Radio Interview (January 14, 2025)

Host 00:00
This is Good Morning Keys on keys.969-1025. We now say good morning to Steven Klitzner, law office of Steven Klitzner, PA tax attorney at FloridaTaxSolvers.com. Good morning to you, Steve.

Steven 00:13
And good morning to you, Michael.

Host 00:15
Thanks so much for being here. So you’re lucky you’re not driving through the keys right now. I have some situations up and down the keys for keeping people informed of that. We also have a lot of people who have a situation with the IRS, and as I said to you, happy new year.

Host 00:30
And we’re getting into January. People are starting to look at maybe what should they have done last year, what should they be doing this year. It’s kind of that time to reflect and see what we should be complying with. And the IRS is one of those things at the top of the list.

Steven 00:46
It is. And you know, it’s funny. This is the only time of the year where you look back and say, I hope I didn’t make that much money. I don’t want to pay that much in the way of taxes. But it’s a good thing, of course. The more taxes you pay means the more money you made. And in retrospect, it’s a good thing. But right now, it’s time to start putting things together. You know, by the end of the month, you’ll get your W-2, your 1099.

Steven 01:14
If you own a business, you got to do the business return and start working on that. Maybe you sold property at gambling-winning stock sales. You’ll get all the documents on that. But it’s time to start putting things together. Because even if you have a problem with old taxes, the way to start taking care of that is doing this year going forward so we can deal with the past.

Host 01:39
Mm-hmm. Very true. Again, it’s floritataxsolvers.com. You can get a free consultation directly with Steven, 305-682-1118. That’s 305-682-1118. And your advice and counsel is certainly invaluable, because a lot of people get into trouble. And sometimes they look at that calendar and say, well, you know, I’m going to let it coast for a little while longer, even though those letters are starting to come and starting to pile up, certainly can’t ignore those.

Steven 02:07
Yeah, the letters the IRS is now sending because they keep sending new letters now. They’re really back up. You know, it took them so long to get over COVID that they’re really starting to gear up and the letters now are serious.

Steven 02:23
Those certified letters, they mean business. So you’ve got to take care of those. Don’t ignore those or the next call they’re going to give you is when they take your bank account or wages.

Host 02:37
Yeah, and they have access to all of that. I mean, you really cannot hide from the IRS. It’s the largest collection agency in the world, really, and they will find you. They really do. They’re persistent, too, aren’t they? Some people might think, oh, they’ll give up after a while. They don’t.

Steven 02:51
No, they don’t. And, you know, they have 10 years to collect and some people get lucky. And the 10 years ago, usually because they just don’t have the ability to pay and the IRS puts them not collectible and gives them an offering compromise. But if you ignore them, your number will come up at some point in time and here they come. And the sooner you take hold of it, the more rights you have and the more you can hold them back because you don’t want them filing a lien. You don’t want them taking your stuff. You don’t want them certifying your passport so you can’t get a new one.

Host 03:27
So how about those 80,000 IRS agents we were hearing about under the administration that is about to be turned over to the Trump administration. This time next week we’ll have a new administration. Those 80,000 IRS agents, still a factor. Will things maybe ease up under the new administration? What are you thinking about that?

Steven 03:49
Well, you know, those 80,000 come over 10 years and they’re not all collectors or auditors or criminal investigators.

Steven 03:58
They’re people that answer the phone, they’re maintenance people at the office, they’re computer people. They’re not dealing directly with the public and those 80,000 are just, I don’t even know if they’re going to cover the people who are retiring. And, you know, when I speak to a revenue officer and I’ll call and I’ll say, how you doing? I’ll go, one year, three months, two days, Mr. Klitzner, that’s how long he’s got before he retires. He’s counting down the days when he can get out. So these revenue officers, revenue agents who are experienced, who know what they’re doing, who understand taxpayer rights, they’re retiring. And some of these 80,000 people are going to replace them, but a lot of them don’t stick. You know, they come and they try to work there and after a few months or maybe even a year, they say this isn’t for me. So I don’t think we’re concerned. that there’s going to be more IRS employees than we can handle.

Steven 05:00
They’re just going to probably keep status quo over the next few years and replace those that are leaving.

Host 05:07
But as you said, that agency is certainly getting over COVID by now and they’re gearing up getting more aggressive and coming after people who have not filed or not paid their taxes.

Host 05:17
Speaking with Steven Klitzner, law office of Steven Klitzner in Miami and South Florida as well as the Florida Keys and accessible at floridataxsolver.com or by calling directly 305-682-1118. So speaking of those IRS agents, Steven, you have a direct relationship with those agents who are working South Florida and the Florida Keys as well.

Host 05:39
In fact, I’ve talked about this before, but you were appointed to a three-year term of the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council, which really does speak to the level of respect that the IRS has for you.

Host 05:51
You served on the advisory body. are you focused on broad policy matters uh… made proposed enhancements to the irs operations so who better to represent a taxpayer than those who are respected like you are uh… by the irs in fact uh… i think you even have spoken nationwide to enrolled agents and the like.

Steven 06:14
Right i i teach around the country cpa’s and enrolled agents and attorneys how to represent taxpayers who have ira’s problems some of the courses are very basic uh… boot camp type courses and some of them go all the way up to very advanced courses but i really enjoyed that the teaching part is great you know i like helping out uh… new uh… tax practitioners or even existing ones the one thing about my profession and i don’t know if everyone has the certainly as a lawyer in the legal profession we don’t is that everyone in the profession really tries to help each other and they really work together and they’re all very nice people with the one common goal and that is to represent taxpayers and represent their rights when they have a problem with the irs because you do have rights you they can’t just come in and do things without you having an opportunity to resolve at first she missed the time period now you no longer have that opportunity we’re playing defense and it’s much better to play offense than it is defense

Host 07:24
yeah Steven Klitzner office of Steven Klitzner at floridataxsolvers.com local number 305-682-1118 so Steven you obviously have that relationship and uh…

Host 07:36
communication with the irs on a regular basis uh… what kind of advice have you given over the years to the irs seeing as they’ve sought your counsel on the advisory counts uh… committee and counsel you’ve uh…

Host 07:48
spoken before enrolled agents etcetera what kind of advice do you give to those agents be they knew or established?

Steven 07:56
Well, I think one of them is that when there is a practitioner like me on the case, we’re not on it to fight. Fighting doesn’t get us anywhere because ultimately the IRS is the judge and jury. We’re there to try to make a deal and not set the taxpayer up for failure. You know, it’s very easy to say that somebody with the IRS, all right, my client will pay $1,000 a month, but my client can only pay $500 a month and a month from now, two months from now, he’s going to default. So we’ve got to convince them what the right number is. I just finished a case where my client had been levied. They were taking his paycheck for 10 months and then he came to me right before Christmas. He said, can you stop this by Christmas? Well. because it was Christmas time and the IRS was on vacation. We couldn’t do it beforehand, but we were able to hold back his paychecks. I was able to get the levy released.

Steven 08:59
And now we have to work a payment plan. Well, they were taking from him about three or four thousand dollars a month. We were able to get the levy released and work a payment plan for five hundred dollars a month.

Steven 09:13
Now he owes several hundred thousand dollars. I think it’s I think it’s over a half million dollars from some old tax, some old taxes. So we’re able to work this five hundred dollar a month deal. This isn’t a permanent deal.

Steven 09:27
The IRS is going to come back a year from now and see if they can get more. But we’re able to kick the can down the road because they only have 10 years to collect.

Host 09:37
Interesting. So if they do not collect that full amount after 10 years, that’s forgiven generally.

Steven 09:43
Yeah. So unless they sue to get a judgment, which they don’t usually do, the majority of the time, 10 years runs. And we have taxpayers that save tens of thousands of dollars up to seven figures. I have a taxpayer now in April. We just worked out a deal. She’s paying a couple thousand dollars a month. But in April, seven figures of tax liability goes away.

Steven 10:10
Interesting. Steven Klitzner, a tax attorney, Floridataxsolvers.com online 305-682-1118.

Host 10:19
So the IRS certainly is aggressive and assertive in getting their money. But they’re not necessarily looking to ruin the taxpayer file them, you know, force them into bankruptcy, et cetera. That’s in nobody’s best interest.

Steven 10:31
Right. They don’t. What they don’t want to do is and what they can’t do, whether they want to or not, is create a financial hardship financial. Those are the two words we use all the time. You’re going to create a financial hardship.

Steven 10:46
You need to do this. You need to do that. That’s the key here and they don’t want to ruin anybody because if they ruin somebody, they can’t pay taxes going forward. By the same token, the taxpayer has to pay their taxes going forward.

Steven 11:04
I could always deal with the past, but you’ve got to stay current. You’ve got to be in the IRS’s mind. A good person who’s taking care of their problem now, then they’ll work with the past.

Host 11:15
Interesting. Yeah, there’s a lot of keys to this that the average taxpayer doesn’t understand. That’s why you need to talk to Steven Klitzner, tax attorney at floridataxsolvers.com, 305-682-1118, practicing here locally in Monroe County and South Miami-Dade, helping those taxpayers who, you know, again, maybe it’s not necessarily a thing whereby they’re trying to get away from taxes or trying not to file or whatever,

Host 11:46
just sometimes people get overwhelmed. and they don’t know what to do and all of a sudden it’s kind of an avalanche.

Steven 11:52
It really is and sometimes the IRS themselves don’t read the Internal Revenue Manual which is their guidebook.

Steven 12:00
That’s our job is to say take a look at this section right here, 5.2.7.8. It says you can’t do this or it says we can do this and very often they look at it and oh, let me ask my manager and they come back, oh yeah, my manager said you’re right and that happens all the time.

Steven 12:23
They don’t read their own guidelines. Can you imagine working somewhere and not knowing the rules of your own office?

Host 12:30
No, no, but it does happen I’m sure. What about the taxpayer just trying to do this by themselves, trying to represent themselves to the IRS in front of the IRS or fix it themselves. What might happen?

Steven 12:43
Well, you know, the problem is this. You don’t know what things mean. Some people look at me and go, well, you’re only filling out these forms. Well, you have to know how to fill out the forms.

Steven 12:56
You have to know what numbers are proper in the forms, what the IRS standards is because if you put, for instance, food and clothing for a family of three and the IRS allows $1,592 and you put $3,000, they’re not going to allow it unless you have some extenuating circumstances. So you have to know what things mean. And of course, the IRS forms, the IRS letters, they’re not always very clear. So we do more than just I always laugh when someone thinks all we’re doing is filling out a form.

Steven 13:33
It’s advocating for my client and creating the best opportunity for them where we can make a deal that we can get the IRS to agree with or my client says, yeah, I can do that. I can still live my life the way I want.

Steven 13:48
to and pay them off. And it’s tough sometimes. You know, we have people that their kids are going to private school or they’re supporting a kid in New York who’s going to college and they’re paying the room and board and their college tuition, the IRS’s, that’s all money you can give us.

Steven 14:09
So, you know, it’s up to me to convince the IRS that they should allow certain things. So, my goal always is, and sometimes, you know, people live a little too large and they got to cut back, but my general goal and usually we can accomplish it is keep living your life, keep enjoying your life and let’s carve out a section that we’re going to give the IRS every month that they’re going to accept and this will ultimately go away.

Steven 14:37
It might be full paid or maybe the 10-year statute of limitations runs or maybe we can do an offering compromise. Settle it all right now.

Host 14:46
Wow. Okay, Steven Klitzner, Law Office of Steven Klitzner Tax Attorney, that is floridataxsolvers.com, 305-682-1118, and you help people with their IRS problems.

Host 14:58
Is it ever a defense whereby someone uses a CPA and then says, well, I didn’t know my CPA had told me what to do? Is that any kind of a defense in front of the IRS, or do they care?

Steven 15:11
It’s really more for penalty abatement. Okay. If your CPA says, no, you don’t have to file, or this is how we’re going to take this complicated matter, and you get audited, you’re still going, oh, the money, but we can save you the 20% penalty.

Steven 15:27
However, beware of this. If your CPA or tax preparer says, I’m going to file the return, and they don’t, the IRS will not forgive the penalty on failure to file. That’s your responsibility. You can’t delegate that to somebody else, so you’re going to be on the hook for it, so you got to make sure they file.

Steven 15:47
But if they give you advice and you follow it and it’s wrong, we could save you the penalty, and the penalty of 20% can be very, very large in some audit cases.

Host 15:58
Yeah, indeed. Law Office of Steven Klitzner Tax Attorney, floridataxsolvers.com, tax consulting in terms of the IRS.

Host 16:07
It certainly must be complete peace of mind, or at least a lot of peace of mind when people call you and get your consultation, and they no longer have to deal with the IRS directly. That’s where you come in.

Host 16:19
You represent them, and they no longer have to talk to the IRS in many cases.

Steven 16:23
Right. You’ll still get letters, but I’m the one making all contact. You’re not going to get phone calls. You never have to talk to the IRS. And that to a lot of people, they just don’t want to do it. It’s a lot of pressure, and some people are embarrassed. Some people just are afraid. They’re afraid the IRS is going to browbeat them, so I protect them from that.

Steven 16:44
They browbeat me. I’m fine. with that I can be brow I can be brow beaten with the best

Host 16:49
I think you’ve got pretty thick skin in that regard no doubt about it Steven Klitzner tax attorney Florida tax solvers calm at 305 682 1118 and I’ve tried to emphasize your credentials over these past number of conversations we’ve had and they certainly are very very impressive let’s compare that briefly to some of the credentials that may not even exist for some of those 800 numbers to say they can make your tax problems go away there’s a vast difference between your expertise your relationships your knowledge your credentials versus a number to who knows where to who knows who

Steven 17:26
right a lot of those companies are owned by businessmen they’re not practitioners and the owners certainly don’t do the work on the cases they hire people the problem is Most of the people they hire are answering all the phone calls from all the ads they do.

Steven 17:44
There’s not many people in the back room actually working on the cases. And those people in the back room don’t last very long. You call one week, here’s your caseworker. I don’t even know what a caseworker is.

Steven 17:55
But here’s your caseworker. And then the next week, you have a new caseworker. So you have to be very careful of those companies because you’re not getting that personalized service. You’re not getting someone, you know, it’s like going to the doctor’s office.

Steven 18:09
And every time you go, you get a different doctor. Only in this case, these people are licensed doctors. They’re just workers on the case. They may have one person in the back room who knows anything about the cases.

Steven 18:22
And they’re not going to be able to get their attention. So be very weary of that. And even the IRS local people, when they see these national companies on the case, they just roll their eyes. They know they’re getting no cooperation.

Steven 18:36
Nothing’s going to be done. And cases like that, when I get involved, very often the IRS person will go, thank goodness, you’re on this. Now we can get this thing resolved. All I’m doing is levying these people because I’m not getting any cooperation from them or their representative.

Host 18:53
Yeah, indeed. Again, Steven Klitzner, tax attorney, FloridaTaxSolvers.com, online, 305-682-1118. IRS problems are very complicated. You certainly need professional counsel to help you through that. Steven Klitzner is the person to do that for you in Monroe County and South Miami-Dade.

Host 19:13
So Steven, we unpacked a number of different issues here this morning. Anything else, though, that we should highlight before we let you go?

Steven 19:19
I think that’s it. Just make this the year, if you owe back taxes or haven’t followed your returns, that you’re going to get this under control. It may hurt a little financially, I get it. It may be a little aggravating, but at the end, you’re gonna feel so much better. that you’re not constantly looking over your shoulder for that shoe to drop.

Host 19:43
Yeah, very well put. Well, again, it’s FloridaTaxSolvers.com online to find out more. Direct line to Steven’s office at 305-682-1118. Thank you so much, Steven, for your expertise and sharing that with us again this morning.

Host 19:57
You have a great week. We’ll talk very soon.

Steven 19:59
Thanks, Michael. Take care. Bye, everybody.

Host 20:01
Bye now. It’s Steven Klitzner, FloridaTaxSolvers.com. The law office of Steven Klitzner, PA, tax attorney. Again, 305-682-1118.

Host 20:12
Good morning to you. It is 8:44.