
Payroll Taxes & Revenue Officers
Payroll taxes are the form of tax debt that the IRS is the most aggressive in collecting. When employers withhold income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare withholding from their employee’s paychecks, they are entrusted to pay those funds to the IRS. Employers who fail to remit these funds are aggressively pursued by the IRS.
​
The IRS assigns egregious cases to Revenue Officers. Revenue Officers have the latitude to conduct a much more in-depth investigation of a taxpayer to secure repayment of the debt. Furthermore, Revenue Officers are much more likely to take enforced collection action against a taxpayer.
​
The IRS will often seek not only to collect from the business but also individually from its owners. The IRS will investigate the officers and employees of the business to determine which parties were responsible for the delinquency in the payroll taxes. If they determine that an officer or employer was responsible for paying the payroll taxes and willfully failed to do so, then they can assess a civil penalty against the responsible party
If you have been asked by a Revenue Officer to be interviewed regarding the delinquent payroll taxes, please consult a tax attorney at RLU&W Law. We work with businesses in every state.