liabilities, you should also hire a licensed tax professional to represent you.

Hire a Licensed Tax Professional

If your tax situation is complex, consists of multiple different types of taxes over multiple tax periods, involves any sort of business taxes, or exceeds $50,000 in income tax debt, you should seriously consider hiring professional representation.

I want to stress the word licensed. In my article about 5 Reasons To Use Professional Representation To Resolve Your IRS Tax Debt I gave some warnings about some companies that only do tax resolution work. You want to make sure that the person doing the actual work is licensed. Some of the less reputable companies in this industry have assistants do all the work, and a licensed person is just there to sign the Power of Attorney (POA). Some of these POA signers have literally thousands of POA’s that they are signed onto at any one time. Don’t for a second think that they even know who you are. Always ask to speak to an actual licensed … Continue reading

Update on Individual (1040) Lien Leads

For those of you that specialize in assisting individual taxpayers instead of businesses, you may have noticed some recent upsets in the leads world. Due to increasing regulation and pressure from the Federal Trade Commission, it’s getting harder and harder to access individual taxpayers through the telephone. One of the largest list brokers in the country recently quit offering tax liens at all due to these issues.

Here at Tax Liens HQ, we are still offering 1040 tax lien leads, but we recently made the decision to no longer offer phone numbers on those leads, and I’d like to explain why that is and what your options are instead.

If you are calling individual consumers at all, the FTC requires that you have what is called a SAN number. This is a subscription number to the national Do Not Call list registry. Even if you purchase phone numbers from a list broker, you are still required to have your own SAN number and remove numbers from your list that are on the Do Not Call List, even if the list broker says they do it for you.

Subscribing to the Do Not Call list is not inconsequential. A SAN number that covers the entire United States costs around $15,000. However, this is nothing compared to the FTC fines for telemarketing to consumers without a SAN number. The fines can be as high as $11,000 PER PHONE CALL.

So what does this have to do with us no longer offering phone numbers? The FTC has recently begun to hold list brokers accountable for the actions of their customers. There is pending civil litigation around this issue, since depending on who you ask, the law doesn’t allow for this, but the FTC is doing it anyway. Since we are a fairly small “mom and pop” business, we simply cannot afford the liability exposure if the FTC were to make an issue with us providing phone numbers to our customers and our customers failed to obtain SAN numbers and comply with the Do Not Call List rules and the Telemarketing Sales Rule. So, long story short, our attorney told us to stop.

So where does this leave you for obtaining phone numbers? Check out various phone append services that exist online, and pick one that meets your needs.

Alternatively, have you considered direct mail? For the cost of a SAN number for the entire United States, you could … Continue reading