Filing Frivolous Offer in Compromises with the IRS

Both tax professionals and the average citizen with a tax problem can file an Offer in Compromise with the IRS. You fill out the 433 and 656 forms, come up with a 20% down payment of your Offer and send in those docs with the $186 filing fee. But are there any consequences if you really don't qualify? What about a tax professional that files a frivolous Offer in Compromise for you? Are there consequences for that? Why would a "tax professional" do that?

When all is said and done filing a frivolous Offer in Compromise is a NEGATIVE for two reasons:

1. It freezes the Statute of Limitation's clock on your taxes for the duration of your Offer review, in other words - the Offer extends the time when your taxes expire.

2. An Offer also affects when you can file bankruptcy on the taxes if you need to do that later. To quote a customer of a disreputable tax resolution firm: "A rejected Offer in compromise resets the time limit for when taxes are dischargeable in bankruptcy... so the(ir failed Offer) delayed my bankruptcy by 2 years, and cost me tons of money."

The above are the big reasons, but naturally if a tax professional files frivolous Offers they might get the scrutiny of the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility.

Filing Offers - even frivolous ones - does have one very powerful POSITIVE impact: it stops the collection process against you!

The firm mentioned above also receives payments for the customers during the entire course of the case - so one has to ask are they filing frivolous fees to collect more fees? Maybe?