A viewer contacted consumer investigator Steve Sbraccia about an urgent-sounding voice message from someone claiming to be from the Division of Financial Relief. The hallmark of these scams is to confuse you and force you to make quick decisions, a decision that will free you of your money – but not your tax burden.
“You do not have to pay back overdue taxes as they are considered unrecoverable,” said the caller.
The caller claimed your unpaid taxes were waived because of the COVID relief bill signed by the president.
The message tried to force the recipient to act quickly and said he would miss it unless he “acted within the special registration deadline.
Mona Passmore, acting special agent for the IRS field office in Charlotte, said, “I’ve been with the IRS for 30 years and I don’t know of any financial assistance department.”
In addition to not making robocalls to people, the IRS was never authorized to forget your past taxes.
“The COVID relief program does not remove your responsibility to pay your taxes,” she said.
Your website has facilities to help you make arrangements to pay these taxes. Look under the tab “Make payment”.
If you owe taxes back, Passmore said you need to contact the IRS.
When it comes to owing money for back taxes, there are also dozens of companies that offer to negotiate with the IRS to reduce your payment to cents per dollar.
“They often mislead people who have no chance of qualifying for a compromise offer,” said Passmore.
If you qualify for a tax compromise, don’t use a middleman like one of these companies as it could cost you.
“You can spend a lot more money using one of these compromise firms to clear your tax debt than you can by going straight to the IRS website and using the tools there,” said Passmore.
What about the tax form refunds you submitted in 2019? Some people are still waiting for them. Here’s why.
“We all still work from home,” said Passmore. “We didn’t go to the office for several months. Now they are trying to catch up and book paper returns. “
Next time you can, you’ll need to file your taxes electronically as your tax return will be processed faster.
It will take time to clear this paper return backlog, but the IRS is unable to give us an exact date.
News highlights business
- The IRS is seeing an increase in the number of scammers using tax fraud to steal your money
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