Accounting Company Serving Boston Businesses

Most of what lands on our desk from businesses falls into a few buckets: unpaid federal balances, returns that never got filed, payroll tax deposits that slipped, audits, penalties, and collection actions like levies or garnishments. We start by pulling IRS transcripts so we know exactly what the IRS thinks you owe and which years are open. Only then do we pick a path, whether that's a payment plan, penalty relief, or something else. Good records matter here, because the plan has to match what the business can actually afford.

Yes. Our founder is an IRS Enrolled Agent, a license issued by the U.S. Treasury that carries unlimited practice rights before the IRS. With a signed Form 2848 on file, we can deal with the IRS for your company on audits, collection cases, appeals, payment arrangements and penalty requests. Nobody can promise a particular result, but you get someone who speaks the IRS's language handling the calls and letters so you aren't.

Quickly, because payroll tax is the area where the IRS moves fastest. Missed deposits and unpaid Form 941 balances pile up penalties, and the IRS can open a Trust Fund Recovery Penalty investigation that reaches the owners and officers personally. We look at which quarters are filed, what was deposited, what's owed, and who could be considered a responsible person. Then we get the filings current, open a line with the IRS, and work toward an arrangement that keeps payroll running.

Get them filed, and filed correctly. If you wait, the IRS may prepare a substitute return for you, and those usually leave out the deductions and business expenses you'd normally claim, so the bill looks bigger than it should. Real returns set the true number. They're also usually required before the IRS will talk about installment agreements or an Offer in Compromise, so we fold them into the overall resolution plan rather than treating them as a separate chore.

Often, yes, but timing is everything. A bank levy freezes the money you need for payroll and vendors, so call us the day you see it. What we can do depends on the notice you received, how much is owed, whether your filings are current, and your present financial picture. We contact the IRS, document the hardship or the alternative arrangement, and press for a release. Ignoring the notice is the one move that reliably makes it worse.

They are. If the company can't pay the full balance, an installment agreement is usually the first option we look at. The IRS will want to see the balance, your filing history, financial statements and a proposed monthly amount. We build the number around what the business really needs to keep operating. One warning: an agreement only holds if new returns and deposits stay current, so we watch that closely after it's in place.

Sometimes. First Time Abate relief is available if the company has a clean recent history, and reasonable cause relief can apply when something genuinely outside your control caused the problem, like a disaster, a serious illness, or a bookkeeper who disappeared. We write the request around the facts and back it up with documents. Keep in mind that interest usually keeps running under IRS rules even after penalties come off.

Start with every IRS notice you've received, then add prior returns, payroll reports, bank statements, a current profit and loss, a balance sheet, receivables and payables aging, and a list of loans. Jot down any years you know are unfiled and any deadlines on the notices. A tidy file lets us confirm the facts fast. If you're a government contractor, bring your indirect rate schedules and contract list too, since those affect cash flow planning.