As the worldwide crisis continues due to the impact of COVID-19, the main concern should obviously remain the health and safety of you and your family. Outside of that, however, you should focus on your financial picture in order to ensure the stability and lifestyle of your family in an uncertain economy. As explained below, now is the time to address any outstanding IRS tax debt issues or notices pertaining to you or your business:
- IRS collection enforcement is halted through July 15th
The IRS generally follows a relatively rigid collection cycle when it comes to tax debts. If you do not address the issue within the required timeframe (usually 30 days), they move on to the next, more severe, step in the process. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the IRS has suspended collection enforcement through at least July 15th. While this won’t stop the accrual of fines and penalties on any amounts owed, it does allow you time to formulate a game plan to address these issues without the threat of your case progressing to more serious steps in the collection cycle, such as levies or garnishments.
- The IRS is still processing any filed returns
In order to enter any collections agreement with the IRS, you must be current on your filing obligations. By filing all outstanding returns, your account will be in compliance and able to quickly settle your case once the IRS is back to work and processing tax debt cases.
- Once re-opened, IRS will be extremely busy
When the IRS does re-open its offices, the situation will not be an easy one. Still working with a limited staff after a decade of budget cuts, the agency will have an enormous backlog of cases and communications that have built up during the shutdown. These are supposed to be handled on a ‘first in, first out’ basis. Additionally, there is an enormous amount of work expected around the various packages from the CARES Act, including stimulus payments, the payday protection program and small business administration debt relief. By ensuring you are up to date with all required filings and have your plan in place and ready to submit, you can give yourself the best chance of timely resolution.
With so much uncertainty throughout our world right now, you may find yourself tending to ignore your own personal situation. However, when we begin to come out of this pandemic, your financial problems are not just going to go away. Prepare now to ensure you can handle any IRS tax debt issues as soon as the agency is back up and running. Contact us today to help identify your needs and set up a plan!