Tax Resolution Cases: The Easy Ones and The Ugly Ones -- How long they can take?

WATAX - our firm - has handled a lot of tax problem cases in our day. In our 24 year history, we have put together an infrastructure to handle our clients that we think is second to none. But sometimes - even we have little control over how long the cases take to resolve. Here are three examples of how long cases took in the last year:

13 months - refund $11,000 in penalties

A client in Michigan

Dec. 6 2011 - Reads taxresolutiontalk.com (our blog) and emails us about his fully paid IRS debt and his wish to recover penalties.
Dec. 8 2011 - Hires WATAX
Dec. 20 2011 - WATAX submits penalty abatement request
April 18 2012 - IRS REJECTS penalty abatement
May 15 2012 - WATAX prepares an APPEAL of rejected penalty abatement
Mar 12, 2013 - I talk to Appeals officer with my client -- IRS agrees to refund $11,500.00 to client!

8 months - Offer in Compromise accepted -

A client in Georgia:

June 4 2012 - Reads Taxresolutiontalk.com and emails us about her tax problem.
June 12 2012- Hires WATAX
July 12 2012 - We submit Offer in Compromise to IRS.
Jan 25 2013 - IRS acknowledges receiving Offer.
March 4 2013- IRS Accepts $750 Offer to settle $29,000 in debt.

1 month (almost) - Penalty abatement accepted.

A client in Washington State:

April 15, 2013 - New client was referred to us from an old client. Client has a corporation with $20,000 late filing penalty! Hires WATAX
April 16, 2013 - WATAX submits penalty abatement to IRS.
May 20, 2013 - IRS agrees to penalty abatement - removes penalty in FULL! Case closed.