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How to Remove an IRS Tax Lien

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If you have a lot of debt – which is surprisingly common for business owners and entrepreneurs – then you could be faced with an IRS tax lien. An IRS tax lien simply means that the IRS gets a portion of any proceeds made when you make a sale. Tax liens can also do serious damage to your credit rating. Even worse; a tax lien could end up on a site like www.tedthomas.com. If someone purchases your tax lien, they could end up owning your property. The good news is that they aren’t permanent. They can be removed. Here’s a look at how to remove an IRS tax lien.
Appeal It

One good thing about dealing with the IRS is that you still have a lot of rights. You are well within your rights to ask for notices and enough time to get the matter resolved. You are also able to issue an appeal for any action the IRS takes against you. That includes liens.

Appealing a tax lien can be a simple process. All it takes is just a phone call. If you aren’t able to start an appeal over the phone, or you want to start as formally as possible, then you must file an official appeal. You’ll need to fill in and submit Form 9423 in order to do this.

The bad news about appealing your tax lien is that the odds of success aren’t that high. If you’ve got yourself a compelling case – such as it becoming impossible for you to pay the IRS back their debt if you also have to pay a tax lien – then you should consider an appeal. There’s no harm in trying and, if it goes well, the lien will be wiped from your record and you have nothing to worry about.

Get Rid of the Debt

The IRS aren’t unreasonable. It’s entirely possible to pay off your debt with an instalment plan or some kind of settlement with the IRS. An Offer-In-Compromise is an example of such a settlement. When you pay off the debt, the IRS should issue you with an IRS Certificate of Release of Federal Tax Lien. You need to get on their case if this doesn’t happen and fill out Form 668(Z). Also get in touch with credit agencies and local counties, informing them that you have settled the lien.

There is a hitch to all of this though. While being released from the lien means that asset sales won’t be impacted, it still stays on your credit report for seven years. The good news is that it’s possible to even do something about this. It’s called the IRS Fresh Start Program.

The IRS Fresh Start Program

The Fresh Start Program was launched by the IRS following the financial crisis, with a focus on people with less than $25,000 in debts. Basically, it allows for the withdrawal of federal tax liens if one meets the following criteria:

  • The debt has been resolved and the lien has been released
  • If you are following an instalment plan, then you must pay for it through direct debit and have made three payments without defaulting on any of them
  • You are up to date with estimated tax payments
  • You are in compliance with your past three year’s tax filings

If you fall into that category, then you can send in Form 12277 and have the lien wiped away as if it never existed. If the IRS agrees with you then they issue you and your local county office Form 109169(C). Don’t forget to notify our credit agencies, like you would if anything else on your credit report had been disputed.

Filed Under: Money Tagged With: tax, tax lien

Sometimes I Forget We’re At War

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Act Up on Berlin Wall - Cold War

We are spending all of this money for death and destruction, and not nearly enough money for life and constructive development…when the guns of war become a national obsession, social needs inevitably suffer.
– Martin Luther King

I leaned over to my girlfriend, and conspiratorially – by heart – recited the Pledge of Allegiance: “One Nation, under God, indivisible….” Even as I said the words, I was surprised by my own fluency. How could I remember this pledge? The answer was simple: I was a product of the American education system. Thus, I spent every morning of class – Kindergarten through 12th grade – up, at attention, and announcing allegiance to my country of birth, as if it was sensitive to my voice. Without my verbal confirmation of unwavering support, the class and country would look down upon me – not just because I’d be sitting down.

Amidst my puberty, horrible awkwardness with the opposite sex, and raging hormones displaced on parents, America fought wars. I vividly remember biology class in 6th grade, when the loudspeaker croaked alive – class would be cancelled. Then, teachers sobbed and kids went home. My parents hurried as fast as they could – to hug me and check to see if I was alright. Of course I was – this was Pittsburgh, mah! But we couldn’t stop watching the news for weeks. Over and over again, the World Trade Center towers fell.

I had stood atop those towers a year prior. My 12-year-old mind couldn’t compute how some of the tallest buildings in the world became shorter than our house – the great had fallen. I was more concerned and interested with rollerblading, biking, and playing videogames.

Our leader delivered rousing messages of revenge. They would pay. To us nincompoops, “they” was this exceedingly abstract term. Who were “they?” Could you be “they?” Could we be “they?” Then “they” became “terrorists.” The terrorists who would pay.

We were told the terrorists couldn’t accept our way of life. The terrorists couldn’t understand our freedoms. The terrorists couldn’t accept our Westernized culture where women could work, roam, and divorce as they please.

Across the Muslim-majority world, America aggressed. Afghanistan, Iraq, the Horn of Africa, Libya, and other sovereign nations felt the boot of U.S. military. We killed, slaughtered, massacred, bombed, shot, and burned. Thousands of service members and “enemy combatants” died. An unknown number of civilians also perished.

When I was 17, I almost enlisted in the U.S. Army. I wanted to be a 17X (“Seventeen x-ray”). This new position short-tracked enlisted folks into a Special Forces career. I idolized their bravery, willpower, and strength. But I backed down after considering what else I could do with my life – at least for the next few years. Nonetheless, I admired every other friend and neighbor that committed to this hard choice.

All these words – written in past tense – belie the reality of my childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Sometimes I forget we’re still at war even today. Fifteen years and counting, the War on Terror remains unresolved and unsolved. We cannot completely write these tragedies in history books and say we’ve moved onto a new chapter. We cannot say this will be last combat troop found blown up by an improvised explosive device or dictator that suffers our wrath. We’re not finished yet.

In 2015, the War on Terror was estimated to cost at least $1.7 trillion. No, writing that word – “trillion” – doesn’t do it justice. Let me write out every zero behind it.

$1,700,000,000,000.

The first three zeros are for a great day’s work. The second three zeros give you a lawyers’ salary. The third three zeros will buy you a fleet of Airbus aircraft. The next three zeros give you a greater gross domestic product than countries. And the next digit – the number for trillion – buys you a country or two or three.

This level of wealth could’ve bought us a lot of influence in the world, rebuilt our crumbling infrastructure, provided greater humanitarian relief for refugees, and more. But we didn’t think twice within this representative democracy to vote in representatives who would vote in favor of war repeatedly. Those votes were easy in comparison to providing safe bridges, smooth roads, clean water, affordable education, universal healthcare, and/or subsidizing clean energy. The initiatives that would’ve directly impacted our lives for the better – those were the partisan battles of my adolescence. And even if we enacted all those plans, we would still have money leftover to feed the impoverished, house the homeless, and have a roaring economy.

We chose war.

This choice cost us every year as taxpayers, too. About 18-20% of the federal budget goes towards “National Defense” spending. For every dollar, we burn 20% with the goal of keeping us safe. If I snatched away one-fifth of every paycheck from you, wouldn’t you do something about it? Would you let me siphon off your hard-earned dollars?

But I don’t hate all taxes. In fact, I love them! They pay for libraries, fire and police departments, National Guard troops, family members’ disability payments, and Medicare. They provide for those in need; albeit, they could do better. They provide grants and funding for disadvantaged populations to go to college; albeit, they could do better. They provide unemployment support if we lose our jobs suddenly; albeit, they could do better.

We’ve spent 15 years punishing the Muslim-majority countries without resolution. If bloodshed is not enough, are we not sick of war’s economic costs for those at home and abroad? Are we not tired of losing one-fifth of our work? Are we not tired of our worldwide reputation of war before diplomacy?

Years passed where I dreamt of serving my leaders. I wanted to take care of soldiers in combat as a psychologist. I used to take great pride in our flag, to stand with allegiance, and be a good citizen. I loved when I unwrapped my U.S. passport for the first time to flip through the pages of history and read our proud declarations of freedom. But I’ve been changed by a war more than half my life.

Filed Under: Social Justice Tagged With: America, Budget, federal, spending, tax, taxes, Terror, Terrorism, US, War

Get a 10% Tax Refund Bonus with TurboTax 2014

By Frugaling Leave a Comment

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Intuit Turbotax Deluxe Federal State Refund Return Program

Tax season is nearly here! Over the last few months I’ve worked tirelessly to reduce my tax liability. One method I’ll use to receive an even larger bonus will be Amazon.com’s partnership with TurboTax. TurboTax is the leading tax preparation software and offers some of the best features for receiving your largest deduction ever. But for every dollar of my refund I put towards an Amazon gift card, I’ll get an extra 10% from Amazon!

For instance, if you receive a $1500 tax refund and download TurboTax from Amazon.com, you’ll be able to put up to $500 to a gift card with the 10% bonus! That can quickly give you an extra $50 for doing your taxes. By receiving the $50 Amazon.com tax refund bonus, you can effectively pay for the cost of TurboTax Deluxe 2014. And heck, Amazon can sometimes help us stay frugal!

What I like about TurboTax:

  • TurboTax is an Intuit product (they own Mint.com, too)
  • It automatically calculates deductions and checks to make sure I’m getting the largest refund possible
  • The company works with collegiate expenses and student loan payments to save even more money
  • Each year’s refund and return is collected for the next year, which saves a ton of preparation time
  • The program includes state and federal e-files for rapid returns and paperless refunds
  • By downloading from Amazon.com, it includes 5 free federal tax return files
  • Using TurboTax is a terrific preventor of getting audited, as it checks to make sure you’ve included everything
  • Instant download for Macs and PCs

Follow this link to get this year’s version: TurboTax Deluxe Fed, Efile and State 2014 with Refund Bonus Offer

Filed Under: Make Money Tagged With: Amazon, Amazon.com, Bonus, Gift Card, Mint, Student Loans, tax, taxation, taxes, Turbotax

Mark Cuban’s Horrific Student Loan Debt “Solution”

By Frugaling 15 Comments

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The stock market’s been horrific. Volatility has been at record levels. Stocks are at 6, 7, and 8-month lows. The losses prompted me to stay glued to CNBC. Every morning this week, I woke one hour earlier and listened — rapt to the dancing futures and opening moments. Then, I’d be off to work, school, etc.

But this article isn’t about stock market woes. Instead, I want to focus on a CNBC guest and favorite, Mark Cuban. Cuban is an entrepreneur and billionaire (about $2.6 billion). He’s an owner of the Dallas Mavericks and serially invests in startups, businesses, and other money-making ventures. This week, he decided to speak out against the rising tide of student loan debt — something we can all agree is crushing our future economic potential.

At first, I welled with excitement and thought, “Finally, someone is going to start critiquing our financial destruction via student loans and provide sensible solutions to the $1.2 trillion debt.” Cuban exclaimed that we couldn’t continue this and that we were hurting the entire economy with this burden. But after complaining about the problem at length, he provided no solutions.

The CNBC anchors recognized this and asked him to elaborate on his answer. And that’s when I nearly soiled my pants. His big fix to this growing problem was to — ugh, it’s hard to write this — cap the federal governments tuition aid to students. More specifically, he proffered that students shouldn’t receive any more than $10,000 each year in aid.

The billionaire entrepreneur, successful businessman, and all-around sports guy said that a cap like this would force schools to reduce tuition and fees. This is when I began screaming at the TV with a rebuttal, desperate to be heard by the conservative messengers on CNBC. That didn’t work, so I took to my keyboard to muddle a rebuttal.

Unfortunately, there’s a growing movement among “experts,” pundits, and pretenders that solving the student loan crisis is as simple as cutting funding opportunities. Cut the funding and institutions will be forced to lower their costs. Economically speaking, they’re partially right. When you reduce the funding opportunities, this manipulates the “free market” for education.

With the “Cuban Plan,” the idealistic message is: cut aid funding and watch the tuition/fees crumble. With a $10,000 cap on tuition, Cuban expects institutions to follow in line. But that’s not what will happen. The reality is that the market for private loans and corporate, profit-hungry, debt-ballooning machines will take its place. Suddenly a controlled market of lenders by the federal government will be swamped and stalked by private lenders — only out to massage another percentage point (or more) out of desperate students who are eager to get educated and attempt to better themselves.

Many will be priced out of an education. The bloated budgets of higher education institutions won’t be able to simply adapt. Universities have been spending astronomical amounts on recreational centers, educational facilities, and residence halls (aka: dorms). While frivolous, the tuition and student fees are established. If they were to be reduced or cut due to federal aid money, schools may default on hefty loans to pay for these extravagances.

Cuban’s idea is a lose-lose. Schools will default, close, and/or fire massive amounts of educators. Students will be stuck with private loans to pay the gap, or be forced to relinquish their dreams of a higher education (and the future earnings potential). The only winner will be Cuban and his cronies — the 1 percent.

See, the rich will benefit because it’ll be another federal program that’s axed. And anything federal, governmental, or communally good is inherently bad among rapacious 1 percenters. Moreover, private funders such as Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America will be able to roll up their sleeves, sell some toxic loans, and collect for decades. Those holding stock in those companies could escalate their wealth — all off the backs of low income and desperate students.

What we need is government reform. What we need is debt forgiveness. What we need is a growing mass of people that believe in future generations and their education. What we need is a long view — not the myopic, shortsighted one that Cuban propagated.

He’s right about one thing: there’s a crisis brewing and we need to change our relationship with student loan debt immediately. Tuition and fees need to be cut. For-profit universities should be unable to receive federal funding whatsoever. Taxation to support higher education of public institutions needs to increase dramatically. Be it from estate taxes or net worth taxes or capital gains taxes, somebody’s got to pay for it. And we can’t keep giving the bill to future generations.

These are the people that will take care of you when you are aging. These are the people that will discover the cure to cancers. These are the people that will reduce climate change. These are the people that will pioneer ever greater technologies.

It’s time to support them and ourselves.

Filed Under: Save Money, Social Justice Tagged With: college, debt, federal aid, Fees, Mark Cuban, Student Loans, tax, taxes, Tuition, universities

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