Kedra A. Flowers, founder of her own Dallas-based CPA firm called Kedra A Flowers CPA PC, has successfully negotiated and settled cases in the millions over the last two decades for taxpayers being targeted by the IRS. These cases include individual and businesses from all industries, cultures, and walks of life without exception. However, she doesn’t hesitate to share that in her experience, the majority of the cases impact those on the lower end of income spectrum and those of minority and immigrant backgrounds.
With the arrival of the new decade, it is not likely to change for the better. New compliance and enforcement initiatives are likely to send many more people scrambling for help beginning this spring.
These initiatives are:
1. Private Agency Debt Collectors
The IRS has contracted with 4 independent collection agencies (CBE Group – Cedar Falls, Iowa; Conserve – Fairport, New York; Performant – Livermore, California; Pioneer – Horseheads, New York) to secure payment from taxpayers with delinquent balances.
These private agencies will specifically focus on collections cases previously inactive with the IRS internal staff so many forgotten tax balances will be resurrected in the coming months. Though the tactics may be aggressive, these contracted agencies will not take payments directly or ask for debit or bank information. Payments will still be made to the IRS directly by mail or www.irs.gov. Remember: If you’re ever asked for payment information by phone for your federal tax debt, it’s a scam.
2. Restriction or Revocation of Passports
The Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, signed into law in December 2015, requires the IRS to notify the State Department of taxpayers the IRS has certified as owing a seriously delinquent tax debt. Currently, seriously delinquent tax debtor is someone owing more than $52,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest and the period for challenge has expired or a levy has been issued. With the statutory notice requirements, there will have been multiple notices and contact prior to this point. However, for those who have moved and for other reasons failed to open the mail, it may come as quite a shock when they get to the airport or cruising port.
What this means is this individual would be ineligible to obtain or renew a passport with the State Departments. Furthermore, if the taxpayer is already outside the county, their passport may be limited to use to return to the U.S. only.
This can be avoided and/or rectified by making a good faith effort to resolve the debt with settlement, installment agreement, bankruptcy, proof of identity theft and other efforts.
3. Increased IRS Hiring Initiatives
According to the IRS Commissioner, the service hired over 10,000 new employees in 2019 and are expecting to gain an additional 5,000 in 2020. This will more than replace the loss of employees when the budget was cut during the Obama administration.
Significant impact on taxpayers who’ve had some compliance and payment troubles is expected. They will be forced to move forward on resolving those issues now to avoid the coming wave of enforcement actions via collections, liens, levies and garnishments.
As the IRS is gearing up enforcement, Kedra says that she has taken measures to expand her ability to be a continued and available resource for taxpayers nationwide.
As an IRS Settlement Specialist, she provides immediate relief to businesses and self-employed professionals experiencing distraction and distress due to pressing tax issues including delinquent tax returns, nonfilers, liens, and garnishments.
She has reshaped her practice to remove annual tax preparation services, and focus solely on helping distressed taxpayers - specifically those from Black and urban communities in light of new 2020 enforcement efforts of the IRS.
For more details about Kedra and her company's services, visit www.kedraflowers.com or contact her at kedra@kedraflowers.com or 469-449-9833.