The Tax Resolution Industry tries to create the impression that most people “settle” their debt with the IRS. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Arizona taxpayers with tax debt don’t “qualify” to “settle” using the formal, formula-based offer in compromise program that is required to do it.
Most people with tax debt problems end up in a payment plan of one type or another, or in a shorter-term “non-collectible” status that freezes collection and allows the taxpayer to avoid paying any money toward the debt until things improve.
The following is a short breakdown of the types of payment plans that are available.
Guaranteed Installment Agreements
If you owe less than $10,000.00 and can afford to pay it within 3 years or less, the law provides that you are entitled to a payment plan (I.R.C. Section 6159(c)). This can be done without any help. Visit the IRS website at https://www.irs.gov/payments/online-payment-agreement-application
Streamlined Installment Agreements – 50K
The IRS has decided on its own to expand the Guaranteed Installment Agreement Rule and apply it to people who have $50,000.00 or less in tax debt. This arrangement allows you to avoid proving your financial information to the IRS but requires that the debt be paid within 72 months or within the remaining time on the collection statute whichever is shorter.
If you agree to allow the payments to be auto-debited from your bank account, and the IRS hasn’t already recorded an IRS Lien Notice, its policy is that it won’t record an IRS lien notice as a result.
You don’t need help to do this if you think you can afford to pay in full over the 72 months or CSED Date period. Call the IRS or visit this website. https://www.irs.gov/payments/online-payment-agreement-application
If the debt is below $25,000.00 when the payment plan is arranged, you can ask to pay it within 60 months or the remaining statute period, whichever is shorter. If you set this up and the payments are auto deducted, the IRS will withdraw any tax liens after 3 months of payments on request.
Non- Streamlined Installment Agreements – 250k
The IRS has recently expanded its non-streamlined program to include those who owe more than $50,000.00 but less than $250,000.00.
If you can afford the monthly payment, you can contact the IRS and ask it to spread the debt out over the remaining collection statute time period.
Again, this is great for those who can afford it and don’t want to have to provide the IRS a breakdown of their assets, income, budget etc. Not only can you stretch out the payment without showing financials under this type of agreement, but instead of the payment plan based on a specific period of time, it can be based on the remaining statute collection period if it’s longer.
There are a few downsides to this extended, streamlined agreement:
- A Federal Notice of Tax Lien will be filed for any debt you owe.
- If the case has been assigned to a local IRS Revenue Officer, the Officer will collect a financial statement and use that to determine how you are going to deal with the debt, ie. you may not be able to use this option when the revenue officer shows up.
Partial Pay Installment Agreements
A partial pay agreement is one that will theoretically result in a total amount paid that is less than the balance due. This type of arrangement is discretionary and the rules require that you fully disclose your financial situation and usually provide certain proof documents.
This type of arrangement can be more complicated to arrange than a streamlined or non-streamlined installment agreement, and it will make sense to seek help to ensure you are getting the best “deal” with the IRS.
The big upside of this type of arrangement is that it can act as a quasi-offer in compromise in the sense that if you convince the IRS to take less per month than what’s necessary to pay the debt before the statute of limitations on collections runs out…you’ve in essence settled the debt for less than what is owed assuming the plan stays in place throughout the collection period.
The difficult part is staying on the agreement until that date… as the IRS will check your income, budget, and assets every few years, anytime your income changes, your miss a payment, fail to file a return when due or fail to pay any new tax debt when due.
The IRS will also file any missing lien notices and it may request certain assets to be liquidated and paid toward the debt before finalizing this type of agreement.
Full Pay Plans – Based on Actual Financials
When the IRS is forcing you to use your actual financials to arrange a payment… it isn’t always going to allow you to use your actual household budget to determine how much you can afford to pay.
This is important to understand when trying to compare how an installment agreement would look if based on time…(see above) vs. arguing for a partial pay agreement.
For instance, if you have a $1000.00 per month minimum credit card payment requirement and your car payment is $800.00 per month, the IRS will not initially allow you to use the $1000.00 credit card payment as a budget item or the full amount of your car payment unless you are able to pay the tax debt in full within a certain period of time. If it cuts the car payment to the IRS standard, it would see an additional $1300.00 between the two as excess money to pay toward your tax debt.
But…you may be able to convince the IRS to give you a period of time to continue to use your actual budget that includes these items…or to give you your actual budget for a period of time that allows you to pay the difference between your net income and budget and pay the tax debt in full.
This can be done in order to give you time to get a lower car payment, get rid of the consumer debt, or otherwise deal with the problem so that your budget more closely resembles the standard budget the IRS wants to allow you to use.
This type of agreement may end up being a “stair-stepped” plan where the payment is a certain amount for a period of time and then it’s raised.
Non-Collectible Status
We include IRS Non-Collectible Status under the IRS Payment Arrangement Category because it’s negotiated just like a partial pay installment agreement with financial statements and proof documents.
The difference is that your proof will show the IRS that after allowing for the IRS’ standardized budget (sometimes with exceptions)….your have zero ability to pay.
If accomplished, the IRS will freeze your account and won’t collect for at least one year while it waits to see if your situation improves.
The Collection Statute time period will continue to run while in Non-Collectible Status but the IRS will record a Notice of Federal Tax Lien.
Bankruptcy vs. Installment Agreements
Large IRS payment plans coupled with other debt problems usually create an untenable situation.
Most people end up giving up the payment of one or the other because the payment amount on the credit card debt hasn’t been fully included in the budget when the payment plan is negotiated.
When there are tax and other debt problems and the situation is causing some real distress…bankruptcy needs to be considered.
It may be possible to eliminate all the tax and other debt, or at least use the tax debt to remove the other debt making it easier to move forward.