Having been hit by any number of money scams, the swindles that rope people in with a fake IRS connection are probably the slimiest.
These scams pop up during tax time, but they seem to circulate throughout the year. Here’s what you need to know:
The IRS continues to see “heavily advertised promises offering to settle taxpayer debt at steep discounts. The IRS sees many situations where taxpayers don’t meet the technical requirements for an offer, but they had to face excessive fees from promoters for information they can easily obtain themselves.”
“Offer in Compromise” mills highlight the Dirty Dozen series of the worst scams that use the IRS in their schemes. “Offers in Compromise are an important program to help people who can’t pay to settle their federal tax debts. But “mills” can aggressively promote `Offers in Compromise’ in misleading ways to people who clearly don’t meet the qualifications, frequently costing taxpayers thousands of dollars.”
How do you avoid these ruses? A taxpayer can check their eligibility for free using the IRS’s Offer in Compromise Pre-Qualifier tool.
“Too often, we see some unscrupulous promoters mislead taxpayers into thinking they can magically get rid of a tax debt,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.
“This is a legitimate IRS program, but there are specific requirements for people to qualify. People desperate for help can make a costly mistake if they clearly don’t qualify for the program. Before using an aggressive promoter, we encourage people to review readily available IRS resources to help resolve a tax debt on their own without facing hefty fees.”
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