IRS Insights Series: 2024 Collection & Compliance Mastery

For years, IRS has experienced declining compliance activity to close the underreporting, underpayment, and non-filing tax gap. With the Inflation Reduction Act funding, the IRS expects compliance activity to go back to its all-time highs that were seen in the 2011 and 2012. In this course, you will get an update on the latest IRS compliance activity and trends and learn how to prepare your firm to get the best outcome and experience for your clients. You will get 10 actions to help prevent and/or resolve IRS compliance issues for your client. Your firm will be in a position to be proactive when helping clients stay compliant with their IRS obligations.

There are over 22 million taxpayers (individual and business) who owe the IRS back taxes. In 2022, only 13,167 taxpayers received an IRS settlement – that is, an IRS offer in compromise. An OIC allows taxpayers to settle their tax bill for less than the amount owed. Why do so few get an OIC?

In this course, find out how the IRS’ offer in compromise program works and understand if your financially distressed client qualifies for an OIC. If they qualify, find out how much it will cost to settle their tax bill. We will cover the OIC rules and walk through a real-life example of how the OIC works from qualification, to application, through the OIC investigation, and to the final end. We will also get insights as to why many taxpayers do not qualify – and other IRS options that may be more suited to their circumstances.

Statistics show that over 36 million individual taxpayers file a tax return with an unpaid balance due. Unfortunately, some are our clients who fall on hard times and cannot fully pay their tax obligations. Fortunately, there are options when they cannot fully pay their liability.

In this course, join Jim Buttonow as he explores the six IRS alternatives when your client cannot fully pay their liability, the IRS collection alternatives. This course will examine the rules and requirements for installment agreements, extensions to pay, and payment deferrals (namely, currently not collectible status). We also give you the fundamental knowledge to answer your client’s question on whether they can “settle their tax bill’ for less than the amount owed (i.e. the IRS offer in compromise qualification rules). At the end of the course, you will have the basic knowledge to identify what alternative is best and be able to execute that alternative in the most efficient and effective manner for your client.

The IRS issues over 220 million notices each year to taxpayers. If a tax client receives an IRS notice, they expect their tax professional to be able to work effectively with the IRS to identify and resolve their issue. There are over a thousand different types of IRS notices, but fortunately, most taxpayers receive many of the same type of notices that require action.

This course will identify the most common, actionable IRS notices and the, solutions available to resolve the tax problems related to the notice. The tax pro will also get notice trends based on IRS data as well as best practices to be proactive in resolving IRS notices. In the end, the tax pro will be a more effective and efficient problem solver for their clients, which will lead to higher client retention and a more profitable firm.