[Whitehorse]

Hello,

I will try to make a LONG story short.

I have always been self employed, a resident of the City & State of New York. In 1991 I was married and looked forward to building a comfortable middle class life with my new bride. Wishing to avoid any problems financially I for the first time hired an accountant in 1992 in the mistaken belief that their professional responsibility included seeing that tax documents were completed accurately and filed on time. I then threw myself into finding clients and performing work. I figured that when something tax related needed doing I would be contacted. Wrong.

In 1994 I discovered that no tax returns had been filed by this individual. In a blind panic I called him demanding that the taxes be prepared and forwarded to me immediately. Then I made the first of several mistakes that have ruined me. I signed the returns and sent them in without realizing that no deductions from my business income had been taken, leaving me with a tax debt for both years equal to approximately twice my income for those years.

I hired a new accountant who was supposed to re-file my returns for those years. He instead allowed the 3 year time limit, something of which I was unaware, to expire. Again my ignorance & negligence.

Unable to pay, my bank accounts were seized. Also, because of filing jointly with my new wife (another BIG mistake) her accounts were also levied. I had a power of attorny on my elderly mothers account so that I could pay bills for her in a emergency and HER accounts were seized. I was advised to incorporate my business in order to have a checking account and be able to conduct business and pay bills. BIG MISTAKE!

In the past 15 years I have hired accountant after accountant, always being assured that they would track the paperwork, file the forms, negotiate payment plans, offers in compromise, etc. They have consistently failed to successfully perform any of these tasks.

Twice I've had payment plans (both negotiated by myself) that were revoked by the IRS, once because they were "missing paperwork" and a second time after 9/11 when I was contacted by phone by the IRS and offered a "deferred payment plan for victims of Ground Zero". I gratefully accepted this offer having lost two major clients in the World Trade Center Attack. After 6 months of a month by month deferral I was informed that I was in "default" and that the payment schedule had been revoked. The IRS now says that no such plan ever existed, that the ID numbers of the agents I dealt with don't exist and the phone numbers I used were invalid!? What a nightmare...

During these payment periods we paid 10s of thousands of dollars, more than the original tax amounts, but the interest and penalties keep the numbers going up.

Today the total amounts demanded by the Federal, State, and City lie somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000. I can never hope to pay even a fraction of these amounts.

Now my corporate account has been seized by the state and I can no longer cash or write checks to pay my rent and other bills. I am told that even bankruptcy no longer provide tax relief. I can't get a job that will pay enough to live on and support the tax liens. My wife has been unemployed for almost a year and is recovering from a major surgery. (Thank God for her union health care)

I'm not asking for pity. Many of my problems arose out of my own naiveté, ignorance, denial and inability to cope with bookkeeping and authority. But I can't just run away from home and join the underground economy.

Does anyone have any idea of where someone like me can turn for help & relief?

Thanks for listening.
Whitehorse

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

Whitehorse:

Reading your story, I note that you kept going to accountants and CPAs.

Have you tried an enrolled agent? They are tax specialists who are licensed by the IRS. If they screw up, the IRS can and does come down on them just as hard as they come down on the taxpayer. That would be my first choice.

Failing that, you probably need to hire a competent tax attorney to get your situation resolved.

[Whitehorse]

Hi, Thanks for getting back,
How does one find / recognize and "enrolled agent"? Can you recommend anyone, lawyer, agent, in the New York City area?

Thanks
Bill

[AtlantaTaxExpert]

No, but the National Association of Enrolled Agents can. Go to the Taxpayer section of their website (www.naea.org).