Category: Tax Resolution Technical Training

Currently Not Collectible: When the Best Move Is to Pause the IRS

Sometimes the strongest thing you can do for a collection client is get the IRS to stop. Not settle. Not set up a payment. Stop. No levy, no monthly draft, no enforced collection at all, while the balance sits frozen on the books and the only clock still moving is the one running in your client’s favor.

That is Currently Not Collectible status, what the IRS internally calls status 53, and it is the most misunderstood resolution in the toolbox. Practitioners treat it like a consolation prize, the thing you settle for when an offer in compromise falls through. Used with intent, it is often the smartest available play, and on the right case it quietly delivers a better outcome than any payment plan you could negotiate.

This is the kind of judgment we work on inside Tax Resolution Academy®: not just how to fill out the form, but how to read the financials and pick the resolution that actually serves the client. Here is how CNC qualifies, the financial mechanics behind it, what happens to the balance and the collection statute while your client is in it, the lien question you have to address up front, and how to know when CNC beats an installment agreement or an offer.

What CNC actually is

Currently Not Collectible is not forgiveness. The debt does not go away. The IRS simply makes a determination that your client cannot pay anything right now without being unable to meet basic, necessary living expenses, and it suspends active collection.

The standard comes straight from the Internal Revenue Manual. An account goes into hardship CNC when collection of the liability would create a hardship by leaving the taxpayer unable to meet necessary living expenses. That is an economic hardship determination, the same hardship principle that lets you get a levy released under section 6343. When the numbers show there is no money left after allowable living expenses, enforced collection becomes the thing the IRS is supposed to avoid, not pursue.

Inside the IRS, the account gets coded with a transaction that reflects the closing, and hardship cases are closed using closing codes in the 24 through 32 range, chosen to match the level of the taxpayer’s total allowable living expenses. You do not need to memorize the codes. You do need to understand what they represent: the IRS has agreed, on the record, that your client has no current ability to … Continue reading

Hey Tax Pro! You are Leaving Money on the Table by NOT Offering IRS Collections in Your Practice

Listen up, tax pros. You’re missing out on a goldmine sitting right under your nose. I’m talking about IRS Collections, also known as Tax Resolution. If you’re not offering this service to your clients, you’re practically handing money to your competitors. Let me hit you with some cold, hard facts about why you need to add this to your practice ASAP:

  1. Massive Market Opportunity
    In Fiscal Year 2023, the IRS collected over $104.1 billion in unpaid assessments. That’s BILLION with a B. There’s an ocean of taxpayers out there drowning in IRS debt, desperately seeking a lifeline. Why aren’t you throwing it to them?
  2. High-Value Cases
    According to the Tax Resolution Academy®, the average fee for a tax resolution case is $3,500. That’s not chump change, folks. One solid collections case could be worth 10 or more basic tax returns.
  3. Year-Round Revenue
    Tax season comes and goes, but IRS collections work is a 365-day money machine. No more feast-or-famine cycles in your practice. Keep that cash flowing all year long.
  4. Differentiate Your Practice
    The NAEA reports that not all tax preparation professionals handle IRS collections cases. By offering tax resolution services, you’ll stand out from the crowd of basic tax preparers and attract higher-quality clients.
  5. Leverage Your Existing Skills
    You already understand the tax code. IRS collections work is a natural extension of your expertise. Don’t let that knowledge go to waste! It is not uncommon for a prospect to come in with a balance due to the IRS, but have a need to file at least 1 or 2 old tax returns.
  6. Recession-Proof Service
    When the economy tanks, tax problems skyrocket. By offering collections work, you’re insulating your practice against economic downturns. So, when some people turn to be a DIY with their tax return, you can fill in the gaps with additional collections cases.
  7. Repeat Business and Referrals
    Solve a client’s IRS nightmare, and you’ve got a loyal customer for life. They’ll sing your praises to everyone they know who’s in tax trouble. Oh, and yes, occasionally you get a boomerang client that screwed up and needs your help again.
  8. Higher Perceived Value
    Tax resolution is a specialized skill. Clients will view you as an expert and be willing to pay premium rates for your services. Much more than they pay for the commodity tax return. It is not hard to get $250-750/hr on many of these cases.
  9. Personal
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Cost of Client Procrastination on your Tax Practice!

We are now in what I affectionately call the Second Tax Season. While it is not usually as base as the first one of the year, it can get pretty hairy. If you are like I used to be, you would pick up your hours as the extension deadlines approach. In some cases, working 60-70 hours a week (or possibly more). 

So, the question becomes, why do we do this? The simple answer is we love our clients. We love them so much, we take their abuse. Yes, I said abuse. Seems like a strong word, but follow this with me for a few minutes.

You work really hard from January to mid-April. You take a little bit of rest, but then it is back to work on the extended returns for the information you had most of their info. Then there is that final 10-20% of returns you have in your office to do, but you can’t. Why not? Because you are missing 50-80% of the information you need to prepare the return.

So, what do you do? You start sending emails to these clients to request that missing info. As time moves on, and their excuses keep piling in on why they cannot produce that info, you start having your staff calling them to get the info into your office.

Days turn into weeks, weeks into months, and now the deadline is upon us. This is when you send the final email about two weeks before the final deadline. You tell them that if it is not filed on time they will incur late filing penalties which can be very expensive.

Well, that lit the fire under their butts and they finally get the information to you with 10 days (or less) for you to get the return done. What do you do?

Well, if you are like most tax professionals, you just grin and bear it. You hunker down and get the return done. You get it done on time, bill them the same amount you did last year and we all move on.

BUT WHY?!! Why do we do that?

We take this abuse! You don’t have to, nor should you take this abuse from anyone! It doesn’t matter if they have been a client 15 years, or their your mother or brother. There is no excuse for them making their emergency your emergency.

Here is a list of 10 … Continue reading