Hello there,
Okay, so I'm fairly new to the practice of representing people that are behind on their federal taxes and have some questions about dealing with the IRS. I'm not one to jump on the whole "the IRS is evil" bandwagon - more like the "IRS is inconsistent and can't get its story straight". I just am at the end of my rope with the robots that answer the practitioner's hotline (hotline - yeah right!). Yes, I know I have to get used to this sort of thing otherwise I'll never make it as a practitioner.
Long story short, I have a client who apparently didn't pay all their federal taxes in 1993 and 1994. They claim that their employer withheld more than enough taxes but didn't pay them over to the IRS like they were supposed (the company went under long ago and closed down). They claim their employer was having cash flow problems and not turning over the withholdings to the IRS like they should have. Whether or not that is true, I don't know. How I'm going to obtain the old employer's payroll records is another matter.
My real question is, I've called the IRS three times and I've gotten three different answers as to what is going on with the client's account. When I call the practitioner's hotline and sit through the painful music from the "Nutcrack Suite" they play while on hold, and finally get to a human voice, I have been told the following: 1)my client's account is "in queue" and waiting to be assigned to a Revenue Officer, 2)my client's account has been assigned Currently Not Collectible (CNC) status since July of 2005 and 3)my client's account will be CNC'd next month. I'm also told my client's account has been put in CNC status before and taken out of it, then put back in.
How do I confirm exactly what is true and how do I get this in writing?
Would it make any sense to go to a physical IRS office instead of dealing with the IRS on the phone?
Should I call a different number other than the IRS practitioner's hotline (calling the 800-TAX-1040 is even more useless)?
Should I contact the IRS Office of Taxpayer Advocate and fill out their standard form?
========================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT: Please tell us which category of Circ 230 preparer you are? And tell us where you are getting your Rep procedures? And what did you do with your POA? And are you signed up for EServices? (If not, it's free and no longer subject to a minimum anything.) Sorry for all the questions but we do want to help you and this info would help us help you.