Did you know that the primary responsibility of the Internal Revenue Service is to enforce the internal revenue laws of the United States of America? According to the IRS mission statement they are to help American's "understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law".
And the law calls for aggressive collection activity that includes addition of penalties and interest and also can include wage garnishments, bank levies, asset liens and the possible seizure of other personal assets.
The IRS describes their role within the mission statement this way: "The IRS role is to help the large majority of compliant taxpayers with the tax law, while ensuring that the minority who are unwilling to comply pay their fair share.
" According to the IRS they are a bureau of the Department of the Treasury and "one of the world's most efficient tax administrators.
" A legislative grant gave the secretary of the Treasury the full authority to administer and enforce Title 26 of the U.
S.
Code...
Title 26 is the Internal Revenue Code.
Within the Department of Treasury a Commissioner of Internal Revenue is appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate and therein administers, manages, conducts, directs and supervises the execution and application of the internal revenue laws.
The Commissioner of Internal Revenue accomplishes this through the IRS.
That all sounds pretty intimidating and it should as the internal revenue code is just that...
a code of laws and the internal revenue service is a very large organization through which those laws are enforced.
By their own words one of the IRS roles is to make taxpayers pay their fair share.
While there may not be much that is distasteful with that notion in and of itself the way the IRS has gone about it has tarnished their reputation especially with levies and liens, asset seizures, wage garnishments and the like.
With this in mind it is never wise to attempt interacting with the IRS without competent representation.
Although the IRS has a taxpayer advocate service they are still an organization within the IRS.
So the question becomes; who can I retain to represent me before the IRS? Here is the short list according to the IRS: Attorneys, CPA's, enrolled agents, enrolled retirement plan agents, enrolled actuaries, student attorneys, student CPA's, unenrolled preparers.
There are some other exceptions by which one may qualify to represent another before the IRS but those are specific in nature and require some sort of relationship in order to apply.
Attorneys and CPA's must be in good standing with their respective licensing authority and the IRS.
Enrolled agents and unenrolled return preparers may practice before the IRS however they may be limited in their representation roles.
There are certain forms that must be completed and rules that must be followed but generally speaking the benefits of tax representation far outweigh the costs especially when a taxpayer is facing an IRS bank levy or asset lien, wage garnishments, mounting penalties and interest or other serious collection activity.
Obtaining competent representation can ensure that any settlement is fair to the taxpayer and allows the taxpayer to interact with the IRS through their representative and relievesthem of the stress in dealing directly with "one of the worlds most efficient tax administrators".