A tax lien is a relatively passive way for the IRS or California’s Franchise Tax Board to get paid the back taxes you owe. Why passive? Because it can take a long time for the IRS or FTB to get paid. Suppose there’s a lot of equity in your house and owe you the IRS: when the IRS files a notice of tax lien against your house, nothing changes immediately. Read more »
June 15, 2020
Clients often arrive in my office, panicking, with big problems such as unpaid student loans, huge tax or business debts, and creditors filing liens. They want their problems to go away immediately – rightly so because the stress is terrible. But, for many clients, the only effective strategy is one that will take time. Often lots of it. Read more »
May 6, 2020
Everything the IRS knows about you exists on a piece of paper called the Account Transcript. I get a client’s transcript when I begin representing them because I need to know what the IRS knows about Read more >>
January 17, 2020
What if a family member dies and you’re the executor of their estate? Read more >>
December 16, 2019
California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) collects and administers California’s State payroll taxes (consisting of the state income, disability, employment training Read more >>
November 29, 2019
Many of my clients know that California’s Employment Development Department has a well-earned reputation for being a hard-nosed tax agency, much worse than the IRS. Read more >>
November 22, 2019
Bad news: your uncle dies. Good news: he left you money and a house. You’re also a beneficiary on a life insurance policy he had. Bad news: he named you as the executor of his estate, so you have to fill out paperwork now that he’s gone. Read more >>
September 27, 2019
I don’t like offers in compromise as a way to get rid of tax debt. The process is cumbersome, expensive, and arbitrary. There are better ways to deal with tax debt. Read more >>
August 28, 2019
If it even brushes against California, the state government wants to tax it… Read more >>
August 15, 2019
What’s a tax lien? A tax levy? The short answer: it’s how the IRS forces non-taxpayers to become taxpayers. What’s the difference between them? Read more >>
August 6, 2019
