February 5, 2012

Tax Relief: Does Closed for Business Mean Closed to IRS Collection?

The Internal Revenue Service does not overlook taxes owed by a business/ home business that closed its door. Even if the business has not been operating for several years it will not be free from the expectations of the Internal Revenue Service. You can be sure the Internal Revenue Service will make every effort to collect employment taxes and officers of that business will be held responsible. However, if the business closed down in a proper manner by following the correct tax procedures and none of its assets got transferred to third parties in order to continue operating in a fraudulent fashion it will be regarded as not collectible. In such an instance any Internal Revenue Service tax notices are being automatically produced by a computerized procedure.

A business that is regarded as truly not collectible will not have the attention of the Internal Revenue Service. The Internal Revenue Service can pursue any of those who made the decisions not to pay employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. They would be under the impression that officers of the business are liable to a lesser or greater degree. A penalty for trust fund recovery would have been evaluated by the Internal Revenue Service against officers responsible for the employment taxes withheld from workers’ salaries.

A business that is correctly closed and is not collectible will not be pursued by the Internal Revenue Service. As there are no assets, they will go after officers, owners and managers due to their personal liability. This is known as ‘joint’ and ‘several liability’. If the collection of one hundred percent by the Internal Revenue Service is from another person you no longer have a obligation to pay. The collection can be carried out in any way the Internal Revenue Service decides is best but may not be more than one hundred percent of what is owed.

According to the IRS Taxpayer Advocate 2002 to 2007, trust fund assessments amounting to 13.5% was carried out against owners, officers and managers. The Internal Revenue Service is not excessive in their pursuance of closed businesses.

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