Tax season can be an especially difficult time of year if you have fallen behind on your taxes due to mitigating circumstances. However, working with the IRS and other sources of aid can actually help you to achieve tax debt relief.

Reduce Tax Debt with Assistance from the IRS

Let’s begin with some IRS tax debt relief options that you can look in to. The following are a few examples of how the IRS can help ease the burden of tax debt:

IRS Tax Relief Settlement Offer in Compromise Payment Plan Penalty Abatement

The IRS Tax Relief Settlement option enables you to settle your tax debt for a percentage of the amount you owe. Based on certain factors such as your age, total assets, income and expenses; you may have the potential to save a significant amount of money with this program. You can negotiate a Tax Relief Settlement directly with the IRS or through various tax relief services.

The Offer in Compromise solution was actually developed by Congress. It’s where you have a one time only chance to settle your tax debt with the IRS for a fraction of the entire amount you owe. The way it typically works is that the IRS will review your case and under certain guidelines agree to a tax debt settlement for a certain amount. However, you should be aware that there are some barriers to overcome before the IRS can grant you an Offer in Compromise. Basically, you have to be able to prove extenuating circumstances such as unfair tax collection or economic hardship.

A Payment Plan through the IRS allows you to make installments on your tax debt if they determine that you are not able to pay it in one lump some amount. Through this plan, you are also given time to pay and reduce your tax debt without having to deal with the harassment and embarrassment of having IRS officers involved.

In a Penalty Abatement situation, the case is most likely that you aren’t able to pay your tax debt as a result of exceptional circumstances that are beyond your control. These can include things such as death/fatal illness, IRS errors or tax code changes. If you do find yourself in such a predicament, remember that you have the option to dispute the interest and penalty charges that have incurred on your account. In order to proceed with a successful Penalty Abatement, the contested accounts of relief of penalties and interest must be very specific and evident. Therefore, you will need to bring in an experienced professional who will have the skills to work with the IRS protocol in an effort to successfully resolve your tax problems.

Other Methods to Achieve Tax Debt Relief

Aside from the resolutions mentioned above, there are also other options you may want to consider. For example, tax debt relief can also result from the help of skilled experts such as Enrolled Agents, Certified Public Accountants and Tax Attorneys/Accountants. These types of professionals should especially be sought out if your tax debt issues contain problems such as unfilled returns, missing records, threat of property seizure or other kinds of levies. Their advice and representation in matters of IRS tax debt is truly invaluable on the road to debt relief.

Another type of tax debt management strategy that you may be able to use is called “Currently Not Collectible,” which suggests that you don’t have the ability to repay your tax debt. However, before the IRS can deem your status as Currently Not Collectible, you have to provide them with actual proof that you are in fact incapable of paying back the money you owe in taxes. As soon as you are able to provide such evidence, all recovery efforts and collection activity by the IRS will be terminated. Nevertheless, procedure does demand that you receive an annual statement which tells you the amount of money in taxes still owed. You should also note that if after a 10 year period, the tax debt is not collected by the IRS, it automatically expires.

So before you start to panic and believe that there is no escape from your tax debt, think again! The IRS as well as other tax debt relief services can help you resolve your financial issues and achieve tax debt relief.