Category: Get More Tax Clients

At yesterday’s IRS-sponsored “Working Together” symposium in Seattle, the Tacoma Collections Group Manager presented material that was put together by Thomas Kramer, the IRS Collection Territory Manager for the area. In that presentation, two fascinating facts were presented that are relevant to our current line of thinking:

• As of March 31, 2018, there were $60.3 billion in 941 balance dues, not including penalties and interest.
• Year to date, 59% of cases that Revenue Officers resolve are business cases.

See why we’re doing this marketing challenge?

Today is pretty simple, and quite honestly should only take you 10-20 minutes, assuming you did yesterday’s exercise.

Here it is, nice and simple: Open up your telephone directory, and call FIVE (or as many as exist, if less than five) local, mom and pop payroll service providers.

Yes, payroll service providers. Small, local ones.

Look ’em up. Call them, say your elevator pitch, and tell them you’d like to discuss a referral relationship. They send you leads, you send them leads.

“Whoa, whoa, hang on a second, Jassen. If a business has a payroll provider, they don’t have a 941 problem!”

That’s what you’d think, right? Well, not so fast.

See, many small businesses with 941 debts did, at one point, have all their ducks in a row. Then, something happened. Maybe it was a loss of a big contract, a death in the family, a regulatory change, etc. All kinds of things happen that turn profitable businesses into clunkers overnight.

So, payroll service companies see this. Because one day, the total payroll + taxes debit doesn’t go through when the payroll service provider tries to run payroll. In fact, they are the first ones to see it. And maybe 1 in 200 of these kinds of payroll providers offers resolution services. So, this is your chance to build referral relationships with one type of non-competing service provider that you can help them, and they can help you.

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss how to take this little tactic to the next level. But for now, go call some small payroll providers, and get the conversation going, elevator pitch in hand.… Continue reading

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.

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This weekend, I’m packing up my worldly possessions and departing for the long trek to Salt Lake City. I’ve mentioned this in passing on webinars and emails recently, along with the fact that I’ve been studying for both the real estate agent exam and the Series 65 exam. This has caused a fair amount of confusion amongst viewers and readers.

To catch you up to speed, after leaving my day-to-day role at my software startup, Prolaera, last summer, I decided that I would reboot my tax resolution practice and build another boutique firm. I spent an entire month doing nothing but evaluating various business models, service options, and other important considerations for starting a new business. What I ultimately decided on was to integrate my personal real estate investing strategy into a tax practice, and build a hybrid tax/real estate brokerage/financial advisory practice all centered around a specific strategy for acquiring rental properties.

The tax resolution aspect focuses on doing only lien withdrawals, subordination, and discharge work to help facilitate real estate transactions (the lien work only model).

Moving to another geographical areas wasn’t originally part of the concept. However, as I started the search for my next rental property purchase, the local market conditions, driven by spillover from Seattle’s blazing hot real estate market, started to look less and less desirable to me. I’m not a fan of rapidly increasing prices, low inventory, and multi-offer situations. That’s just not a game I like to play when it comes to real estate. So I started contemplating a relocation.

As you may have seen last week in the market area selection video I unlocked for a few days, I think it’s very important to be strategic about the decisions you make in your tax firm. Since I happen to have the flexibility to change my geographic location without disrupting anything else in my life, I made the choice to do so. After researching several other markets, including Vancouver, WA, Klamath Falls, OR, Boise, ID, and Bozeman, MT, I ultimately decided that the Salt Lake City area was the best fit for me for the next few years.

Why Salt Lake? I have a long laundry list of reasons. Here is a short sampling of the bigger reasons:

• A balanced real estate market with plenty of inventory in “blue collar” neighborhoods with homes priced well under $300,000 – my preferred type of rental property.
• An