Radio Interview (October 31, 2025)

Listen to this interview – MP3

Host 00:00
Good morning to Steve Klitzner, the law office of Steven Klitzner, P.A., tax attorney, floridataxsolvers.com. Good morning, Steven. How are you?

Steven 00:10
Well, very good, michael. To a lot of candy tonight, getting all my favorites. I always gather my milky ways, my, my almond joys. It’s a big day for me.

Host 00:20
Are you one of those who like buy a whole big bag of candy and then turn your light off so nobody comes to get it?

Steven 00:27
No, we don’t have to. We don’t get a whole lot of trick-or-treaters.

Last year, my wife and I had to go out to the corner and just make people take candy. We weren’t getting anybody anymore. The old days of real trick-or-treaters have been replaced by babies in strollers coming by, but I still look forward to it.

Host 00:49
Yeah, well, not a lot of trick-or-treating going on in terms of the IRS here right now. It must be a little bit quiet with the federal government shutdown, continually efforts to maybe reverse that, but we’re into the second month already.

How has that affected the IRS and its effects on taxpayers?

Steven 01:07
Well, you know, all I do is IRS problem solving. So I feel like a kid in the summertime and everybody on my street is at sleepaway camp and I’ve got nobody to play with.

Host 01:21
Well, yeah, I mean, really, there is nobody to address these issues, however, how about your clients? Are they getting complacent as a result also?

Steven 01:34
Well, you know, they haven’t so much, which is good. You would be surprised, or maybe not, at how many people not only don’t know the IRS is shut down, but don’t even know about the government shutdown.

I’ll say to my clients, well, you know, with the government shutdown, what shutdown? It’s like you gotta at least go, I know you don’t read the papers, maybe you don’t watch TV, but like look online, just don’t click right through. There’s a government shutdown going on, and it’s tied for the longest one ever coming up.

Host 02:06
Yeah, again, Steven Klitzner, Florida tax solvers dot com and let’s give the local phone number again because people continue to have IRS tax problems, even if the IRS is not currently at their desk in many cases, but a local phone number is

Steven 02:24
305-682-1118. Consultations, of course, are always free.

Host 02:30
Yeah. So let’s talk.

So we’re now into October, almost into November, second month of fourth quarter. We had quarterly filings that were due, et cetera. What happens, uh, cause I’ve seen what happens with the FCC, what happens with filings, tax payments, uh, whether it’s from an employer or the like, uh, when the IRS is not there to accept them.

Steven 02:54
Well, you know, here’s here’s what’s going on. They, you know, they had a hundred thousand employees to start the year and about a quarter of them are gone. So we’re about seventy five thousand with the shutdown. Only about half of them are furloughed.

But most of the collectors, the auditors, the appeals officers, they’re all gone right now. The local offices do have people coming in every day and they’re working with a very skeleton staff because somebody’s got to open the mail, somebody has to deposit the checks they’re receiving, and they also have to protect the 10 year statute of limitations. So there are some people working and they have just enough to keep up with the really important things. You know, I was joking that last week I said, you know, I’ve been calling and faxing revenue officers and revenue agents, appeals officers, settlement officers, managers, territory managers, taxpayer advocate. And I haven’t heard from anybody. So I didn’t suspect anything because that’s the usual. That’s business as usual. And then I find out the government shut down. So I don’t see surprisingly a whole lot because very often it’s very difficult to get them on the telephone, even when they are work.

Host 04:14
Oh, boy. And that brings up another point, Steven. If you’ve ever tried to call the IRS, I’m not sure what the average hold time is, if you can even get somebody to try to explain your situation. And then when you do get somebody, you know, it’s not always a productive conversation.

That’s another reason to work through you.

Steven 04:35
Yeah, and here’s the deal with the 800 number because those folks, a lot of them are not very trained. Let’s say that nicely. They’ll always give you an answer. It doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong. They don’t say, I don’t know. If you don’t like the answer they give you, call back. Somebody else will give you another answer. Both answers could be incorrect. So you’ve got to be very careful.

And sometimes when we call the 800 number, we get the nicest, friendliest person who is of absolutely no value, has no idea what’s going on. Then sometimes you call and you get a mean and rude person and they help you and give you everything that you need. You don’t even know when to hang up on them because you don’t know what you’re going to be dealing with. Fortunately, we get through a lot quicker than the average person because we have a program that allows us, it’s not our program, it’s a program that we subscribe to, that allows us to kind of go to the front of the queue. So we don’t have to wait an hour or two hours to get disconnected. We get on a lot quicker. Yeah.

Host 05:46
Steven Klitzner, law office of Steven Klitzner tax attorney, 305-682-1118 is the number you call here in the keys for a local consultation with Steven and his team, floridataxsolvers.com is where you find out more.

You had mentioned some of the enforcement agents, et cetera, not necessarily being there right now. How about audits? Are those on pause as well?

Steven 06:11
Yes, those are on pause. I haven’t talked to an auditor in a while, but see, they also have a statute of limitations. They have to finish the audit within three years after the return is filed. So if you filed your return, your 2022 return in April of 2023, they have less than six months, which in their mind is almost nothing.

When they have less than a year, they panic and they want an extension or they want to close out the audit. So as we get closer, especially to April and the closer they get to actually not being able to audit anymore, that’s why we see some skeleton crew just checking it out, make sure that the IRS doesn’t get knocked out of certain audit cases. But the audits for the most part have been paused. Every day I look at my calendar and I see an appointment that isn’t going to happen because the appeals officer or the auditor or the collector, they’re not there.

Host 07:16
Wow. Okay. It’s floridataxsolvers.com. Steven Klitzner, tax attorney 305-682-1118.

So yeah, there’s a lot of confusion surrounding the government shutdown, et cetera. But if you’re on a payment plan or have deadlines of whatever they might be, those are not forgiven at this point, I’m sure. Right. Yeah.

Steven 07:41
keep doing what you’re doing, and if you’re not doing anything, start to do something. This is an opportunity for my clients too, especially the ones where the IRS has actually assigned their case to someone, a collection case.

For instance, this is our opportunity to catch up, get our ducks in a row, we’re not relaxing, we’re not, we’re not saying, well it’s not fair if we’re working and they’re not, let’s give them a chance. No, we’re getting everything together, so when they do open, you know, I’ve already got a list of people at the IRS that need to be called on certain cases the day after they open.

Host 08:18
Yeah, well, and there’ll be there’ll be a flurry of activity when they do open back up. So again, Steven Klitzner being able to take you to the front of the line and get your solutions earlier rather than later is important.

Steven, we also talked many times about those letters that kind of start maybe not so threatening and then escalate. Some people may ignore them for all the wrong reasons. Are those letters also continuing to be sent to taxpayers and those who may have unresolved tax problems?

Steven 08:52
You know, we’re still seeing some computer-generated letters, but we’re not seeing, at least at the moment, any final notices of intent to levy or any federal tax liens. But everything, you know, in the past, before COVID, or even right after COVID, when the IRS was going to resume something or start doing something, we had notice.

You know, they’d have an announcement. Now, they just start doing things again, or they decide, all right, well, we’re gonna start levying out of nowhere, or we’re gonna start taking federal payments, like Social Security payments, out of nowhere without a lot of advanced warning. So, you know, we just never know what’s going to happen, but then all of a sudden we see a flurry of things and we’ve gotta start reacting to it.

Host 09:44
Yeah, and those employees at the IRS who are not working currently, are they still getting a paycheck? Are they going to be caught up?

If not getting the paycheck, I’m just wondering what their attitude is and going to be when they come back.

Steven 09:59
Well, I think most of them are kind of used to it, and they know that ultimately they’ll be paid. Now, I got to tell you a funny story, I was talking to a revenue officer on a collection case who was working and taking care of some emergencies, and they called her back in, and they’ll pay them when all of this is done. And I said to her, I said, some people at the IRS will say to me on a case, well, if they’re not paying us, how are they paying you? And of course, that’s none of their business.

People are entitled to representation, and people aren’t paying for other reasons other than they can’t pay. And I said to her, so I have to ask you this, I’ve always wanted to ask you guys the same question. How are you getting paid? And she says, well, I’m not. So I said, well, ultimately, hopefully they’ll make good on it. And whenever they’ve had these shutdowns or anything else, the employees ultimately do get paid. Of course, there’s like raise freezes. One of the benefits for working for the IRS is that they have a lot of benefits, but from a salary standpoint, they are not very competitive in the accounting world.

Host 11:15
Well, and yeah, again, we hope they get through this difficult time waiting to get paid too, because we keep hearing some of the stories about people having to go to soup kitchens and all that kind of stuff. I don’t know if the IRS agents are in that boat as well, but you know, 30 plus days of waiting to get paid is a hardship.

Steven 11:38
sure people live even people who you look at them and you say well they make a really nice living family of four they make 150 180 000 a year everything should be fine and for the most part they are but these people are generally living paycheck to paycheck which is one of the reasons they fall behind with the irs and they’re not living large they’re not living crazy but you know your kids want piano lessons or you know you want to take a vacation the disney world something like that it’s very difficult for people to put money away and to uh you know very often very difficult for them to pay the irs of course the irs wants to come first they don’t feel that there are any excuses for them coming first but the reality is um even what looks like a family making a decent amount of money they’re struggling also yeah

Host 12:36
Law Office of Steven Klitzner, PA, tax attorney, floridataxsolvers.com, if you find yourself in an IRS problem, the best thing to do is bring in the experts, those with the relationships.

That’s Steven Klitzner, tax attorney for South Florida and the Florida Keys. Call 305-682-1118. Now really is a good time to get on top of your IRS tax problems before the end of the year and get prepared for when the IRS does come back to full strength as they will come after you as the most effective and aggressive collection agency in the world. I wonder if some of the other federal employees we’re hearing about having hardships will then apply for some hardship relief from the IRS as a result of this.

Steven 13:26
That’s true. Yeah, you never know.

And as a matter of fact, speaking of which, the IRS is coming down very hard on federal employees who owe taxes. That’s a big focus on them now. I’ve represented IRS employees who owe taxes, and they have a very zero tolerance for something like that.

Host 13:48
Mm-hmm. And let’s you know before we close when you say represent Steven that Means so many different things not necessarily, you know in court although if it gets to that you can do so but there are so many ways you can represent a taxpayer to the IRS and present so many different solutions to their problems

Steven 14:09
Well, absolutely. Everyone has a different solution. Some people can afford to pay and it’s a matter of getting the time to pay and other people can’t afford to pay and the deal has to be worked out there. Everybody’s different.

Every intake I have is very person specific and they’re individual issues specific and that tells me what the solution of the case is.

Host 14:38
Yeah, well, you certainly get to know each individual case and taxpayer, and then as you said, come up with a specific solution that gets the IRS off of their back, puts them squarely on your shoulders, and it’s certainly the peace of mind is, well, priceless to begin with. But again, it starts with that phone call, 305-682-1118.

If you are facing IRS tax problems, audits, or any of the other many multitude of problems that the IRS can bring your way, please do reach out, and you can find out more at FloridaTaxSolvers.com. Some people just get behind for so many different reasons, and you need to face it head on with Steven Klitzner in your corner. So, Steve, I think we’ve got to let you get ready for those trick-or-treaters out there. Anything else we should mention at this point?

Steven 15:39
I want to tell you one thing quickly, I got a call the other day from ESPN.com, a reporter over there concerning comments on the Heat player Terry Rozier, who was recently arrested along with a bunch of other people on gambling issues.

It seems he has a $8 million federal tax lien in Broward County, and she wanted me to comment on that and how that could happen. Apparently, his representatives say, oh, no, no, $8 million was a mistake. It was $9,000, and he’s already paid it, despite the fact there’s a lien there. So there was some very curious and questionable comments. I’m not sure exactly what happened. I’m sure there is an explanation, but I gave the reporter some info so she can dig a little $8,000. It’s only a zero. It’s not that big of a deal, but she thought it was, so she’s investigating it.

Host 16:43
Well, again, people still seek your counsel from a variety of standpoints, and there’s good reason for that, extensive experience representing taxpayers before the IRS, and that’s quite a discrepancy. There are cases where the IRS has made a mistake, and you’re able to get those mistakes remedied as well, but $9,000 to $8 million is a pretty big discrepancy there.

Steven 17:08
Yeah, yeah, that’s so and why they filed the lien and why it hasn’t been released and you know and why he only supposedly Making millions of dollars only owed nine thousand dollars. I mean, there’s always a there’s always an answer When I represent people we always tell people this I said look if you owe the money I’m never gonna tell you oh, I don’t know why you owe it Just pay it if you owe it I’m gonna find out and I’ll tell you why you owe it and and we’ll be convinced You really do if you don’t know it.

We’re gonna get it resolved

Host 17:42
Yep. And then follow a strategy, come up with a strategy that moves it forward. So indeed. Well, very good, Steven. I appreciate you being here this morning. Thanks so much for your insight as well.

Have a very happy Halloween. We will talk again soon. You too. Thanks, Michael. Thank you, sir. It’s Steven Klitzner PA as tax attorney. The law office of Steven Klitzner Florida tax solvers.com and the number for your free consultation 305-682-1111.