Radio Interview (February 25, 2025)

Listen to this interview – MP3

Host 00:00
If it’s happening in the Keys, you will hear about it here. This is Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 969-1025. And Good Morning Keys, Keys Talk 969-1025. The talk of the Keys still have that accident showing up in the upper Keys. Look at that, two of them now. Somewhat in the same vicinity. We still have the accident with no injuries showing up by Coral Shores High School, 89901. Overseas highways, so keep that in mind.

Another one just north of there and trying to identify what’s going on there. It’s an accident with no injuries. Of course, U.S. won 94.5 mile marker Rock Harbor area. Two accidents there. And then, of course, we’ve been talking about it. It is the construction zone in Tavernier, which is going to cause significant slowdowns as well. Of course, you’ve got your slowdowns, which are typical for this time of the morning on Rockland Key, Big Coppet, and going into Key West at the triangle there. So keep that in mind as well. We now say good morning to Steven Klitzner with the Office of Steven Klitzner Tax Attorney, FloridaTaxSolvers.com. Good morning, Steven.

Steven Klitzner 01:07
Good morning, Michael.

Host 01:10
Well, if you’re planning on coming down and seeing some of your clients here in the keys anytime soon, allow for plenty of time. I know you deal with a lot of people here locally, but yeah, going up and down the keys is a challenge right now. So we’re doing wise.

Steven Klitzner 01:24
Well, you know, it’s funny, last week I’m in North Miami area and I had to speak at a seminar to CPAs in Boca Raton at 7:45. And I was so worried I was going to be late because I was the only speaker. I left like 6:15 and I got there in a half hour. I sat around for an hour. So you just never know.

Host 01:47
And your time is valuable. You can’t sit around and be idle for a half hour. That’s, you can be helping, you could be helping taxpayers with that half hour.

Steven Klitzner 01:53
Well, yeah, plus I got wordle and three, so I had nothing to do.

Host 01:59
floridataxsolvers.com is where you go 305-682-1118.
By the way, something I did not notice in the past. I have a new friend named Josh, who is your support agent helping me there as soon as I popped on to the site. A new guy, Josh, I hope looks like your payroll is going up. You’ve been adding.

Steven Klitzner 02:18
No, Josh has been with me for a while, and he’s my wife’s favorite employee because he’s my son.

Host 02:25
Oh, no kidding. Okay.

Well, he’s very, he’s very attentive, ready to ask or answer any questions you might have, as well as setting up a free consultation with you, Steven Klitzner as well. So let’s talk about, you know, I was just on the phone with the Republican chair of Monroe County’s Republican Party, talking about some of the changes in Washington and some of the changes statewide. But in particular, we’ve had the Trump administration for a month in power. And we were hearing kind of right out of the gate, some of the reversals and some of the things the administration wanted to do, namely, possibly backpedaling on the hiring of IRS agents, even laying off IRS agents, that may give some taxpayers who still have responsibilities the wrong impression.

Steven Klitzner 03:14
Right. And it’s already happened, you know, the IRS people like the other government people got the email asking them if they wanted to resign and get eight months of pay.

As a matter of fact, there were a couple of revenue officers who I don’t really like who do collection, who I offered an extra four months that I would pay for if they would resign.

Host 03:36
Yeah. Okay. Did they take it? Did they take it out?

Steven Klitzner 03:41
No, no, they’re negotiating with me. Now, most of the people that I talk to at the IRS, I’ve talked to people at various levels, most of them aren’t taking the deal. The ones that are considering it are the ones that are retiring anyway this year, and also the new ones who know they’re going to get laid off. But they’re really in a bit of a state of panic.

See, here’s the other problem. If you got elevated, for instance, from revenue officer to appeals officer, and it’s been less than a year, you could get laid off, even though you’ve been with the IRS for 20 years, because it’s a new position.

Host 04:21
Hmm most people go ahead please. Yeah.

Steven Klitzner 04:24
Yeah. Now I was going to say the I, I have an audit today a meeting with an auditor today and yesterday I got a call from her manager saying Yeah, she’s not with us anymore. She got laid off.
We’re gonna have to re-assign the case.

Host 04:36
Oh my gosh. So these layoffs are real then, you know, is it a fairly significant percentage of the IRS who is being subjected to these changes?

Steven Klitzner 04:47
Well, so far they’ve laid off, you know, I see different numbers, 6,000, and it could climb as high as 7,000. Even the acting commissioner, Doug O’Donnell, who is ready to retire anyway, this is the second time he served as acting commissioner between commissioners, he decided to step down and he’s retiring immediately rather than at the end of the year.
So we’re seeing it all over, and this of course is going to affect taxpayers in a lot of different ways.

Host 05:20
Okay. Again, speaking with Steven Klitzner, he is the law office of Steven Klitzner tax attorney, floridataxsolvers.com 305-682-1118 locally to get in touch with Steven for a free consultation.
So Steven, let’s talk about that. How does that relate to the average taxpayer given some of these changes and what it seems like are, you know, pretty well, I guess I’ll backpedal there for a second 7,000 officers out of how many agency wide may or may not have an effect.

Steven Klitzner 05:53
Yeah, I think they have about 90,000 people, and not all of the people they’ve laid off even deal with taxpayers. I mean, there’s going to be IT people, people that do maintenance, people that are the cleaning crew. I mean, it could be anybody at the IRS, not necessarily somebody that you’re going to hear from. But I think the biggest problem taxpayers who pay their taxes on time are going to have is that their refunds, especially if it’s a amount may be delayed.

And that’s going to be something where people call me all the time, can you get my refund back quicker? They’ve delayed it. They’ve said six weeks. They’ve said eight weeks. And really, I can do things, but it’s not going to speed it up. And that’s going to be a problem. Now, if you owe the IRS money, yes, there’s going to be less of a chance that they assign it to the field because they’ll have less people in the field to assign it to. And the people at the 800 number who before COVID were levying and filing liens, they’re not doing that anymore. So you do have a reprieve in time.

But with penalty and interest, if you file your return today and owe $10,000 and say, you know, they’re not coming after me. I’m not going to pay it. I’ll deal with it. The IRS has 10 years to collect. If you file late and you don’t pay it in five years, now you owe $20,000 and they’re not waiving the penalty and interest. So, you know, if you really, as Clint Eastwood said, you feel lucky punk. If that’s the case, OK, maybe you try it. But I don’t think it’s a great gamble because it’s going to rise very quickly over the years. Yeah.

Host 07:41
So yeah, that is a gamble and a roll of the dice. You’re better off trying to get a handle on it, addressing it directly and getting competent expert advice on how to do so for the law office of Steven Klitzner, tax attorney, floridataxsolvers.com, 305-682-1118. And just listening to you talk about this, Steven, it’s apparent that the IRS is pretty complex. People might think that they can just contact the IRS, take care of a problem, whether it’s late filings or penalties or unpaid taxes, et cetera. But you’re talking about the field level, you’re talking about agents, you’re talking about different hierarchies within the IRS. It really is a very complex agency with a lot of procedures that people really are unaware of.

Steven Klitzner 08:33
Yeah, they have enough problems taking care of things, but with less money and less workers, it’s going to be even worse. And they hired a lot of new revenue officers. I was talking to one and she was three weeks away from her one year and she didn’t make the one year and off she goes. You know, it’s just unfortunate that they were finally really boosting up. And, you know, if you remember, they’re talking about hiring 80, 90,000 new people, but that was barely making up for all the people in the next 10 years that are retiring or moving on to something else. So they’re really going to have a difficult time over there.

Audits, I think we’re not going to quite see as much of from a from a real auditor standpoint, but those correspondence audits that the computers spit out, those should keep coming along. So don’t play fast and loose with your tax return and figure nobody’s going to catch it. The odds are in your favor. But if that tax return scores high with being kind of out of whack, you have a very good chance of getting audited.

Host 09:48
yeah and collections they’ll continue as well maybe just not quite as aggressively with less people to do it but they’re still going to continue

Steven Klitzner 09:55
Yeah, there’s some things we do, some strategies we do that protect our clients from a federal tax lien certainly protects them from ever having their passport certified, which the IRS will not renew, which the State Department won’t renew or could technically revoke. And we can, of course, keep people from their bank accounts and from getting levied with their paychecks, but we have to be on the case we have to have the transcripts, we have to react to things and sometimes our best strategy is just to make voluntary payments to the enforcement action.

Host 10:44
Okay, Steven Klitzner, law office of Steven Klitzner, tax attorney, floridataxsolvers.com 305-682-1118. If you’re being audited, if you’re getting those letters from the IRS, they start, you know, they’re sitting in your mailbox, and they start with being fairly non threatening, and they can escalate pretty quickly.

We’ve talked about that in the past, you really do need to get expert advice to help work through this quagmire that is the IRS. So you were telling me also, Steven about taxpayer rights bills that are kind of starting to mull around on Capitol Hill, etc. What what is that all about?

Steven Klitzner 11:24
There’s a new bill, it’s a bipartisan bill, Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act. And what they’re proposing in this bill, it’s almost like they’ve read my diary. They are closing some IRS loopholes. They’re going to make it easier for taxpayers. It’s really a fantastic bill if it goes through.

It’s just seriously everything that we’ve thought for years needs to be changed. They really did a great job on it. And they’ve been working with the taxpayer advocate on it. So a lot of what the taxpayer advocate has advocated over the years, they’re trying to put into effect, which I think will be great for taxpayers. Not going to mean you don’t owe the money, not going to mean that they stopped interest and penalty, but they’re going to make it easier and they’re going to expand their rights so they can fight things easier than before.

Host 12:20
Wow, okay. So change is coming. And that’s something that you and your law office keeps up with on a continuous basis. And you’ve been doing this for many years resolving IRS tax debt problems for individuals and small businesses.

It’s Steven Klitzner, tax attorney with floridataxsolvers.com 305-682-1118. So speaking of bills on Capitol Hill, is there ever the possibility that they will just outright abolish the IRS?

Steven Klitzner 12:47
No, that’s not going to happen, folks. If they do, they’re going to need an agency to collect taxes, which that’s kind of the IRS already. So it’s they’re not going away. They can’t go away.

They’re the only government agency that actually collects money. And even though politicians go after the IRS all the time and criticize them and promise taxpayers are going to, you know, get rid of them or lower the taxes. Yes, the taxes may lower, but we’re still going to be paying the IRS. They’re going to be around for a long, long time to come.

Host 13:24
Okay, well, that’s why you need Steven Klitzner and we do have Another tax season coming up tax deadlines again. If you’ve not filed your taxes in a while It’s never too late to start abiding by that, right?

Steven Klitzner 13:38
Oh, without question, it’s it’s time to catch up. You know, when the IRS backs down, when they back away, when they’re not taking enforcement, don’t also take a vacation. That is the time to get ahead of this. So by the time they do come after you, you’re ready, you’re prepared and you can get it resolved. You don’t want to be playing defense.

You want to you want to look at everything now and come up with a plan now.

Host 14:06
Okay, and that’s when you call Steven Klitzner floridataxsolvers.com that number here locally 305-682-1118 floridataxsolvers.com So we’ll continue to watch all of these issues as we get further into the tax season But also there’s changes coming every day from the federal level and from the IRS So are you finding then Steven that some of the people you have dealt with in the past is? They’re starting to go away You had said that you were dealing with one person who had been there for a few months, and it’s no longer there is there

Steven Klitzner 14:41
Yeah. Yeah, truly. Yeah.

And it’s funny, I have a new case now where the IRS showed up at my new client’s door. And I looked at the name of the revenue officer who I know is new because I know all the revenue officers. And then I called him on the phone and I was tempted to say, I’m not going to be out of work soon, but before you walk. But I didn’t. That was very nice to him. And I felt very bad because I won’t be seeing him much longer on these cases. They’re just, you know, it’s a shame. And I think it’s going to affect every agency, of course. But the IRS is much, if not more than anyone else. And we’ll just have to see what happens. The IRS has always been considered by the public as being quite a mess. And I think now it’s going to be even worse than that.

Host 15:34
Well, you had talked about a speech you had given here recently. I know in the past you have talked around the country, even helped with enrolled agents in some of their indoctrination, et cetera.

So I think the IRS is, at least some of the agents that will remain will continue to kind of look to you for some guidance as you were formally on the advisory council of the IRS, et cetera. You’re kind of the one constant in terms of the IRS when it seems like the agency itself is just in a state of almost upheaval.

Host 2 16:07
yep and and i did not get an email offering me to resign so i’m still not going anywhere yeah

Host 1 16:14
But did you fill out the five things you did last week that were of worth to the government?

Steven Klitzner 16:19
Oh yeah, that’s that’s a big thing and I think some of these IRS people may have trouble with five things but we’ll see how that plays out. You know different agencies are handling it in different ways and but I should send that I should send an email to my staff.

Yeah so about the five things they did last week.

Host 16:39
Right. Well, if they don’t answer it at all, you know that they’re not paying attention. I think that was part of it. But yeah, that might not be as.

Steven Klitzner 16:45
Yeah, I think they’re gonna ignore me and say, if I give you an answer, I’m not gonna have time to do my work. Leave me alone.

Host 16:53
Exactly. Well, in the meantime, you know, Josh has been doing a lot here lately on on your site. So I’m sure he can fill it out.

That’s many items, many items. Well, indeed, Steven Klitzner, tax attorney, the law office of Steven Klitzner, South Florida and the Florida keys available at floridataxsolvers.com, the local number to get an appointment and free consultation 305-682-1118 helping with tax issues for many years, kind of the one constant in this field of ever changing landscape with the IRS. So, Steven, I appreciate the update here. We encourage people to reach out to you with any questions or tax concerns or problems they may have.

Is there anything though we should mention at this time before we let you go?

Host 17:37
No, I think that’s it. The consultation is always free.

If I can help now, I tell people I can help them now. If I can’t help yet or there’s not much I can do, I tell people the same thing. Most of what I do, people can’t do on their own. But, you know, sometimes they can and if it’s small, if it’s something it’s easier for them to do, I always tell them that.

Host 17:59
Yeah, indeed. Well, we appreciate your honesty and transparency there as well, Steven.

So thank you so much for continuing to impart some enlightenment on us, especially when it comes to the IRS and tax issues. You have a wonderful day and we look forward to talking again soon.

Steven Klitzner 18:13
You too, stay dry.

Host 18:15
Yes, we’re going to try. Thank you. Steven Klitzner, Law Office of Steven Klitzner, tax attorney, floridataxsolvers.com, 305-682-1118.