I need help with my past due IRS tax. Should I hire an Attorney, CPA, or EA?
This article is about the differences between a Tax Attorney, CPA, Enrolled Agent, Tax Preparer, and bookkeeper. If you have questions about this post, please reference: BP81. All irs back tax help comments are in blue.
If you know you need to take action, read my post about whether or not you should hire someone (You should not automatically.) titled “Owe IRS back taxes? When, who, and how do I hire IRS back tax help?” before you do anything else.
As usual, If you like the tone of these reviews, I would like to compete for your business. I can be reached at irsbacktaxhelp@gmail.com. Before you email me, please click on and read “About irs back tax help.”
Tax Attorney
- License required: Yes.
- IRS cannot revoke their license, so they don’t have to worry about their livelihood if they take on the IRS for you.
- Continuing Legal Education Required: Yes.
- IRS Back Tax Expert: Maybe.
- Highest level of education Required: 4 years of college, 3 years of post-graduate work (law school), passing the bar exam, and complete ongoing education.
- They tend to be more specialized in one particular area, make sure the area is exclusively back taxes, and only work on more complicated matters.
Certified Public Accountant
- License required: Yes, they receive their licensing from the State.
- IRS cannot revoke their license.
- Continuing Education Required: Yes.
- IRS Back Tax Expert: Maybe.
- Highest level of education Required: 4 years of college and passing the CPA exam with ongoing education.
- Experience requirement: 2 years working under a CPA.
- Should be cheaper than a Tax Attorney
Enrolled Agent
- License required: Yes, they receive their licensing from the IRS.
- IRS can take their license.
- From the IRS website: “An IRS Enrolled Agent is a person who has earned the privilege of representing taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service.” “Earned the privilege?”Sounds like a short leash
- Continuing Education Required: Yes.
- IRS Back Tax Expert: Maybe.
- Highest level of education Required: None. Must take ongoing education.
- Limitations: Should be good at filing taxes. The test they take to get their licensing is about 95% tax preparation. Because their licensing comes from the IRS, they depend on the IRS approval for their livelihood. If the IRS yanks their licensing, they could end up working at Burger King.
- Should be cheaper labor cost than Attorney or CPA.
Bookkeeper
- License required: No.
- IRS can ignore them.
- Continuing Education Required: No.
- IRS Back Tax Expert: Doubtful.
- Highest level of education Required: None.
Tax Preparer
- License required: Yes, but not yet enforced.
- IRS can ignore them.
- Continuing Education Required: No.
- IRS Back Tax Expert: Doubtful.
- Highest level of education Required: None.
- Limitations: Cannot represent you before the IRS.
- Cheapest option in terms of labor.
So who should I use to help me with my IRS back tax problem?
I recommend an attorney. Why? Because it provides you with the most educated person whose main focus of their education and career revolves around argument and negotiating. Therefore, true advocacy = The best odds.
If you need someone to prepare taxes, a bookkeeper, Tax Preparer, Enrolled Agent, or CPA would be good. CPAs can be a crap shoot. From personal experience, CPAs tend to like numbers more than people, so their powers of persuasion may not be as strong as an attorney.
All of that being said; one of the best people I’ve ever met at solving tax problems was unlicensed. She worked for an attorney, but she was very smart, and always won. She is the exception to the rule. Of the top five people I’ve met who are the best at this, all are attorneys, none are CPAs, none are EA’s, and #6 is the person I referenced. Two of those top 5 are who I now use for your IRS tax problem.
One thing I have observed if you hire one of the larger Tax Resolution Companies is that you don’t get to find out who will represent you, and you may end up with an Attorney, a CPA, or an Enrolled Agent with little experience.
If you would like irs back tax help to be your first or second opinion, I can be reached at irsbacktaxhelp@gmail.com.
irs back tax help 
Do any of these inquiries get answered?
Yes.
I have owed the IRS back taxes in the 2000 – 4000 dollar range. I am currently paying back taxes via a payment schedule for both federal and state (Ca.) back taxes for 2009 and 2010 . This year, though I made adjustment for more withholding, I got a mod on my home loan in which approximately $130,000 was forgiven. Its my understanding that this may (or may not) be considered income along with forgiven debts for credit cards. I fear that this will put my wife and I in a tax bracket that we cannot afford. What is the requirement for considering whether forgiven debt is income. This will more than double our income from about 110,000 to 250,000.
Edward,
I exclusively focus on back tax liabilities after they occur, so I’m not your best source for information on tax brackets and loan mods for filing taxes. I do know from personal experience that home improvement investments are not realized until you sell your home, so I would think that the “forgiveness” would be treated the same way, but I’m not sure on that. This is a question for a CPA who prepares taxes. I’m sorry I can’t be of more assistance.
This really highlights the difference between people who prepare and file your taxes, and people who work only on IRS back tax problems. I won’t presume to know everything about the tax code because it would dilute my knowledge on delinquent tax issues. The IRS tax code is huge, for a tax professional to take a “jack of all trades” approach is a dis-service to their clients.
Personally, I think it is egotistical to tell your clients you can do every thing for them. The IRS tax code has 3.8 million words in it. To put that in perspective, Steven Covey used 100,519 words to write “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. Do you think you could memorize that entire book? It’s just too big a task. Use people for tax help that know there limits and honor their specialization.
Regards,
irs back tax help
I have had withholdings from my payroll checks most years but also filed exempt for a few years too. However I’ve never filed for returns. Not sure where I should look for help to resolve this.
Thanks for the question! The first thing to do in a back tax situation where un-filed taxes exist is to file your taxes. This accomplishes two things. 1. It must be done before the IRS is willing to discuss any kind of agreement or settlement to address the delinquent taxes. 2. It starts the clock on the statute of limitations for the IRS’ ability to collect past due tax. Continuing down that line of thought, don’t make a big effort to catch up back taxes and then re-create a problem. Instead create a repeatable process that prevents an overdue tax problem from repeating. I use a tax professional who only files taxes for both business (941 Payroll) and personal (1040 Personal income) taxes.
Lots of EAs hold BA,BS, and Master degrees.