Identify the matter in front of you
The tax resolution service range includes unfiled returns, payroll tax problems, IRS records and debt-related matters. Describe what you have received and what remains unresolved. The title and date of a notice can help explain the issue without requiring you to interpret the entire matter yourself.
- Tax years or payroll periods involved
- Notices and their dates
- Returns filed or still outstanding
- Payments or correspondence already made
For the wider context, explore accounting and tax services. You can also compare help with unfiled tax returns with the questions described here.
Choose a focused starting point
If the concern is missing returns, use the unfiled returns service. If you need to understand the IRS information behind a matter, start with the IRS records page. Separate pages address liens, levies, asset seizure concerns and Offer in Compromise applications. These routes help organize the discussion around the actual issue.
Bring together connected questions
An unresolved balance may be connected to prior bookkeeping, payroll records or an audit. Mention those relationships when you contact the office. If a legal proceeding is also involved, explain that context so accounting and tax work can be distinguished from the work of your legal adviser.
Identify whether the issue is the records, the return or collection
These questions can appear together, but each needs different evidence. A records question asks what the IRS account shows. An unfiled return question asks which returns need preparation and which documents are missing. A collection question asks how an existing balance and any active notice should be addressed. Begin with the notice, if there is one, and explain which of these facts is uncertain. Keep a proposed solution separate from the underlying issue until the records have been reviewed.
Create a timeline instead of a stack of unexplained letters
Order the correspondence by date and note what happened after each letter. Include payments, filed returns and any response from a previous representative. Illustrative example: a taxpayer has several notices for two years and remembers sending a payment. A timeline that links the payment confirmation to its stated tax period is more useful than a single combined balance. The first discussion can then focus on the unresolved difference and the action requested by the most recent notice.
For tax resolution services, see the Gilbert office and service area.