Best Book on Preparing Offer in Compromise?

The best are free:

I've never seen or heard of any third party after market books on the subject. Since you're already an EA - and as such should be reasonably educated and at least marginally qualified - all you need should be included in the Form 686 Application package. Remember, an OIC is based on certain mathematical calculations using the client's income and the IRS's allowable expense guidelines from Form 433 A (and sometimes B). Once you walk through the 433 and the 686 forms you'll know what the minimum amount to offer is.

Beyond this, what other information do you expect to garner from a book?

Gene E. Utterback, EA, RFC, ABA

Nolo Press has good information on offers in compromise, here:

Start here >>

I haven't had experience doing an offer in compromise before, had never worked for anyone who did one, so I thought that maybe a book could give me some pointers on the subject. I have seen a couple of books on the subject on Amazon, one that was relatively cheap and short, and another that was a lot longer but was much more expensive. Because the IRS supposedly rejects about 90% off all OICs (although I assume there are no hard statistics on it), I thought that maybe there were some advice to be found with some methodology on increasing the chances of an offer being accepted, although I know that no method is foolproof. It just would be nice to be better educated on the subject, so I have a better chance of not having clients that end up worse off than before after I have charged them for an OIC, that is, out the $150 fee plus 20% of the amount owed plus what they paid to me.

Some stats starting on page 213 of this 2009 TA Report to Congress:

Please take one GOLD STAR from petty cash for being diligent. Seriously, I do a LOT of taxpayer representation work, much of it comes to me AFTER someone has messed something up. I think you've done the absolute right thing trying to get better educated about something before you just jump in over your head.

The primary reason the IRS rejects so many OICs (IMNHO) is because so many are submitted that fail to meet the minimum offer requirements. Form 656 and the accompanying instructions make it pretty clear (at least to me) how to do the math to calculate the minimum offer - follow that, and use the IRS Collection Standards guidelines for your allowable expenditures (not I did not say expenses) and you should be OK.

Feel free to get back to us with any specific questions or to bounce ideas off us. Also take note that part of my business is assisting other tax pros with issues that they need help on. I am NOT trying to sound like a commercial here - just offering information.

I do wish I could comment on reading material, for the OIC and other issues. I simply am not very familiar with what's out there commercially. Have you tried searching the Internal Revenue Manual?

Good luck - and kudos to you for being diligent, Gene E. Utterback, EA, RFC, ABA