The Internal Revenue Code offers very limited possibilities for reduction of taxes, penalties, and interest, so you need to make to most of any options for which you qualify. The IRS is not required to give you any of these relief options, so often any reductions come from full and carefully presented documentation that makes a strong case for giving you a break, and hopefully affects the review agent emotionally.
The tools offered to you by the IRS are:
Tax Relief Tool Use Benefits Conditions
Offer in Compromise (OIC)
Discount amount owed IF you have almost no assets and no income
Can cut any type of tax by almost any amount (depending on the results of a complicated IRS formula)
Can cut payroll taxes ONLY if you have closed the business.

You must have ALL tax returns filed before being allowed to file a OIC

You must keep filing & paying ALL returns on time for at least 5 years after the IRS accepts the deal, or all your old tax debt will come back with no option to cut it again.
Installment Agreement
Stretch out payments without fear of levies & seizures
Safe to accumulate cash for business & personal goals without fear of seizure anymore

Can pay off early at any time
IRS still charges interest (and sometimes penalties)

If you miss an installment payment or get behind filing & paying other taxes, you become subject to seizures & levies without
warning again
Penalty Waiver / Hardship Relief Waive or cut penalties if the IRS review agent thinks you have a good reason for not paying your taxes on time Saves money on penalties and some interest (since interest is calculated on penalties as well as taxes) You can only get this relief once every few years
Innocent Spouse Relief
Avoid responsibility/liability for taxes your spouse owes if you had nothing to do with generating the income, running the businesses, or otherwise creating taxable activities
 Allows you to keep assets in your name that the IRS cannot get
If you were involved in the activity (such as being bookkeeper or officer for your spouse's company) then you will not qualify for this break
The Offer in Compromise is the most attractive tax tool for most people, but it is also the hardest to get. You must be able to prove that you are out of business and have almost no assets, and especially that you have very little to no income. There is a very complicated formula the IRS uses to determine the minimum offer amount the IRS will accept. The OIC process can take up to 18 months, so you must be very patient. The good news is that while the IRS is determining whether you qualify, the IRS will cease all collection activities against you until an agent makes a determination on your offer proposal.
Often we recommend a combination of several of these techniques (sometimes combined with a bankruptcy filing) to help you cut the tax debt as much as possible. No legitimate tax practitioner can promise you huge tax cuts on what you owe, since they do not control the IRS, and all of these tax relief tools are totally at the IRS agent's discretion on whether to accept the request or not. Don't let an accountant or lawyer disappoint you with promises they cannot keep.
Over the past 26 years we have obtained all types and amounts of tax relief for many individuals and businesses. We will never promise any hype. Our guarantee is that we will always do our best for you, and we will always be straight forward with you - telling you the truth about what options are realistic for your own situation, with no hype or false hopes.
Unlike any other tax negotiation service we have seen, we are totally internet-based to help cut our fees as low as possible and give you faster service. We charge low fees in two steps:
Step 1 - You get a quick, confidential analysis of what options are available for your specific circumstance, plus you will be able to print the fully completed Financial Disclosure forms required by the IRS to negotiate every type of tax relief tool - all for a very low analysis fee. The you are in control to decide if you want to try negotiating with the IRS yourself (or finding a CPA or lawyer in your area willing to try), or advance to ....
Step 2 - We will negotiate with the IRS on your behalf for a second flat fee. Our flat negotiation fee covers everything involved in making a deal with the IRS - regardless of how long it takes (except when you have not given us accurate information, or when you don't respond to our requests for information that the IRS requires within the time limit we need it to respond to the IRS's time limits). In other words, we do not mindlessly charge high hourly fees, no matter how long the IRS drags out negotiations. Just one up front fee that is a fraction of the huge retainers most tax practitioners demand.
Whether you choose to try it yourself, hire a higher priced other tax professional, or let us put our expertise to work for you, in any case you are always in control to determine which approach works best for you. To start with the basic analysis of your options, click here.