The Internal Revenue Service is making some changes in its collection program to lessen the burden on taxpayers who owe outstanding tax debts and are trying to cope with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IRS said Monday that it’s making it easier to set up payment agreements and offers in compromise as part of a new Taxpayer Relief Initiative.
“The IRS understands that many taxpayers face challenges, and we’re working hard to help people facing issues paying their tax bills,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig in a statement. “Following up on our People First Initiative earlier this year, this next phase of our efforts will help with further taxpayer relief efforts.”
Cathy Lanning serves as Senior Vice President for the Property & Casualty Marketing organization. In this role, she is responsible for the development and execution of integrated marketing plans for personal and commercial insurance products. Together with her team, she builds the brand and the Nationwide business leveraging data-driven direct marketing, partnerships, digital media, social media, cooperative agency marketing and lead generation strategies.
Most recently, Cathy led Strategic Partnerships where she established a large partnership portfolio with a data driven relationship-based selling approach. Together with partners such as alumni associations, cause organizations and sports organizations, Nationwide was able to understand the exact needs of a household and bring the right solutions at the right time to meet their protection needs. Under her leadership, the business unit grew by over 100% in five years.
Cathy joined Nationwide in 2007 as part of the leadership team that launched Nationwide Bank. Throughout her tenure at the company, she has held roles that require innovation, vision and team building. This includes establishing new digital marketing tools for agents, launching new products in the market, and establishing the Marketing Analytics organization. The Marketing Analytics organization delivered the first-generation marketing mix models, comprehensive digital analytics, and forecasting models, all of which helped Nationwide understand marketing effectiveness across channels and identified investment optimization pathways. The insights served the business lines across the company and opened new horizons for efficient growth and retention.
She has broad experience in brand management, analytics, partnership development, direct marketing, distribution marketing, innovation, product development and strategic planning. Prior to joining Nationwide, Cathy was the Brand Manager at The Scotts Company and Product Manager at WorldCom focused on Virtual Private Networks.
Cathy is a proud Ohio State University alumnus, holding a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Marketing) and Masters in Business Administration. She is also a graduate from the Northwestern Kellogg Senior Women in Leadership program.
Outside of work, Cathy is a passionate advocate for education and community learning programs. To live this mission, Cathy serves on the board of The Ohio State University Alumni Association, The Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland and The Wellington School.
Shelley Brazeau Temple serves as President of Nationwide P&C Personal Lines. In this role, Shelley is responsible for all aspects of the Personal Lines Profit and Loss (P&L) segment including product, underwriting, sales and distribution, claims and service.
She most recently served as Nationwide P&C Senior Vice President and Chief Claims and Operations Officer. Prior to that, she served as Senior Vice President of Member Solutions, leading the company’s insurance servicing and billing operations and direct phone sales organization.
Other leadership positions she has held are:
- Regional Vice President of Nationwide’s South Central Operations, responsible for sales, pricing, underwriting and product in a six-state geography, and managing a more than $660 million in sales revenue through exclusive agents and direct sales.
- VP of Strategy and Operational Effectiveness for Customer Service and Direct Sales of Nationwide, developing and executing an innovative contact center strategy.
- VP of Personal Lines Service Operations, responsible for personal lines service and processing center operations.
Shelley began her career at Nationwide as a Claims associate 27 years ago. Her increased responsibilities in leadership positions throughout the years also led her to work with internal audits, product and agency sales.
Shelley holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University and the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriting (CPCU) designation. She has served on several non-profit boards, including Ronald McDonald Children's Charities and the American Lung Association of the Midland States with participation in development, audit/finance and executive committees.
As an accounting professional, these are tough days. But that doesn’t mean your practice can’t grow during this season.
Darren Guillot, the IRS Small Business/Self-Employed deputy commissioner for collection and operations support, discussed the new relief options in a new edition of the new IRS blog, “A Closer Look.”
“Earlier this year, we provided extensive relief and temporarily adjusted our processes to help people and businesses through our People First Initiative, which was in effect for the first months of COVID,” he wrote. “While it’s been important for us, and for the nation, to resume our critical tax compliance responsibilities, we continue to assess the wide-ranging impacts of COVID-19 and other difficulties people are experiencing.”
Under the new Taxpayer Relief Initiative, the IRS is offering several new forms of relief:
- Taxpayers who qualify for a short-term payment plan option now have up to 180 days to resolve their tax liabilities, instead of 120 days.
- The IRS is providing flexibility for some taxpayers who are temporarily unable to meet the payment terms of an accepted offer in compromise.
- The IRS will automatically add certain new tax balances to existing installment agreements, for individual and out-of-business taxpayers, as opposed to automatically defaulting the agreement, which can complicate matters for those trying to pay their taxes.
- Some qualified individual taxpayers who owe less than $250,000 can set up installment agreements with the IRS without providing a financial statement or substantiation if their monthly payment proposal is enough.
- Some individual taxpayers who only owe outstanding taxes for the 2019 tax year and who owe less than $250,000 can qualify to set up an installment agreement without a tax lien notice filed by the IRS.
- Qualified taxpayers who already have an existing direct debit installment agreement with the IRS can now use the Online Payment Agreement system to propose lower monthly payment amounts and alter their payment due dates.
The IRS offers options for short-term and long-term payment plans, including installment agreements via the Online Payment Agreement system. The service is mainly available to people who owe $50,000 or less in combined income tax, penalties and interest, or to businesses that owe $25,000 or less combined that have filed all tax returns. The short-term payment plans can now be extended from 120 to 180 days for certain taxpayers.
The IRS has expanded its installment agreement options to get rid of the requirement for financial statements and substantiation in more circumstances for balances owed up to $250,000 if the monthly payment proposal is sufficient. The IRS also modified its installment agreement procedures to further limit the requirements for federal tax lien determinations for some taxpayers who only owe outstanding taxes for last year.
In addition to payment plans and installment agreements, taxpayers can also contact the IRS to ask for a temporary delay of the collection process. If the IRS decides a taxpayer is unable to pay, it can delay collection until the taxpayer's financial condition improves.
The IRS is now offering extra flexibility for some taxpayers who temporarily can’t meet the payment terms of an accepted offer in compromise.
To provide relief from tax penalties, the IRS is highlighting reasonable cause assistance for taxpayers with failure to file, pay and deposit penalties. First-time penalty abatement relief is also available for the first time a taxpayer is subject to one or more of these tax penalties.
Many taxpayers can apply through IRS.gov for some forms of relief, including installment agreements, without ever having to talk to a representative.
Other requests, including the new flexibility offered under the Taxpayer Relief Initiative, can be made by contacting the number on the taxpayer’s notice or responding in writing. However, when they ask for relief, the IRS said taxpayers need to be responsive when they receive a balance-due notice.
“If you’re having a tax issue, don’t go silent,” Guillot said in a statement. “Please don’t ignore the notice arriving in your mailbox. These problems don’t get better with time. We understand tax issues and know that dealing with the IRS can be intimidating, but our employees really are here to help.”
