Owe the IRS and You Want Help? Get Out Your Checkbook!

I was thinking the other day about the walls that surround a person with tax debt.  The walls are high (seemingly insurmountable) and close in as the debt clock ticks.  

The first wall you have is  the IRS itself.  They write the rules, they have unlimited resources to enforce their laws and decrees, and they have endless experience. 

The second wall I would call the ‘scarlet letter’ effect, or the financial circumstances you face daily.  Whether it be trying to open a bank account, apply for a job, try to establish credit again, you are always confronted with your IRS debt.

The third wall would be the ‘who you can turn to’ wall.  More than likely, you don’t have a single soul in your social circle who has dealt with the problem you have, and if they have, you don’t know that they did so they do not qualify as a resource for you.

So, you have the IRS breathing down your neck, you have your financial circumstances, which serve as a constant reminder to you, and you don’t have anyone in your friend or social circle you can turn to.  With those walls closing in on you, you become desperate.

This leads me to the fourth wall, which I will call the tax pros.

I worked with three separate tax professionals to help me with my debt.

The first one cost me $2500.  The second one cost me almost $8800 (I did get a refund once they admitted they didn’t do what they said they were going to do). And the last one cost me $5000.  All said, between paying tax professionals and settlement attempts, I was in for $20,000 + and my debt was nowhere closer to being settled.  

It used to be that the tax professionals would offer you a ‘free consultation’ and then break the news to you while you are sitting there that you have to pay them a large retainer.  Now, I see them boldly place on their website that ‘settlement fees start at $3,000.00’.

So with the IRS barreling down, your financial life in disrepair and no friends to turn to, we wind up writing a check and hoping that they can provide the help you need.

It reminds me of the scene in the classic movie, “American Hustle”, where Christian Bale’s and Amy Adams’ characters are hustling desperate entrepreneurs who need money in the form of a short term loan. The cost, if you remember, is 5 grand.  Their promise, “They never took a deal they didn’t close”.  Of course, people were dying to write them a check because they needed the money badly, had no one to turn to and felt stuck.

Of course there are always other options and other solutions, and our program is designed to serve as a GPS, telling you where you are at, and guiding you in the direction you should be going.

My recommendation: Go from helpless to empowered.