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Tax day is around the corner. Many will receive a refund but there are others that may find themselves with an unexpected tax bill. According to a recent survey, one in five Americans who owe their taxes are extremely stressed about it, and 45% were surprised that they owe the IRS. For Money Monday, finance expert Anthony O’Neal stops by the Get Up Church to give us some tips on what to do if you owe the IRS.
Check out these tips
1. Don’t panic.
O’Neal: Yeah, you can’t afford to panic, you guys. Listen, tax day is almost here. (April 18th, 2023). So some people may get a refund and a lot of people are actually not going to get a refund this year. But here’s the truth, tax can be scary, so no one wants to owe the IRS, right? But if you do owe the IRS, it is serious. I needed you to take care of that. Stop tripping, stop delaying, and handle your business with the IRS. But the key thing is do not panic because panicking will lead you to do things like taking out debt and going places that you should not be going. And so that’s how we what the situation by #1 just don’t panic, just address the situation head-on.
2. Set Up A Payment Plan
O’Neal: So if you don’t have enough money, right, say to cover your taxes, you can apply to set the payment plan with the IRS. Do that right now. Do not hesitate. Do not prolong get. There are short-term and long-term payment plans. All you got to do is go to theirs.gov to get the specific plan that works best for you and your situation. But the benefit I would say of setting up a payment plan is it gives you extra time to pay your bills. Here’s the downside, Pam. You want to pay some interest and some penalty fees. So when you set up the payment plan, if you get any extra money coming in attack that IRS bill. So that way you can avoid as much interest and penalties down the road.
3. Offering a compromise
O’Neal: Yeah. And then this may be a little new for a lot of people. So there’s another possibility out there in, in, in simple terms you can offer the IRS to say if you owe $10,000, you can offer them $5,000 and hope that they will accept that to settle out your debt. Now you want to provide a lot of proof. Do you know what I’m saying? We’re showing that, hey, I really need this. But it is another option. People are getting approved. But it will be hard to get that approved though.
4. Don’t take on more debt.
O’Neal: Y’all know me, I’m always telling you “Well at the end of the day, I do not want you going out there borrowing money to pay this bill” because you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. But here’s what I recommend. Jump on that payment plan. Get aggressively paying off debt. And that means maybe picking up another side hustle, maybe starting your own personal business, doing some extra hours at the job, and then also too, fam, I got a free book that shows you how to go ahead and aggressively pay off your debt. Just go to anthonyoneill.com/debt, pay off and we’ll take good care.
Need To Pay The IRS? Financial Expert Anthony O’Neal Gives Some Tips was originally published on getuperica.com
