Although, as reported in the National Taxpayer Advocate blog, the IRS suspended the automatic mailing of collection notices routinely sent when a taxpayer owes federal tax on February 5, 2022 to give the IRS an opportunity to clear its processing backlogs, such automatic mailings are likely to recur and, meanwhile, other IRS delinquent collection activities continue unabated. Statistics for fiscal year 2021, show the IRS ending inventory with a balance of assessed tax, penalties and interest exceeding $133.4 trillion, enforcement activity involving more than 500,000 taxpayers, and 3.8 million taxpayers paying tax liabilities under installment agreements.

With IRS collection clearly continuing and likely to ramp up in the future, chances that any tax professional will need to be conversant with their collection activities and the methods available to challenge them is increasing. It is to that end this course addressing IRS collections is addressed.

Course Learning Objectives:

After completing this course, students should be able to:

• Identify the rights specified in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights
• Describe the maximum period of time the IRS may collect taxes due from a taxpayer
• List the tax payment alternatives available to a taxpayer
• Recognize the IRS decisions that may be challenged by a taxpayer
• Compare the Collection Due Process and Collection Appeals Program