Chicago IRS Tax Attorney

Chicago Tax Team - We help business professionals solve their IRS problems - FOREVER!

Free Consultation

Peter Bella – TheCookingCop.com

by

Steven A. Leahy

Peter Bella – TheCookingCop.com

By Steven A Leahy

Regular listeners to The IRS Radio Hour know my family members were union iron workers for three generations. I was a member of the Riggers, Machinery Movers & Erectors Local 136 for many years before I started practicing law. As a Rigger, I met and became friends with many Chicago Police Officers (still am). I always enjoyed their refreshing honesty about life in Chicago – It isn’t always what we think it is.

This week on the IRS Radio Hour we welcome Peter Bella to the show. I have known Mr. Bella for some time, he hired me to help him solve his IRS problem – it turns out he knew my brother Jim before he hired me. They were friends through mutual work with conservative causes. Peter Bella is a retired Chicago Police officer, photographer, blogger, chef and Chicago life observer.

PeterBella

I follow Mr. Bella’s blog posts on chicagonow.com. “Chicagonow.com is an online community created for Chicagoans by Chicagoans. Every day, ChicagoNow bloggers post more than 100 entries to the site about local topics. And every day, thousands of ChicagoNow users comment on those entries. The result is a lively, authentic conversation about all things Chicago.”

His recent articles include “Is it time to start Tentbnb in Chicago”; What cops know can solve some of America’s problems”; “Don’t bite the hand that fed you”; “Ignorant and uninformed rhetoric over police killings is disgraceful”; Just to name a few. Each article is a blunt, “as I see it” response to the biggest issues facing Chicago.

Mr. Bella also blogs about another subject I love: Food – as the Cooking Cop. Why Cooking Cop? He writes, “Cooking Cop sounded better than the Cooking Dude, Cooking Goof, Cooking Mook, or Cooking Mamaluke. I cook. I eat. I drink. I write about it. I shoot pictures too. That is my game.”

On TheCookingCop.com, Mr. Bella shares his “passion for eating, drinking, and cooking.” He shares “recipes, techniques and methods, handy kitchen tips and advice.” He also writes about his favorite Chicago restaurants, usually out of the way joints with little fanfare, but great food. I have to say, the pictures of the food he prepares are mouth-watering.

So, tune in to the IRS Radio Hour to meet Mr. Peter Bella, the Cooking Cop, on Sunday August 7, 2016 at 5:00 on AM 560 The Answer.

And remember, if you have an IRS problem – like the Cooking Cop did – Call Opem Tax Resolutions and the Law Office of Steven A. Leahy, PC at 312-664-6649.

How to Stop IRS Collection Efforts – These Secrets may Shock you!

by

Steven A. Leahy

How to Stop IRS Collection Efforts

By Steven A Leahy

IRS Collections can be maddening! The IRS Collection Department can levy your bank accounts, garnish your wages, take your assets, visit your home or workplace in order to collect back taxes. Here is the key to Stopping the IRS Collection efforts – compliance. That means filing your tax returns and paying your taxes in the future on time. It also means setting up a remedy for your past due tax obligations.

There are only 6 things you can do if you owe the IRS money – I talk about these six things over and over again. First, you can pay the IRS everything you owe them. Second, you can set up an installment agreement with the IRS. Pay them over time. Third, you can submit an Offer-in-Compromise, to pay a lump sum to settle the debt. Fourth, you can be declared currently not collectible – prove to the IRS you don’t have any disposable income after you pay all your monthly bills. Fifth, you can file for protection under one of the Chapters of the Bankruptcy laws. And, finally, you can continue to do nothing and let the IRS have their way with you.

Most people who come to see me are just plain scared of the IRS, and believe there isn’t a remedy that will work for them. So, they choose number six – they do nothing. It may take some time for the IRS to focus on your tax problem, but they will get around to it. Do not interpret the delay as proof the IRS has forgotten about you and you are “under the radar.”

One of the most common remedies for IRS problems is the second option, installment agreements. Now, there are different kinds of installment agreements. Most of my clients that enter into an installment agreement with the IRS enter in to a partial installment agreement. That means, the installment agreement will not pay the IRS obligation in full. This is the part most don’t understand. Even if I owe the IRS way more than I could ever repay, I can set up a partial installment agreement and pay the IRS what I can, even if the amount I can pay is $100.00 and I owe $200,000.00.

Now, most taxpayers think, “that means I will be paying the IRS forever.” But, here is a secret about IRS problems: The IRS has a set amount of time to collect an IRS debt. This date is referred to as the Collection Statute Expiration Date (CSED). Once that date is reached, the IRS must end all collection efforts, including releasing any liens that had been filed.

The best partial installment agreements leave you room to pay all your monthly obligations. We do this by collecting your financial information on an IRS Form 433. On this form, you list all your assets, your liabilities, your income and your expenses. Calculating your disposable income is a simple equation – all of your income, from whatever source, less your “allowed” expenses. The IRS scrutinizes the taxpayers expenses and disallows many of them. By disallowing reasonable expenses, the IRS is inflating your disposable income.

The real negotiations revolve around what expenses are allowed before your disposable income is calculated. That’s why taxpayers need help. The IRS will calculate a disposable income that will not allow you to pay all your other obligations. That guarantees the taxpayer will default some time in the future.

If you owe the IRS, a partial installment agreement may be your best remedy. Let’s find out. If you contact my office and mention this article, we will complete an IRS Analysis Report, that will tell you exactly where you stand with the IRS, for FREE. Call me, attorney Steven A. Leahy at 312-664-6649. Tell Bonnie, my scheduler, you want a FREE report.

Mark Glennon of wirepoints.com

by

Steven A. Leahy

Mark Glennon of wirepoints.com

By Steven A Leahy

This week on the IRS Radio Hour, we are pleased to welcome Mark Glennon of wirepoints.com. Mr. Glennon is an attorney, an entrepreneur, venture capitalist and consultant. He is Managing Director at Ninth Street Advisors, providing consulting services to high growth technology companies and their investors. He specialties include business development, operations and management, equity and debt transactions, e-commerce, B2C, mobile applications, entrepreneurial ventures, reorganizations and workouts. Before moving on to his current passions, Mark practiced law with expertise in debt transactions, turnarounds, bankruptcy and venture capital.

Glennon_Leahy_530

Recently, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner appointed Mr. Glennon Co-Chair of Innovate Illinois Advisory Council. The council works closely with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and has a core mission of bringing new opportunities to the forefront on behalf of the community. Innovate Illinois Advisory Council is “all about bringing together leaders from different backgrounds who can bring different perspectives — venture capital, business, research, universities, education, community leaders, corporate executives — everybody we can who has a stake in the success of the technology sector,” Rauner said. “We want to get their ideas, we want to get input, we want to get their collaboration.” Mr. Glennon is the perfect choice for that task.

Mr. Glennon writes extensively for wirepoints.com about Illinois Government, pensions, financial matters, technology, and capital formation. He has served on the Board of directorship for Tech companies such as GrubHub, Shoutlet and FunMobility. But, in addition to writing about these important issues, Mr. Glennon is also the founder of Wirepoints.com. Wirepoints.com is a news site that bills itself as a “One stop for all economic and governmental news of macro importance to Illinois and Chicago.”

“WirePoints delivers both original stories and hand selected articles from other sources about Illinois’ economy and government. We want to be a one-stop source for all news of major importance to Illinois’ economy. We have a particular focus on the state and local fiscal crises. Our frustration with poor coverage of those crises by the regular press was the primary reason for starting this site, and that frustration continues. We try to stick to policy, facts and numbers, not politics.”

Not only am I on board with the right of center viewpoints. Listeners may remember that I have a great interest in technology – I have a LL.M. in Information Technology and worked with computers and coding from the birth of personal computers, and BEFORE! Finance is also one of my interests, having earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration, concentration in Finance from Loyola University of Chicago. So, Mr. Glennon is a welcome guest!

We, at the IRS Radio Hour, are anxious to discuss Illinois’ complex and dangerous pension obligations, public school financing, tax policies, budget woes and political corruption. We will also discuss the work of the Innovate Illinois Advisory Board and their efforts to to grow the state’s innovation economy, including developing high-growth industry clusters, attracting resources, developing and retaining top talent, and fostering collaboration among all the parties in the state’s technology and innovation community. These are important issues to all of us at the show, and all of our listeners.

How Long Can You Dodge the IRS? The Answer May Astound You…

by

Steven A. Leahy

How Long Can You Dodge the IRS? The Answer May Astound You…

By Steven A Leahy

Most of the taxpayers who come to see me have been playing hide-and-seek from the IRS for some time. They wonder “How long can I Dodge the IRS”? They hope the IRS will forget about them. I hear, “can I fly under their radar” a lot. The truth is – it may take some time before the IRS catches up with you. But in the end, they will find you. The IRS is like a battle ship: It may take a long time to turn on you and get you in their sites. But, once they do, the damage can be devastating.

The common scenario follows this pattern: The taxpayer owes the IRS on tax day, but doesn’t have the money to pay. The taxpayer gets VERY UPSET and SCARED. So, the taxpayer files an extension. The extension pushes the due date of the return to October 15th, typically. By filing an extension, the taxpayer feels a false sense of relief. It is false because, the taxpayer doesn’t recognize that they have already sustained a penalty for not paying any tax owed. That’s right – the extension, extends the time for filing the return, not for paying the tax. Next, as time goes by, the tax deadline gets lost in life, and goes by without notice.

The next time the taxpayer worries about their tax return is when the next tax year is upon them. The taxpayer has yet to file the previous year, and believes they have to file that year before filing the current year. So, you guessed it, as the April 15th deadline approaches, the taxpayer files another extension – Peace settles in until the next year. This is when the sleep starts to evade the taxpayer. They can bury the thought of their tax problem during the day. But, while laying in bed at night, their tax problem in all they can think of.

The IRS Has 3 Years to Audit

Did you know that the IRS has three years to audit a tax return. If you haven’t filed, they can’t audit the return. But they can file a return for you. When the IRS files a return for you, that is called a Substitute for Return, or SFR. The taxpayer may believe the IRS has forgotten about them, only to learn later (much later) that the IRS has filed the SFR and assessed a tax far in excess of what the taxpayer actually owes. So, often the IRS won’t even begin coming after you 5 years, or more, after the original return was due. This is what gives taxpayers’ with unfiled returns a feeling the IRS has forgotten them.

Now, not filing returns limits you options on resolving your IRS problem. For example, if you haven’t filed a tax return, the tax for that year will never be dischargeable in bankruptcy. That is true, even if the IRS filed an SFR for you. One more problem – if you file your tax return on time, the Collection Statute Expiration Date, or CSED, begins to tick right away.

If, however, the IRS files an SFR, the CSED begins on the date the tax is assessed, not on the date the tax was due. CSED is the time limit set on the IRS to collect a tax debt or file a complaint in court. Generally, CSED is ten years from the date of assessment. Although there are some events that may extend that date. If the IRS believes you are trying to avoid paying your taxes, they will simply file a complaint in court, obtain a judgment and seek to collect that judgment. There isn’t a time limit on collecting a judgment. That means the IRS may never go away until they are paid in full.

Dodging the IRS causes bigger problems down the line. Resolve your IRS problem today. So, if you have ANY IRS questions, Call me, Attorney Steven A. Leahy at 312-664-6649. I am the Chicago IRS Answer Man.

IRS Telephone Scams

by

Steven A. Leahy
Beware IRS Telephone Scams

By Steven A Leahy

The biggest news about the IRS lately is really NOT about the IRS. I receive at least 5 calls a week about the “IRS” contacting taxpayers and telling them they are under investigation, or about to be sued or about to be arrested because the owe the IRS money and haven’t paid.

These calls are SCAMS – it isn’t the IRS calling! That is NOT how the IRS works. They will NEVER take a payment over the phone, or accept iTune cards as payment. That’s right, iTune cards. I was on David Hochberg’s Home Sweet Home Chicago Radio show last week to address these scams. You see, David received a call himself. We had previously addressed this issue on his show, so he knew it was a scam. He played along to see where it led.

Initially, the caller told him she could not help him – it was too late. But, with a little questioning, said she could talk to her supervisor to see if they could resolve the matter without having him arrested. Sure enough! If he went to Walgreens, CVS or Rite Aid and purchased around $3000.00 in gift cards, the “IRS” would not arrest him. The gift cards are also known as, get this, iTune cards! So, the caller told him to call back when he had the iTune cards and read the numbers on the back of the card.

As silly as this sounds, it WORKS. There wouldn’t be the number of scam calls as there are if there weren’t vulnerable taxpayer’s out there falling for it. The ONLY reason the scam works is the public is scared to death of the IRS and will do just about anything to avoid being a target.

Now, on rare occasions the IRS will call taxpayer. But they will NEVER ask for payment in this manner. If you EVER receive a call from the IRS, or someone claiming to be from the IRS, tell them you need to speak with your attorney, then hang up the phone. Immediately call my office for advise. If you need help, we are the firm to help. But, if you don’t, we will let you know that for FREE.

So, if you have ANY IRS questions, Call me, Attorney Steven A. Leahy at 312-664-6649. I am the Chicago IRS Answer Man.

Our Resources

Testimonials

Our Office

Our Office has represented Clients throughout Chicago & Northern Illinois. We represent many clients from Cook County; however, we have represented clients from:

DuPage County
Kane County
Kendall County
Grundy County

Lake County
McHenry County
Will County
LaSalle County

We have helped taxpayers in Wisconsin, California, Tennessee, and perhaps your state. No matter where you call home, we look forward to your telephone call for your FREE consultation.