How much does tax resolution cost?

Search for the price of tax resolution and you will find a lot of pages that say “it depends” and then ask for your phone number. It does depend. But not on much, and not on anything a competent practitioner cannot tell you after reading your transcripts.

What the national firms charge

Industry surveys and consumer complaints put national resolution firms at roughly $3,000 to $10,000 for a typical individual case, with some running much higher. The fee is usually quoted on the first call, before anyone has pulled a transcript, and it tends to scale with your balance. A $90,000 balance gets a bigger quote than a $9,000 one even when the resolution is the same installment agreement with the same paperwork.

That pricing model is why the industry has the reputation it has. The fee is set by a salesperson, the work is done by someone else, and the fee grows when the case turns out to be more than the salesperson said.

What the work actually is

A standard collections case has a small number of components:

• Authorization and transcripts. Form 8821 or 2848, then the account, wage and income, and return transcripts for every open year. This is about two hours of practitioner time plus waiting on the IRS.
• Analysis. Collection statute dates, which years actually need filing, which collection alternatives you qualify for, and what the IRS is likely to accept. Another two hours.
• The resolution itself. An installment agreement is one more hour. A partial-pay agreement, hardship status, or an Offer requires a documented financial statement and negotiation, which is four to six more hours.

That is it for most cases. The balance does not change the hours. A Revenue Officer, a business entity, payroll tax, or an audit on top of the collections case do, and those are the cases that should be quoted individually.

What it costs when you price the work

At OnCourse Tax every case fee is flat. Each one was set from the time that kind of case typically takes, at $97 plus $400 an hour, and then fixed. If a case runs long we do not bill more; if it runs short we do not refund. The number on the page is the number.

• Diagnostic: $1,697. Credited to the case.
• Installment agreement: $2,097 all in.
• Partial-pay installment agreement or Offer in Compromise: $3,297 all in.
• Currently not collectible status for someone who qualifies: the diagnostic only.
• Hardship diagnostic for households at or below the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic threshold: $897, same deliverable, usually the whole fee.
• Prior-year individual return: $997 per year.

All of it is on the pricing page, including audits, levies, and the cases we quote by hand.

The question to ask any firm

Not “how much” but “how much, in writing, before I pay anything, and what happens to the price if the case is more than you think.” A firm that prices by the work can answer that. A firm that prices by your balance cannot.