If you do not develop a plan for dealing with your tax debt, the IRS will find a way to collect what you owe one way or another.  One way the IRS does it is through enforced collection actions such as wage garnishment, interception of federal and state refunds, levy on federal benefits like Social Security, bank levy, and seizure of property.  The IRS also encourages and persuades folks to voluntarily comply with tax laws through public outreach campaigns, phone calls, and letters.  Of course, those “nice guy” techniques only get them so far.  There are several different ways to block IRS collection efforts, but some I cannot recommend because they are illegal.

Recommended

• pay what you owe
• set up an installment agreement
• prove hardship
• file an Offer in Compromise

Not Recommended

• hide assets
• bribe an IRS revenue officer
• give false information
• dump a pile of dirt in front of an IRS revenue officer to prevent them from getting near your assets

Let me be perfectly clear.  I include the “not recommended” list only to give you a keen understanding of what you should not do.  And the dirt dumping sounds like a ridiculous example, but it really happened.  The guy that did it was sentenced to three years of probation just last week.  In an attempt to collect unpaid taxes from 45-year-old Walter M. Trizila, IRS revenue officers visited his property to see if there were any assets worth seizing.  The IRS set its sights on a certain dump truck, but Trizila didn’t want to part with it.  He entered a front-end loader, charged at the revenue officers, and then dumped a mound of dirt between them and his truck.

Trizila is apparently a very literal kind of guy.  He knew he had to “block” IRS collections and he did it the only way he knew how.  Unfortunately for him, it resulted in a misdemeanor conviction for assault, resisting or impeding a federal officer.