 internal revenue service IRS tax news taxpayer bill of rights america's taxpayers are entitled to a fair and just tax system the administration has been pushing to change that taxpayer bill of rights just kidding they're like fair and just tax system come on man those are ancient terms president biden is like that kind of harmful rhetoric was spouted in my youth by morons like Cicero we don't need a fair system we need like a fairable system and nobody uses the term just anymore it often referring to equal treatment under the law that's no good we need an equitable tax code so instead of a fair and just tax system we need like a fairable and equitable or possibly like adjustable tax code here's how it works you make the money we take the money no or at least half of it so like we each have our roles you see and the other half of your money possibly we flip a coin for it in a fair and equitable or adjustable way of course heads you give us your money tails we take it as I hold on a second that that doesn't sound fair or just quiet peon we make the rules around here which is why it terms like just able is way better than simply just because the word just able is adjustable whereas just is just what it is this is ridiculous we're not peons to be peed on honestly is that like the etymology of the word peon i mean i swear it's all coming together now president biden's last speech proves there can actually be rhetoric that stinks to the ears man you gotta warn somebody before you just crack one off my mouth was opening everything stinks like the smell of communism and lies don't be talking about the brimstone i know what that's man there wasn't no brimstone and come off no stone either but possibly i repeat myself that's the same thing no that was waving this is eschewing oh it isn't this is eschewing motion more like this tax tip 2022-154 october 6 2022 tax fairness means the tax system is equitable to all citizens equitable i swear they came up with that word like five seconds ago this is not just a concept it is the law the right to a fair and just tax system is one of ten rights in the taxpayer bill of rights there's a link to that here which clearly outlined the fundamental rights of every taxpayer notice how they're subtly indicating at least it seems to me that the term equitable is the same thing as the term fair and just and i'm not really arguing that words change over time and we use different terminology over time and so on but i am saying that we want to be specific you would think when we're referring to the law meaning if these two terms mean the same thing why wouldn't we be using the term fair and just which is the term that's used in the actual law as we can see up top you know in the title and if it's not the same thing and we're going to be using this term equitable then we have to know what the term equitable means and one of the things i don't like a lot about some of the new terms that are being used is they're very vague we don't know exactly what they mean note that the taxpayer bill of rights here is supposed to be protecting like the bill of rights our natural rights it's like kind of our defense in the natural rights arguing that we have these natural rights and in order to define those we need to be as specific as possible we need to be using language that you know is well defined so if we're using new age terms that are kind of vague and it seems to me being intentionally vague then that is going to remove the impact or effectiveness of the law and being able to argue in our in our defense of it whether or not our rights have been violated but in any case here's what the irs wants all taxpayers to know about what this right means taxpayers have the right to expect tax system to consider facts and circumstances that might affect their underlying liabilities ability to pay or ability to provide information timely so of course the tax system itself is already a progressive tax system meaning in part it's designed so that people that have more capacity to pay will typically be paying more because the tax rates go up as people earn more money but then other factors could come into play in terms of the collection of the of the actual debt as well and note you can actually think of this from the irs's perspective as similar to another kind of creditor right they're going to be taking into considerations you know whether or not they can collect on the debt or not and having the circumstances so that the taxpayer can still you know work and be self-sufficient and earn money and be a productive part of the tax system just like if you were taking out a loan for example the the bank doesn't want to completely crush the person who owes them money they want the interest and the principal on the money so you can kind of think of it from a business perspective from that perspective at least in some sense right it makes kind of sense but taxpayers have the right to receive assistance from the taxpayer advocate service if they're experiencing financial difficulty resolving their tax issues properly and timely through normal irs channels so you can go to the taxpayer advocate service taxpayers who cannot pay their tax debt in full and meet certain conditions can arrange a payment plan with the irs and it's a fairly simple process to set up the payment plan this again would be similar i mean to own like a bank or something like that if you owed the bank money and you can't pay what are they going to do throw you in jail they're not going to get their money that way right so what they're going to set up a payment plan so that you can so that you can you know get get paid in the future hopefully something that's beneficial to both parties so this means the taxpayers will pay a set amount over time generally monthly taxpayers could submit an offer in compromise asking the irs to settle their tax debt for less than the full amount they owe if now the offer in compromise is is the idea that you know you might be able to to get them to lower the tax debt but again you can kind of think of it as if they're like a banking kind of situation you owe the irs money so so the irs again doesn't really want to say they want to collect on the money so if you're in a situation where it's unlikely that you're going to be able to pay off the total liability the iris would rather get some of the liability paid off rather than none of it right so so so if they can set up a system so that's kind of the baseline that you would be thinking of in terms of putting your mindset in the offer in compromise you're basically saying hey look there's no possible way i'm going to be able to pay the debt off uh over my lifetime given my current circumstances it's on both of our best interests to lower the debt would be the general idea uh obviously there's you know there's other factors that can come into play in terms of the law with the irs and so on but that that process is fairly well outlined so if you're thinking about an offer in compromise you can you can check out the resources the irs has and and read up on it so in any case if the amount believed they don't owe all or part of the tax debt are unable to pay all of the tax debt within the time permitted by the law to collect have factors such as equity hardship or public policy that they think the irs should consider in determining whether to settle the liability the irs has a list of national and local guidelines covering the basic costs of living that is you that it uses when considering a settlement offer reducing someone's tax debt irs employees cannot use this guidelines if they would result in the taxpayer not having enough money to pay their best basic living expenses so you can imagine what you would give to them and like an offer in compromise right you'd be saying here's here's my balance sheet here's here's what i'm earning here's what i have and then kind of considering your ability to pay the taxes and whether or not you'd be able to pay them off you know in the lifetime of the tax liability with a collection period that the government has for it so in these cases the irs will use the taxpayers actual expenses the irs cannot seize all of someone's wages to collect their unpaid tax a portion is exempt from levy to allow the taxpayer to pay basic living expenses again this of course just makes sense from not just from an irs side of things just from a business like if the iris is a bank you owe them money if the bank came over and said i'm just going to go to your employer and take 100 percent of your wages directly from your employer what are you going to do you're not going to work anymore right so the iris doesn't want that because they want to get paid so so you can kind of think of this from from the iris perspective as if kind of similar to them taken out alone and that you owe them money after they have assigned you debt after they have signed you taxes that you can't pay and they would be taking similar circumstances to be able to collect the whole goal is to try to incentivize you to participate to continue working even though you have this kind of thing hanging over your head with this debt so the irs has the authority to decrease an excessive unpaid portion of any tax or liability assessed after the statutory period of limitations has expired or is erroneously or illegally assessed the irs has the discretion to decrease interest on an underpayment when an irs employee caused an unreasonable delay or error and when no significant aspect of the error is attributable to the taxpayer so in other words you know if it was a bank or lending situation they earn their money on interest oftentimes so and the irs earns money and in terms of taxes in and of itself but also interest in penalties so you can imagine it in a corrupt type of system where they intentionally have you pay late or something like that or they don't you know they make it difficult to actually pay them why because then they can charge you interest and penalties on top of it so they need to be fair and they should be transparent and you should know exactly what's going on with regards to what's what's asked of you and then and then so and then the penalties and interest that will be applied so more information can be found at the links below publication one your rights as a taxpayer and taxpayer advocate service there's links to that here there'll be a link to this in the description