Many people refer to an IRS Revenue officer as an IRS Revenue Agent. However, an IRS Revenue Officer is different than an IRS Revenue Agent. An IRS Revenue Agent, unlike an IRS Revenue Officer, increases your tax by auditing you. A Revenue Agent is an auditor who examines your return, but the Revenue Officer is a filed IRS collector.
The audit is often from a distance without you initially even knowing about it! After the audit is completed and an additional tax assessed, the IRS will send you the audit findings. The audit findings conclude with a proposed tax balance with instructions on how to pay the assessed tax. When the audit is completed, and tax is assessed, the Revenue Agent’s job is done. If you cannot pay or have questions, you are given a telephone number to call. That telephone number is to an IRS Automated Collection Services (ACS) office. The ACS office is usually located far away from you. For balances under $25,000.00, the IRS Revenue Agent will send you instructions for setting up a monthly payment plan. If your tax balance is under $25,000.00, your tax case might never leave ACS.
However, if ACS is unable to get you to pay, then IRS Collection efforts are stepped up. Your case will be assigned to a local IRS Revenue Officer, especially if your balance is over $25,000.00. Once your case has been assigned to a Revenue Officer, no one else can work on your case. An IRS Revenue Officer is much more intimidating than IRS Notices or an IRS Revenue Agent on the telephone. For starters, an IRS Revenue Officer lives close by and will show up at your home or place of your business unannounced! Under the Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) a Revenue Officer MUST make first contact with a taxpayer personally! If you are not home or at work, the Revenue Officer will leave his or her business card. The business card contains the name of the revenue officer and contact information.
It is not a good idea to ignore an IRS Revenue Officer. A Revenue Officer does not carry a gun and cannot arrest you. If someone flashes a gold badge at you and says that he or she is from the IRS, call a tax attorney immediately! This person is neither an IRS Revenue Agent nor an IRS Revenue Officer. This person is an IRS Special Agent with the IRS Criminal Investigation Division (CID)! If a Revenue Officer suspects that criminal activity is afoot, the Revenue Officer can call CID. A Revenue Officer can do a lot of other unpleasant things to you. If a Revenue Officer believes you are being evasive, the Revenue Officer can levy your bank account or garnish your wages! Are you self-employed? Do you have an Accounts Receivable? A Revenue Officer can order your client to pay any money owed to you to the Revenue Officer instead! A Revenue Officer also has the authority to subpoena financial records. This subpoena power is not only applicable to you, but to third parties, like your bank!
A Revenue Officer has wider authority for resolving your case. However, because a Revenue Officer is subject to many regulations, in some ways a Revenue Agent has more leeway. If your balance is under $25,000.00 a Revenue Agent will give you option for a payment plan. The Revenue Agent will not require that you disclose your financial information. However, a Revenue Officer will usually want you to fully disclose your financial information. Your monthly payment could be a lot higher than it would have been with a Revenue Agent! However, after your case is assigned to a Revenue Officer a Revenue Agent cannot work on your case.
An IRS Revenue Officer wants to collect the tax owed and close your case as fast as possible. You want to close your case as fast as possible as well. However, the primary focus of the Revenue Officer is to collect all the tax as soon as possible. Do you have equity in real property or in other assets? If you have equity the Revenue Officer may ask you to take out loan. Under the Revenue and Reform Act of 1998, the Revenue Officer cannot order the sale of your home. However, the Revenue Officer could ask you to sell assets other than your personal residence or your car. Even in the case of a monthly payment plan, haste often makes waste. You and the Revenue Officer want your case closed quickly. Often the amount of the monthly payment is set too high, leading to default!
What if the amount of your monthly installment agreement is too high? What if you are having problems with a Revenue Officer? You may want to consult with a Resolution Specialist. Resolution Specialists are IRS Recognized Representatives who can represent taxpayers before the IRS. An IRS Recognized Representative is either an attorney, a Certified Public Accountant, an accountant, or an Enrolled Agent.
Coast One Tax Group is a group of resolution specialists – attorneys, accountants and Enrolled Agents. My colleagues and I work hard every day to extract from IRS Revenue Officers the best tax resolution (settlement) possible for our Clients! Last year (2018), on average, we saved our clients a minimum of 92% of the amount of back taxes owed, and we have substantiated claims to prove it!
