If you have a tax liability, you have several options for paying it. The IRS provides relatively straightforward instructions on the various types of payment methods and other ways to discharge the liability.
In California, you can also deal with the Franchise Tax Board, the Board of Equalization, and the Employment Development Division.
Payment options:
Let’s take a look at each.
As a business owner, you are responsible for paying payroll taxes and filing periodic reports in accordance with your obligations. If you do not do so, you risk having a lien recorded against your property by the EDD. The details of tax liens are confusing to many people, but it’s important to understand what a lien is, why they are issued, and what your options are to avoid or discharge the lien.
It is a problem that many individuals or business owners in California have faced. You may have had a difficult year financially, and when tax time rolls around you discover that you owe more to the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) than you can afford to pay. If this is your situation, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The FTB is willing to work with cooperative delinquent taxpayers to come up with a solution that works for both parties. One of these solutions is the offer in compromise (OIC). Could it be the right choice for you? You need to understand what is involved, how it can help your situation, whether you are eligible and how to apply before you can make a decision.
The repercussions of an unpaid balance due to California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) can be severe, especially for a small business owner with everything to lose. The law allows the FTB to pursue payment of tax debts aggressively through a number of involuntary collection actions. All of these actions are deeply unpleasant, and some can be devastating.
If you have received a notice from the FTB requesting payment in full on a past due balance or informing you that a collection process has begun, you are probably under considerable stress. The first thing that you should do is make sure that you fully understand the situation, and if necessary, find qualified legal representation for the next steps.
One of the biggest debates in the tax practitioner community is the efficacy of IRS tax liens. On one hand, IRS tax liens help the government protect its interest in a taxpayer’s property and secure the underlying tax obligation with real or tangible personal property. On the other hand, liens damage a taxpayer’s credit, place an obstacle in the way of the taxpayer selling that property or borrowing against it in order to pay off their liability, and generally do nothing to satisfy the immediate concern of the IRS. Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to get a lien release and liens are a noted hassle to dispose of once they have been filed against a taxpayer. However, there are a number of things that the taxpayer can do if they are affected by a federal tax lien in order to secure a lien release or achieve some other workable solution that allows them to make progress on the account. After all, the IRS is simply seeking a workable resolution to the problem.
When an individual cannot pay the full balance owed to the IRS, one of the most common solutions is to get that taxpayer set up on a tax payment plan. However, payment plans are not a matter of right, and taxpayers must meet several requirements in order to get their tax payment plan approved. It is important that to be aware of these criteria, as making sure you have met all of the requirements in advance will help expedite the approval of your IRS payment plan.
The IRS can be fairly aggressive when it comes to adverse collection action. The IRS uses certain tactics to usher taxpayer compliance and to reduce the size of balances that are owed on taxpayer accounts. Tax levies are one of these collection tactics. The general rule with tax levies is that the IRS can levy all property that belongs to the taxpayer in order to satisfy the outstanding obligation. However, certain property is exempt from an IRS levy and cannot be seized by the IRS.[1]
