Offer In Compromise vs Installment Agreement - What You Need To Know

Here we go through the differences between Offer In Compromise and Installment Agreements.

An Offer is the best thing to get in most cases, but there are some exceptions. It's when tax debt is settled for less than the amount owed, often an extremely small fraction.

An installment agreement is basically a payment plan that pays the entire debt off, minus what can be saved from doing a penalty abatement. The easiest penalty abatement to get is a first time penalty abatement based on prior compliance. See link below for info on that.

https://trp.tax/tax-guide/first-time-penalty-abatement/

If the tax debt is expiring soon it might be better to just put it in a payment plan until the debt expires, rather than extending the time the IRS has to collect by filing an Offer In compromise. See link below for information on expiring tax debts.

https://trp.tax/tax-guide/csed-irs-states/

Many people are told by tax relief companies that they might qualify for an Offer In Compromise, while they really only qualify for an Installment Agreement.

If you are doing your case yourself, check out our free tax help guide:

https://trp.tax/taxhelp/

If you are looking for someone else to do your case, schedule a consultation with one of our expert tax attorneys by calling (888) 515-4829 or directly access our calendar here:

https://trp.tax/start/