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Chapter 14:
Planning Your Escape
Now we come to the last section of the book, which will show you how to pay off your tax debt so you can once and for all leave your tax problems from the past behind. At this point you have done all the basic work:
- You have gone through all your previous records.
- You have organized your tax documents and paper trail.
- You have processed all your IRS tax letters and notices.
- You have prepared some tax returns on your own.
- You have met with a tax pro if necessary.
- Your tax returns are generally “prepared,” but not finalized or mailed in.
I will continue to use the metaphor of the tax castle and its dungeon and how to get out of it, but will leave out talking about dank and dark jail cells and torture chambers as it is probably not fair to the IRS. We will lighten it up just a little bit, as we play our new game in order to get in and out of the tax castle, its dungeon and towers. “DUNGEONS AND DRAGGINGS” This is the big game: how you pay. How do you get out of the crazy situation you have created for yourself and still keep your pick-up truck, your wife and your sanity? You have come this far, which is really very far. But now you have to be very cunning. The first thing you need to do is to determine your particular situation. Let’s pretend that you are in or are being dragged to one of these parts of the tax castle:
- BASEMENT
- DUNGEON
- DEEP DUNGEON
- THE DREADED TOWER
In this game, there are guards and two kinds of dragons who work for the tax castle. Guards are just the army of IRS workers and collections people who are looking for you to pay off your tax liabilities. The regular dragons are wage and bank levies. The bad dragons are the Revenue Officers. They are ready to roast you. So you are the game, so to speak, in this game.
Basement: Are you being dragged down into the basement of the tax castle? Could be. Let’s say you are a 22-year old student and you owe the IRS $3,000. That may seem massive to you, but to a tax pro it’s just a case of the basement. Owing under $10,000 owed is not fatal, unless you are young, retired or living on a low fixed income. The only good thing about the basement is that it is closest to the exit. If you are lucky, after having thought your situation was far worse, you find that you are actually just headed for the basement. We can deal with this pretty easily.
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