http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog TRA: Your problem with taxes and the IRS or State is our problem! Mon, 17 Sep 2007 23:51:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The IRS will make changes to Allowable Living Expenses, Transportation, Housing and Utilities, on October 2007.  The new standards are not completely known at this time, but the some of the changes are regarding health and living expenses, cell phone use, and transportation.  The IRS will have a new standard ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/09/18/irs-changes-to-offer-and-installment-agreement-standards/ Last week a client called us because they had just gotten off the phone with un-named firm (hint they advertise on TV and claim to have offices across the country) and they were suspicious of what they had been told.  The salesperson from the firm, asked how much they owed, ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/06/05/3900-in-advance-and-reduce-your-taxes-are-you-kidding/ The Internal Revenue Service today alerted taxpayers to the latest versions of an e-mail scam intended to fool people into believing they are under investigation by the agency’s Criminal Investigation division. The e-mail purporting to be from IRS Criminal Investigation falsely states that the person is under a criminal probe for ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/06/01/irs-warns-of-new-e-mal-scams/ A new law makes Private Mortgage Insurace payments deductible for loans that originated in 2007.  This will eliminate the need for those borrowers who can't put 20% down to obtain a second piggy back loan.  To claim the deduction you will need to itemize and have a HH income of less ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/05/16/new-tax-deduction-for-mortgage-insurance/ Boiler Room -“ Just by the filing the Power of Attorney by our firm will get the Levy Released the IRS (or state). Surprise the sales sleaze hired by this firm also want a large fee in advance by asking for caller’s credit card or checking account number. Reality -Unfortunately that ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/04/01/crazy-things-boiler-room-tax-firms-tell-clients/   The IRS in an effort to streamline the OIC process or as some claim to cloud the process further made some small changes to the OIC process.  The doubt to liability option will not be included be on the new form nor we dual OIC’s be accepted.  Nothing earth shattering ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/03/31/irs-changes-offer-in-compromise-form/ The IRS is proposing that any person, who willfully fails to file tax returns in any three years with any five consecutive year period, and if the aggregated tax liability for the period is above $50,000, would be subject a new aggravated failure to file criminal penalty.  This proposal would ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/02/12/is-debtors-prison-coming-back/ The new Congress is looking to the IRS to collect more unpaid taxes and catch taxpayers who have underreported income to finance an ambitious spending agenda without raising taxes.  Congress believes IRS could collect up to $100 billion by collecting from self-employed taxpayers who are underreporting their income.  The target ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/02/10/congress-to-irs-find-more/ The expected confusion around the Telephone Excise Tax Refund (TETR) is now in full swing. Millions of taxpayers are mis-filing the refund, some are attempting to claim they paid more in long-distance excise tax then they earned in income. Once again avoid the predatory practice of tax preparers who falsely ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/01/31/telephone-excise-tax-refund/ I met a small business owner yesterday who recently received an audit notice (letter 2205-A) from the IRS Small Business and Self-Employed division. The IRS will be increasing the number of audits in this sector this year, if you receive this letter contact the firm that prepared your returns and ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/01/25/irs-audit-small-business-and-self-employed-documents/ A recent article was published in the NY Times about IRS Auditors being pressured by management to rush and close out audits on medium to large corporations was interesting. Purportedly these auditors were forced to end the audit before they could complete a meaningful audit, leaving huge sums of uncollected ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/01/19/irs-audits-ny-times-article-2/ It is time again for the annual semi-clever tax refund phishing schemes to appear in email inboxes. These emails are targeted at taxpayers who are trusting enough to respond. The email appears to come from the IRS.gov site, has official sounding language, and contact information. The email states that the ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/01/18/fake-irs-emails/ Is an LLC right for you? Many clients are telling us they have be advised by other firms to create an LLC and it has not achieve the tax advantages they desired. When a LLC only has one member, the IRS ignores the LLC for the purpose of filing ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/01/13/llcs-the-irs/ On January 9, 2007 the Taxpayer Advocate office called on Congress to repeal the authority it gave the IRS to hire private debt collections.  When we first wrote on this subject we expected that paying these firms 25% of every dollar they collected would create "collection abuse" problems.  The firms began in ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/01/13/private-irs-collection-firmtrouble-already/ Beginning January 1, 2007 the IRS has increased the "user fees" for setting up Installment Agreements.  Taxpayers who pay by non-debit will have to pay a onetime fee of $105 to set-up an the Installment Agreement with IRS and a onetime fee of $52 for those who set up the agreement ... http://www.irstaxreliefassociates.com/blog/2007/01/08/irs-installment-agreements-new-irs-fees/