Nonjudgmental Tax Relief
Helping taxpayers navigate tax problems
We can help with tax debt, back taxes, and IRS audits
About Me
Don Zabarsky, EA
Helping people with tax preparation and solving tax problems since 2010, Don Zabarsky, EA provides Non-Judgmental Tax Problem Resolution services. He lives in Sunbury, OH and grew up in Geneva, OH before moving to Central Ohio to attend college.
OUR EXCLUSIVE PROCESS
Consultation
We dig into your situation and come up with an initial plan
Analysis
We do a comprehensive analysis of your specific situation
Compliance/Negotiation
Any necessary work is done on your taxes or records to prepare you
Settlement
We negotiate with the IRS to get you the best settlement possible
Our Services
Tax Problems we can Help With
It can be easy to get backed up with your taxes, sometimes for many years. It’s not always easy to get caught up without help though, and the situation generally gets worse with time. We deal with this all the time and have experience taking advantage of tax laws for previous years as well as current years. We make the process easy, whether you choose to come into the office or use our secure portal to do everything from the comfort of your home.
The IRS will sometimes audit your return. It can be because they see something in your return that makes them believe you made a mistake, or it can be because they have other information in your file that disagrees with how you prepared your return, like a missing 1099 or other form. It can even be completely random! IRS audits can be intimidating if you don’t have experience dealing with auditors. It’s hard to know exactly what they’re looking for and saying you might owe. Most often, taxpayers owe much less than the IRS says they do, if anything at all. You should have someone on your side who has experience dealing with the IRS and who knows tax laws inside and out.
One of the most common issues we help clients with is tax debt. It can be easy to let tax debt get out of hand. Once you owe more than you can comfortably pay right away, it can feel like it just keeps building up, especially with all the penalties and interest that gets added to the tax. It can also be difficult even figuring out how much is owed. We know how to get your IRS transcripts and see everything the IRS does, so we can find the best solution available.
Garnishing your wages, including social security or other retirement payments is one way the IRS may choose to collect your tax debt. It can be especially frustrating, because unless you do something to stop it, it will continue until the tax debt is paid off. Often, they’ll take more than they should even be eligible to take, so it’s important to get professional help when your wages are taken.
A tax lien is the government’s claim on your property when you have past due tax debt. A Notice of Federal Tax Lien can cause you considerable hardship, especially if you want to refinance or take out a new loan.
A tax levy can be used by the IRS or other tax agency to seize your money or other assets to pay your tax bills. The most common things to be levied are your income tax refunds or bank accounts, but your wages, retirement accounts, home, or almost anything else can also be taken. If you receive a Final Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing, or other notice letting you know a levy is coming, it’s important to act fast! There are almost always ways to stop a levy as long as you act.
If you have employees and don’t pay the full amount of taxes for their wages, the IRS is especially aggressive in collecting. Penalties are high and can add up fast. It can be easy to put off paying payroll taxes when other creditors are putting pressure on you, but the government considers any tax you withhold from employees as theirs, and treat it a little like theft. This is one tax problem that’s more likely to be treated as criminal and if your business doesn’t have the funds to pay them, the debt can be transferred to the owners or other responsible people in the business.
There are many different notices and letters the IRS might send to you asking for information, tax they claim is due, or for other reasons. They don’t often do a good job of explaining what the notice is for and sometimes it seems like they’re purposely making it confusing. Sometimes they even have more than one notice for the same thing. A tax professional can help interpret these and explain what your best course of action is.
Some of Our Solutions
An offer in compromise (OIC) can be a solution for tax debt in some cases. Almost any tax debt can potentially qualify, but there are specific guidelines determining who is eligible. It’s a great option if you’re eligible, but you need to know how to navigate the system to see if you’re eligible and if you might have some exceptions to the general rules. If you aren’t eligible, there are still other options available that a skilled tax relief firm can find for you.
An installment agreement, commonly called a payment plan, is a way to pay tax debt over time. It also stops any other collection activity like levies, and reduces the amount of penalties and interest that accrue. It’s a way to get rid of the stress of tax debt and pay your tax over time. In limited circumstances, you may even qualify to pay less than the total that’s owed.
Penalties can sometimes get very large over time. Many times they can be reduced or eliminated altogether. There are multiple ways to reduce or eliminate them, like having reasonable cause or under a special first time abatement rule, but they all have specific guidelines. This can be a good option when also used with other tax relief solutions or at times when a penalty is the only thing owed.
If you have tax debt, but your income is low enough that you can be considered not to have any extra money to pay toward your debt, you may be eligible for currently not collectible status. You’d still have your tax debt and penalties and interest will still continue to accrue, but the IRS will stop all collections and you’ll have time where you aren’t being bothered with the stress of not knowing what the IRS will do next.
When a married couple files a joint return and has tax debt, the IRS considers each of them to be fully responsible for paying the entire amount no matter which one is responsible for creating the tax debt. In some cases, one of the spouses will have a large debt that the other doesn’t know about, and it isn’t reported on the tax return. If this is the case with a return you’re now being asked to pay and based on your situation, you can show that you shouldn’t be held liable for the debt, you may be eligible for innocent spouse relief. If so, the tax debt can be separated and your spouse or ex-spouse will be the only one responsible for paying it.
We go through your return and look for ways to reduce the amount owed, then prepare a detailed response for the IRS with all necessary documentation before we negotiate with them.
Some tax relief firms advertise this initiative deceptively. The fresh start initiative was just a new way that the IRS treated some of their collections. It’s not something that you need to ask for or do something to get. Everyone gets it automatically, and of course we take advantage of it for you here at Know Tax. It’s also sometimes advertised as new. It was first released in 2011.
The IRS generally has ten years to collect any taxes due from when they made the initial assessment. Usually the date of assessment is the date the return was filed (but not before the original due date of the return). There are many things that can extend (toll) the amount of time the IRS can collect though, like bankruptcy, or filing for different payment options. We can get your tax transcripts and see what the statute of limitations is on any different amounts of tax due, and we use that information to create an overall plan. Sometimes it’s best to let that time period run out, but often you need to come up with another solution quickly. There can be a lot of strategy involved in taking advantage of this date.
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