Mesa AZ Help With IRS Myths

Many clients in Mesa AZ come in with strange ideas about what the IRS can and will do to them once they “catch up with them.” Most of the information has come from friends, family and work associates that are just passing on myths that they were told.

Two of the most common questions:

Am I going to be thrown in jail? Over 99% of the clients we meet with are negligent not criminal. Their tax problems are more like bad parking tickets not a hit and run. As long as you are willing to file back tax returns and agree to a settlement on what you can pay on the back taxes and agree to pay your taxes in the future, the problem goes from a terrible crisis to something you can manage. Close to 30% of our clients qualify to make no payment on their historical tax liability if they stay current on their filings and payments in the future.

Are they going to take my house or car? The IRS wants money not assets. If you are living in an expensive home, the IRS will allow you time to put the house up for sale and downsize into a reasonably priced home. With the current housing crisis the IRS has extended the time from six months to a year and now they are agreeing to give even more time if the taxpayers are staying current on their taxes.

You cannot control what happens in life. Most clients were faithful taxpayers until a death, divorce, illness, or a business failure put them in a situation where they could not pay their taxes. Even the IRS understands that this happens. The IRS is less tolerant with the failure to file tax returns. The IRS primarily punishes because you don’t file, not because you don’t pay. The penalty for failing to file is 5% per month, while the penalty for failing to pay is only ½% per month. So it is initially ten times more expensive to not file than it is to not pay.

The reality is that most clients are surprised at the results we get. Mostly because their imagination is mixed with a lot of Mesa AZ IRS myths that create a paranoid attitude towards what the government actually expects. Why not come in and find out today what the your options are. I have heard many clients say, “If I had know it was going to be this easy, I would have come in long ago.”

Scott Allen E. A.