We like to jest often about how much, at the end of the day, what we do is about helping people. Normally it ends up being something to the effect of “Couldn’t afford Med School” or “You have to leave people better than you found them”. Not terribly sure how to start logging our adventure helping people all over the country navigate the IRS, so we voted on starting somewhere in the middle 🙂

As usual, the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Both Amy(my awesome wife) and I had worked for a large nationwide Tax Resolution Firm. And understandably both Amy and I became unhappy with our perception of their ability to help people and deliver the service that people would hire them to provide. I had recently graduated with my first degree, and we had just moved back to Vero Beach, Florida from our stay in Upstate South Carolina (I love Simpsonville and Greenville).

I had ran into an old business colleague who was a manager at the old firm where we had worked, and it was the night before I was to drive down to West Palm Beach, FL and take the final part of the Special Enrollment Examination to become and Enrolled Agent – Licensed to practice before the Internal Revenue Service. Anyway the old manager had left as well and was opening up a firm with another colleague, and long story short I walked into a job where I would be able to help people on my own terms. There are a lot of stories to cover over the course of the last 500 clients, but I think we should start with the first, Tom.

Tom had walked into a tough situation with the IRS. He had called in and ended up speaking directly with me (still rare to happen I stay so busy trying to help so many people). Tom had unfiled going back 10 years. The IRS was claiming he owed $232,000.00 all though Substitute for Returns filed arbitrarily by the IRS. There was a wage garnishment issued by the IRS. Tom had just gone through a divorce and his oldest child was a senior in high school – ready to go off to school soon and he needed help filling out his FAFSA as well, once we could get the IRS to stop their aggressive collections. Oh yeah – The State of North Carolina had just send a bank levy. It was about as complicated as it could get and there was a tremendous amount of urgency as Tom was being attacked by the IRS and the State of North Carolina.

I was able to request Wage and Income Transcripts directly from the IRS that day. They faxed everything over that afternoon. I also had drawn up some tax return intake interviews that I emailed over to Tom to get started on, as well as a punchlist of his last three months bills and bank statements. Additionally his homework included getting the fax number to his HR department and his bank.

Even though I had never represented anyone outside of my immediate family before, I was very confident that I would be able to help Tom get Current with his Tax Return Filing quickly. Once I had him current we could attack his financial quickly and get him set up on some type of Payment Plan or Installment Agreement that would keep the IRS and the State at bay, based on our terms – not theirs.

It took through the following afternoon for Tom to send back all of the Intake interviews and his State withholding information. I was able to fax the returns directly over to the IRS Collection Division. Tom’s Liability dropped from over $230,000.00 to under $33,000.00 by filing the returns correctly and accurately. Best of all he didnt’t owe any tax at all for the first six years. Based on the Financials Tom had sent over we were able to set up a $625.00 per month pay plan to the IRS, as well as requst an Abatement of Penalties on the First Year (I mailed this in to give a chance for the returns to process) It took quite a few months for the ASFR unit to process all the returns but Tom’s Interim Payplan was able to stay in place the whole time. He ended up only owing a few thousand dollars to the State of North Carolina, not the tens of thousands they were claiming before. They accepted a payplan too. After the Penalty Abatement was accepted by the IRS and the State of North Carolina Tom went from owing over $250,000.00 in combined tax debt to under $28,000.00. Not too bad for the first client. Would you believe that Tom still has me file his taxes every year? Of course he does. I file his kids returns now too. Like my wife likes to say: Saving America One Taxpayer at a time…

If you need help call me today at (772)360-4322. Ask For Chris, or Amy. Like I said she is Awesome. Or you can reach us at by clicking here