Thats not your money!

The IRS takes the civil trust fund very seriously. If you own a business, you know exactly what the civil trust fund is. When you pay employees, the IRS "trusts" you to collect their withholding and FICA taxes. At that point, you have to give that money to the IRS and file a form 941 to reconcile what you have paid the IRS.

What happens a lot of times is a business will get into a cash crunch and not pay their civil trust fund deposits to pay other bills instead. They think they can catch up with it the next month and when that doesn't happen, the next. Slowly they realize that they are now behind 3 months and have not filed their form 941. The IRS sees this as stealing. This is not unpaid taxes of the business; instead, it is other people's money that was intended to pay their own taxes, medicare and social security retirement. It must be paid back and in full. The IRS does not negotiate on this type of liability.

This potentially places a business in great jeopardy. By not paying and/or filing for 3 months, they have earned themselves a Revenue Officer, the highest level of collections enforcement the IRS has. It is the Revenue Officer's job to collect the civil trust fund money. They will levy a business to collect the money. They can levy bank accounts and accounts receivables. They can even shut down a business to collect the civil trust fund.

It does not have to be the end of the road for your business. There are ways of handling this situation with the IRS. You need professional representation to help you navigate through these kinds of rough waters. There is help if you want it!

GOT GAS ?

The IRS doesn't care that it stinks! Organizations operating vehicles for business get a token small break, but no one else gets any relief. Deductions for medical and moving purposes, along with charitable organizations, went down or stayed the same. As of Jan. 1, 2008 the IRS standard mileage rates (including vans, pick ups or panel trucks) have increased for business. The new rates are in response to ever increasing gas operating costs for these organizations. Business mileage increased from 48.5 cents to 50.5 cents per mile driven, a 2 cent increase from 2007. Conversely, medical and moving rates fell from 20 cents per mile to 19 cents per mile. Charitable organizations (governed by law, not the IRS) had no change in their deduction. Tax payers deducting for mileage are not eligible for depreciation deductions. With these changes, the bottom line is the IRS has not helped business owners in America lower their bottom line.