The previous posts talked about the strategies of making an offer-in-compromise and payment agreements. These strategies work for people who can either fully or partially pay their IRS debt. But what about people whose financial picture is so bleak that they cannot make any payments? Are they doomed to forever harassment by government agents?
The answer is no, all is not lost. The government does not want to waste their resources chasing people who cannot pay when they have lots of cases for big bucks in inventory just waiting to get worked. The catch here is that you must prove to them that you are in the first group and not the second.
The way this works is that you must provide information about your equity in things you own and your cash flow. The IRS will review this information to verify that it is adequate and correct. The numbers are then plugged into a formula known as the “Reasonable Collection Potential”. If the result shows that you have no excess cash to contribute to the Treasury, the IRS changes your status to Currently Not Collectable and you get a pass from collection actions for approximately 2 years.
Besides getting the IRS off your back for 2 years or more, there is another huge benefit of proving your Currently Not Collectable status. The 10-year Statute of Limitations continues to run. Get across the 10-year line and the debt is no longer collectable by the IRS.
