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Host 00:00
Welcome back to the Key West Local Business Spotlight Show. And this is Key West Local Business Spotlight. Good day to you. We are now shining the spotlight on Steven Klitzner, the IRS problem resolution attorney, the law office of Steven Klitzner, also known as Florida Tax Solvers and floridataxsolvers.com.
Host 00:21
Hello to you, Steven.
Steve Klitzner 00:23
Hi, Michael. How are you doing today?
Host 00:25
I’m doing very well. You know, so I’m actually very humbled to be speaking to you, because I was just peeking at your qualifications, which are listed on your website. And you certainly have decades of experience in this realm of the law, but also your qualifications are very impressive, very highly rated by Martindale Hubble Law Directory, admitted to United States Supreme Court, and the list goes on and on.
Host 00:53
So certainly your qualifications speak for themselves, but you have been helping people with IRS tax problems for decades, right?
Steve Klitzner 01:01
Right, and that’s what my practice focuses exclusively on. People and businesses, they owe the IRS, they get audited, they haven’t filed their returns.
Steve Klitzner 01:12
That’s all I do is the IRS issues.
Host 01:14
Yes.
Steve Klitzner 01:15
And luckily, here in Florida, the IRS keeps me very busy.
Host 01:19
Well, that they do. So you are helping people throughout the Florida Keys and South Florida. And again, it’s floridataxsolvers.com.
Host 01:28
And incidentally, we’ll mention this throughout the show, but the phone number directly to Steven in his office, 305-682-1118. So one of the reasons I assume that you had picked this area of the law is because a lot of people find themselves in trouble with the IRS.
Host 01:46
They maybe didn’t do it intentionally, some maybe did, but they might be private citizens, they might be employers with businesses. But all of a sudden, you’re minding your own business, maybe forgot to do some things, and all of a sudden you start to get some letters from the IRS. And that’s how it starts.
Steve Klitzner 02:02
No question. And, you know, nobody really wants an IRS problem. My clients don’t wake up in the morning saying, how can I find a way not to pay the IRS again? Just things happen in their lives.
Steve Klitzner 02:16
Sometimes they make mistakes. Sometimes it’s totally unavoidable and they fall behind. And here’s the IRS knocking on their door.
Host 02:25
Knocking on their door, sending them letters. And then the other mistake people start to make is they might not even open those IRS notices. And they start out as being somewhat friendly. They’re kind of a bill and says, hey, you owe this tax. Maybe you didn’t file some returns. Maybe you didn’t take all your payroll tax withholdings as an employer.
Host 02:44
But the worst thing that people could do is to ignore it and just hope it goes away because it won’t.
Steve Klitzner 02:50
Right. The letters are very important. The certified letters often give you rights. And even if you don’t open the letter, even if you don’t pick up the letter, the time is running on that.
Steve Klitzner 03:02
And once that time period runs and you do nothing, you lose some very valuable rights. Instead of being able to control the situation, now you’re playing defense and you’re saying to the IRS, please don’t hurt me.
Steve Klitzner 03:18
And that’s not the position you want to be in. You want to exercise your rights because people do have plenty of things they can do to get this under control and work an agreement with the IRS without having the IRS threaten.
Steve Klitzner 03:35
You know, there’s three things they can do. They can file liens that attaches to your property. If you don’t have property that attaches to any property you may own in the future. They can levy, they can take your wages, they could take your bank account.
Steve Klitzner 03:51
But before they do that, you can request a hearing and stop that, assuming you don’t ignore the letters. And they also, if you owe a significant amount of money, it changes every year. Now it’s $59 ,000 or more and you don’t do anything, they could revoke your passport.
Steve Klitzner 04:11
Or they could just not renew your passport or not issue you a new one. But again, when you get on these things early enough and don’t ignore them, you can stop all that and control the situation.
Steve Klitzner 04:24
Yes, again, this is Key West Local Business Spotlight speaking with Steven Klitzner, the IRS problem resolution attorney here in Florida and Monroe County, floridataxsolvers.com.
Host 04:35
Again, the phone number directly, 305-682-1118. So you get those letters and maybe you do open them and think, well, maybe I did forget to do something or maybe you know that you did or didn’t do something.
Host 04:49
However, some people take it upon themselves to call up the IRS and say, hey, I’ll just explain it to them. They’re gonna understand everything’s gonna be fine. Why is that ill -advised?
Steve Klitzner 05:00
Because they don’t believe anything you say.
Steve Klitzner 05:03
Everything has to be proved. And sure, if you owe a few thousand dollars, a couple thousand dollars, and you call, you work it out, you pay them overtime, they’re probably not going to take any action against you.
Steve Klitzner 05:16
If you owe under ten thousand dollars, they’ll just keep your refunds. But when you owe more than that, you have to remember one thing. The IRS is not on your side. They’re never going to say, hey, you have a right to this, or hey, you’re eligible for a penalty abatement.
Steve Klitzner 05:32
They never do that. What they do is they tell you what’s good for them. So if you owe a significant amount, if you’re not able to figure out a resolution that works for you, then you really need to get some help, or at least some advice.
Steve Klitzner 05:50
That’s why my consultations are always free. People call me. If I can help them, I say this is what I think you should do, this is what I can do for you. If it’s not something I can help them on, if I can’t add any value, then I just tell them, here’s what you do.
Steve Klitzner 06:07
Just call them, yo, $7 ,000, tell them you’ll pay them $100 a month, ask them if you’re eligible for a penalty abatement, you don’t really need me, you might as well pay them. Well, you know, a significant amount of money, investing in me really makes sense.
Steve Klitzner 06:24
Not only because I might be able to save you money, but because then I can quarterback it, you don’t have to worry about it, and I can make sure everything’s being done right, and you’re not relying on the IRS to tell you that.
Host 06:38
Yeah. Well, you hear some of the advertisements out there that talk about, are you losing sleep over IRS tax problems, et cetera. You mentioned something important there, Steven. Resolution, and that’s exactly what you bring as the IRS problem resolution attorney.
Host 06:53
Again, speaking with Steven Klitzner, floridataxsolvers.com is the website. It’s the law office of Steven Klitzner at 305-682-1118. So let’s emphasize the IRS is interested in getting as much money from you as they feel that you owe, and it’s really not in their interest or they’re not looking to really cut a deal or cut the amount that you’re going to pay them, right?
Steve Klitzner 07:20
Right. Yeah, that’s certainly not voluntary on their part. You know, we hear about the offering compromise, and everyone wants to settle for less. And the IRS will do that if you qualify. If I can convince the IRS that there’s no way you can pay that money, and we offer them everything they’re going to get, they’ll accept that as a settlement.
Steve Klitzner 07:45
But that’s not a phone call. That’s an offering compromise that takes many months for them to process. We offer them 80 percent of the value. you of your property all cash savings investments iris 401 case to a certain degree and then we look at the average monthly income minus what they think your average monthly expenses are going to be whatever is left over we multiply by 12 so some people owe $100 ,000 so we can settle for $100 because what’s good for them is bad for their case and if they’re things are good for them they’re going to end up paying at all but if things aren’t what good for them financially the iris will take a hundred dollars on some people and they could owe hundreds of thousands of dollars other people have a lot of money they have a lot of assets they make a lot of money the iris is going to want them to pay and the reason is this if I could just call the IRS and say, look, my client owes $100 ,000.
Steve Klitzner 08:49
Would you take 30, 40, 50, 60, whatever it is? If they said yes, no one would ever pay their taxes on time. So they only make deals for less when I can show the people can’t pay it. Now some people may have assets, but they don’t have the income to pay the IRS.
Steve Klitzner 09:09
Very often we can get them into a small installment agreement or get them placed not collectible and ultimately the 10 year statute of limitations runs. Everyone’s got a different solution depending on how much they owe and what their current financial situation is.
Steve Klitzner 09:27
But there is one thing, you have to start filing and paying on time going forward. They will work with you if you’re no longer going to be a problem. So with a business with payroll taxes, I can make a very good deal because they don’t have the ability to pay the old payroll taxes.
Steve Klitzner 09:49
But that comes with from here forward, filing and paying your payroll taxes on time. Otherwise, they just want to close you down. If you can show you’re not going to be a problem in the future, we can often settle the past debt for very little money.
Host 10:04
Yeah, again, speaking with Steven Klitzner, law office of Steven Klitzner, the IRS problem resolution attorney, online floridataxsolvers.com, that’s floridataxsolvers.com, 305-682-1118. Steven, you mentioned the statute of limitations as being 10 years now.
Host 10:23
Some people may think, oh, I’m just going to drag it out and then they can no longer come after me. However, it’s really most important for you to get ahead of this and for you to work with your clients as soon as possible because they will pursue it.
Host 10:38
And as you said, those first letters, you have the most rights at the beginning of the process.
Steve Klitzner 10:44
Yeah, and it is. good to get on top of it, especially of many years. Now, we’ll have clients that we’ve seen this very recently, because of COVID, the IRS kind of backed off on a lot of collection.
Steve Klitzner 10:56
But we’ve seen some people come up close to the 10 years, where the IRS is sending the case into the field, to either collect the money or maybe even sue them to get a judgment for 20 years. So we’re seeing more of that over the last year.
Steve Klitzner 11:15
But that’s why even if my decisions going to be, let’s sit back on this. Sometimes the best thing to do is have me on it so that I know, you know, I’ve got to tell you a funny story. I was speaking to the seminar for CPAs earlier this year.
Steve Klitzner 11:32
And the CPA raised his hand, he says, I’ve got a client that owes for 2014, 15, and 16, 50, $60 ,000. The IRS is not bothering them. they’re not in collections what do I do they really can’t pay and I said well maybe we have to do as they say in frozen let it go just let’s sit back and keep an eye on this he called me the next day he goes remember that client I was telling me about it’s me he owes the IRS so he hired me to get the transcripts find out what’s going on in his case because he’s not in collections and they can’t levy on him now we’re kind of sitting back on it other cases I would get similar and I’d say here they come let’s get going on this before you start getting more letters no everything’s a little bit different
Host 12:29
And that’s a very good point so again speaking with Steven Klitzner IRS problem resolution attorney floridataxsolvers.com on the Key West local business spotlight Steven we have about a couple of minutes left so let’s talk about that contacting you versus contacting some 1 -800 number that promises to make all your tax problems go away you certainly have the expertise as we alluded to before but you have the contacts with the local IRS representatives you have their playbook basically you know what they’re looking for you know how to defend your clients and get them more time to get this resolved as opposed to calling some 800 number where you’re gonna get some salesperson some person answering the phone there’s a distinct difference between you and others.
Steve Klitzner 13:13
Yeah and I can tell you this I I have dealt with and I know every revenue officer who does collection in Florida in aid Broward Monroe Palm Beach if I don’t know them it’s because they’re brand new and and I have a relationship with their manager now look that doesn’t mean I can make a phone call and everything goes away but it does mean I’ll get the benefit of the doubt I have their respect and I’ll be able to work with them to resolve the case.
Steve Klitzner 13:45
And I think that’s very important. These companies across the country, I can tell you, because I’ve talked to revenue officers locally, they have no respect for them. They just run all over them because they know that they’re not going to be doing anything.
Steve Klitzner 13:59
They’re very good at collecting money from the client, but they’re not very good at working the case. And they really do take advantage of them. I get calls weekly, a couple of calls weekly with someone that’s fed up with one of these big companies, and the IRS is levying, the IRS is doing bad things.
Steve Klitzner 14:18
Nothing’s happened in years. Can I help them? And I can’t. Yes. The other thing that I wanted to mention are audits, because we’re seeing more and more audits with local revenue agents, tax compliance officers.
Steve Klitzner 14:34
It is not a good idea to talk to that. They will do everything they can to make things worse for you. When I represent my clients, whether they owe money or getting audited, they never talk to the IRS.
Steve Klitzner 14:48
I, with the power of attorney, speak on their behalf. I can’t tell you how many audit cases turn into fraud because the client thinks they’re helping themselves. The other thing I want you listeners to be on the lookout are for letters from the IRS saying, it looks like you made more money or owe more taxes.
Steve Klitzner 15:06
We propose you owe another $50 ,000. Don’t panic. You don’t owe it yet. You will if you ignore it. We get on those cases, and I can tell you, we had a case not long ago. They proposed a million five.
Steve Klitzner 15:23
The person ended up owing about $250 because they didn’t report some interest on an investment they had. Behind the million five, that was all from cryptocurrency. They had a loss. If you ignore those letters, all of a sudden, you’re going to turn around and you’re going to owe the money that you don’t owe.
Steve Klitzner 15:44
Don’t ignore anything. Take action. You’ll be surprised how well you can do.
Host 15:50
Take action by calling Steven Klitzner, the IRS Problem Resolution, attorney 305-682-1118. Check it out online as well, floridataxsolvers.com.
Host 16:01
There’s a full list of services because everybody’s case and situation is different. There’s many different services and circumstances that Steven can help you with. First consultation is absolutely free for him to assess your case, and then should there be a need going forward, he will certainly work with you, payment plans and the like for a flat fee for his services and expertise and peace of mind.
Host 16:25
So Steven, thank you so much for being here on Key West Local Business Spotlight today. Thanks for listening to the Key West Local Business Spotlight. The Key West Local Business Spotlight airs every Saturday sponsored by Keyes Med Spa.
Host 16:39
Until next Saturday, thanks for listening to the Key West Local Business Spotlight show.
