Do you want ammunition to have the confidence to call the IRS without the fear of them taking collection actions against you? Many people get letters each day from the Internal Revenue Service requesting unfiled returns, unpaid taxes, or additional information. You may also want to contact them to resolve an issue you are concerned about. Blindly complying with the person you speak to can be very costly. Why be a victim? Let's remove most of the risk and fear associated with calling the IRS right now, by understanding the following.....
1. You must have a good general disposition- Never complain to an IRS employee. They do not want to hear how sick you are, how poor you are, how bad the government is, how your ex-partner or ex-spouse ripped you off, how good you were to pay most of the original portion of the taxes, or the recent flood in your house. When you call the IRS, stick with 'just the facts'. Think about why you are calling, write it down, and be prepared for their questions.
2. Maintain good rapport at all times- You should try to make the IRS employee feel good to work with you, regardless of their attitude. You must have unlimited patience at all times. What if you were asked to recite your full address, and then two minutes later you were asked 'what is your complete address?'. Would you blurt out - you just asked me that!' with an angry tone? Or would you calmly say 'I gave that to you, here it is again'? How willing would you be to give the address the third time? Working for the IRS can be a very confusing and difficult job. You will do better by not fighting or getting upset with the IRS employee. If at any time you feel uncomfortable in the conversation, you can always say that you can't talk right now, and hang up.
3. Be prepared to answer personal questions- You will be asked to give them personal information such as, where you live, bank, work, telephone numbers, bank account numbers, and addresses. If you are not calling to settle an outstanding balance, you can give them the information so that they can verify who you are, and proceed with the conversation. If you do have an outstanding balance, even if you think it's an IRS error, be very careful here. The information can be used against you to collect the tax liability. So what do you do? Give it to them! "What!" you say? 'You don't need me to tell you that!' Actually, perhaps you do. After many years and thousands of tax representation cases, I've concluded that this is the biggest fear my clients have had about calling the IRS. The problem lies not in the fact that the IRS will use it against them, it's the fact that taxpayers are unprepared to face the problem, and do what is necessary to resolve their IRS issues. The more prepared you are, the less exposure you have to being victimized. Let's look at a few situations...
You are concerned about paying the taxes you owe. It may be a good idea to fill out their form 433a before calling the IRS http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f433a.and 433b if necessary. Use their allowable expense tables. http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=104627,00.html http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=104801,00.html http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=104623,00.html Using these forms and tables will allow you to arrive at the information needed to negotiate an installment agreement. You may need your accountant to help you.
b) You disagree with the amount owed and want advice. You shouldn't be calling the IRS for advice in the first place. There is plenty of information to help you on their site at http://www.irs.gov .or by doing internet searches for your topic.
c) You're calling to schedule or get an extension of appointment. Make sure you have a good excise for the extension, and don't discuss the arguments you have. If they insist, then say you are not prepared right now and will be happy call back after you have your information prepared. Don't be intimidated into giving unprepared responses.
4. Use your bag of tricks- If you need to resolve something and have trouble ask for the manager. If that doesn't work, you can call the taxpayer advocate service. Before calling, familiarize your self with the taxpayer advocate at http://www.irs.gov/advocate . This is your strongest weapon. When you can't get an extension, and fear the IRS will take collection action, you may want to file an appeal. Familiarize yourself with http://www.irs.gov/appeals
So let's recap.... First you have a good general disposition, then you make sure you maintain a good report. You feel comfortable and secure knowing that if you are not happy you can hang up, and you don't have to feel intimidated to answer questions you don't want to. You have done your research into how you will pay the liability, or otherwise resolve to matter at hand. You are prepared to have the manager help, or if not, use appeals and/or the taxpayer advocate service as needed.
I realize that all this may be easier said than done.
Ever thought of taking up diving? There are plenty of public swimming pools for kids to learn to swim and adults to keep in good health, but when it comes to diving the options are more limited. The Government has recently been criticised for a severe lack of diving facilities open to the public. This is particularly concerning in the run up to the London Olympics in 2012, which should be encouraging more people to participate in sport.
According to the Great Britain Diving Federation, in the 1970s there were up to 300 diving boards around the country available to the public. Now there are around 80. Another 90 in the country are not generally accessible. Many of these are in private schools, others in private clubs and some on military bases. We run the risk of making diving an elite sport rather than something anyone can have a go at.
A proper diving pool is usually square and deeper than a normal swimming pool. An Olympic diving pool is usually around 5 metres deep. Diving boards are set at different heights - the lowest just above the water and the highest at 10 metres. That's the height needed for Olympic training and the UK has only nine of these, two of which are not currently open for use. Crystal Palace is the only one in London with 7.5 metre and 10 metre diving boards, but it's closed for renovation. This means that keen divers have to travel huge distances to train, and that includes some of our Olympic hopefuls.
UK's current diving star, 13 year old Tom Daley has just been picked for the Beijing Olympics. He will be Britain's youngest male Olympian since 1960, competing at the age of 14 years and 94 days on 23 August 2008. In 2007 he won a silver medal in the Australian Youth Olympic Festival and was the BBC's Young Sports Personality of the Year. Luckily for him he lives in Plymouth, home to a 10 metre diving facility, but we could be missing other potential diving talent where no facilities exist.
To be an Olympic diver is not just a question of diving off a 10 metre board and dropping into the water. Diving is a discipline that takes a huge amount of skill, courage and training. Divers leap off platforms and springboards and during their fall they perform spins, flips and twists before hitting the water at up to 55 km per hour. Judges award points for how well they perform, multiplied by the technical difficulty of the dive.
The Amateur Swimming Association's (ASA) Chief Executive David Sparkes has added to the debate by highlighting the shortage of dry land facilities for divers. 50% of a diver's training is away from the pool in gyms and sports halls using trampolines, harnesses and crash mats to practice those twists and turns mid air. The ASA wants diving pools to have these facilities on site so that divers can be fully trained in one place.
So, with the European Diving Championships in Eindhoven in March and high hopes for our 13-strong Olympic diving squad in Beijing this summer it seems right to look to the future - to 2012 and beyond. Planning good provision of diving pools and dry land diving training facilities is a must if we are to produce more Tom Daleys and help them achieve their Olympic dreams. And for those of us with more modest ambitions, diving pools can provide a great place to develop a new, healthy, challenging skill.
Both Joe Mastriano & India Cooper are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Joe Mastriano has sinced written about articles on various topics from Income Tax Return, IRS Tax. Joe Mastriano, CPA has represented thousands of taxpayers before the IRS over the last 25 years. He offers free advice on dealing with the IRS collection division. For additional free information about preparing yourself for calling the IRS, visit our sit. Joe Mastriano's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.
India Cooper has sinced written about articles on various topics from Arts, Environment and Gardening. Pool expert India Cooper states the need to create a diving in multiple regions to support the sport. To find out more please visit. India Cooper's top article generates over 673000 views. to your Favourites.