Being in debt with with creditors and collection agencies is one thing but when you it comes to owing the government on a past tax debt they will do whatever it takes to get their money back.  Even if that means going into your personal bank account and taking it from you without your consent, they will.

In this article I’m going to show some simple steps you can do to get yourself back on track with your finances and get you the tax debt relief you need.

Getting Started

To get started you first need to decide if you can really handle taking care of your tax debts yourself or if you’ll have to bring in some real help.  If you have $10,000 or less of tax debt you’ll probably be fine tackling IRS tax debt relief yourself, however if you have more than this you may want to consider asking for the help of a CPA or a tax attorney.  These are the only people who are certified to help you with your taxes.

Next you need to think about your old tax returns.  The reason I’m saying this is you may be able to go back to your old returns and see if you could have qualified for some past deductions.  For example  maybe you bought a new home in that time and could have qualified for the $8,000 home buyers tax credit.  To do this though you will have to refile and amend you taxes which will require the help of a professional.

Third, contact the IRS and talk to them about getting a payment plan in place to pay off the debt.  If you don’t do this it will force the IRS to use more brutal actions like garnishing your wages.  Doing this will also damage your credit history as well, and as long as you don’t pay them you will continue to have a black mark on your record for not paying.

Payment Strategies

So now that we’ve considered all the steps in the previous section we need to look at what type of payment strategy will work best for you.  The first option to consider is an installment loan.  This is a monthly payment plan the IRS will set up for you to pay them back.  This is also the most typical plan people will get started in.

Now you might be saying what if I don’t have the money to pay back the IRS right now?  In that case you might have to consider one of the following options.  First, you cam ask for a no collection request were the IRS won’t collect on your tax debt for a year.  However to get this you may have to be facing a hardship of some kind.

You could offer a compromise were you settle your tax debts with the government for less than you owe, and either pay them through a short term or long term monthly payment plan or a lump sum payment, but again you must be facing a hardship.

Finally, you could consider filing bankruptcy but the guidelines here are very strict and must be followed very closely in order to be accepted.

What You Should Do Now

Finally, now that we know how to get started and what kind of payment strategies are avaliable to you it’s time to get started.  To do this get in touch with the IRS now.  I should also mention their is no tax debt help formula that will make all of this easy for you but tackling the issues at hand head on.

Chris