Did you use a tax professional to help set up your payment plan or did you negotiate it yourself? I'm in a similar situation ($56k debt) but worried about saying the wrong thing if I try to handle it myself.

I initially tried to set it up myself, but I made some mistakes on the financial forms that got my first proposal rejected. After that frustration, I hired a tax resolution specialist who helped me properly document my financial situation and negotiate terms that worked for my actual circumstances. It cost about $1,800 for their services, but they saved me way more than that by properly structuring everything. If your situation is straightforward and you're comfortable with financial forms, you might be able to handle it yourself. But in my experience, having a professional who knows exactly what the IRS is looking for made a huge difference in both the monthly payment amount and my stress level. They also helped identify which penalties could be abated, which I wouldn't have known to ask about.

100% this. My parents got scammed by one of those "we'll settle your tax debt for pennies on the dollar" companies. They paid $4500 upfront and got literally nothing but a standard installment agreement they could have set up with a 20-minute phone call. Complete ripoff.

Is there a specific credential or certification I should look for when hiring someone to help with tax debt? I see all these different titles - tax attorney, CPA, EA, tax resolution specialist - and don't know which is most appropriate.

Oh this is super helpful! I just checked my TurboTax account and found exactly this problem - I had set up an account for my ex years ago and somehow that routing info got saved as my primary. So weird that TurboTax would keep outdated bank info for years without confirming it's still valid! How long did it take from when you discovered the problem until you got your refund check?

From discovery to actually receiving the check was about 10 weeks total. The most frustrating part was that the "Where's My Refund" tool was completely useless during this time - it just kept saying the refund was sent to my bank account for weeks after the bank had already rejected it. If I were going through this again, I'd skip the frustration of trying to call myself and use one of the services others mentioned. The not-knowing was the worst part, and getting actual confirmation that the IRS was aware of the rejection and processing a check would have saved me a lot of anxiety.

I actually managed to get TurboTax to help after a LOT of escalation. The trick is to not deal with the first-level support. Ask specifically for a "Tax Specialist" and mention that the software incorrectly transmitted your banking information. They ended up giving me a direct contact at the IRS and even followed up to make sure my issue was resolved. They also refunded my TurboTax fees and gave me free filing for next year. But it took about 6 calls and a lot of insistence that this was their error, not mine.

Does this mean I should be withholding more than 10% from my current unemployment checks? The system only gives me option for 10% or nothing, no way to withhold 22% or whatever my actual bracket is.

You're right that the unemployment system typically only allows for the 10% withholding option, which is frustrating. Since you can't increase the withholding percentage through the unemployment system, you have two main options: You can set aside additional money yourself with each unemployment payment - essentially creating your own additional withholding. For someone in the 22% bracket, you might want to save an extra 12% of each payment. Alternatively, you can make quarterly estimated tax payments to the IRS using Form 1040-ES. This allows you to send in additional tax payments throughout the year to cover the gap between the 10% being withheld and what you'll actually owe.

I use the tax calculator on smartasset.com instead. It lets you input both regular income and unemployment separately and gives a pretty accurate estimate of what you'll actually owe. Way better than the IRS one for people with mixed income sources.

What kind of documentation did you need from your parent? My mom isn't great with paperwork and I'm worried about this exact situation.

I had my mom write a simple statement saying: "I confirm that [my name] provided over 50% of [brother's name]'s total support for the tax year, including [list specific things I paid for]." She signed and dated it, and I had it notarized just to be safe, though that might be overkill. The key was having her acknowledge that my contributions exceeded half of his total support. You could help your mom draft something similar - it doesn't need to be complicated. The IRS just wants confirmation from the person they live with that you're the primary financial supporter.

Yes, the value of lodging counts as support! The IRS considers the fair rental value of the home as part of the total support calculation. So if your dad provides free housing valued at say $1,000/month ($12,000/year), that counts as support from him.

Thanks for explaining that. Looks like I might not meet the 50% threshold then. The rental market where they live is really expensive, so even though I'm paying probably $15k annually for my sister's other expenses, the housing value might push my dad's contribution higher than mine.

Thanks for this explanation! I went back and checked our paystubs from this year vs last year and you're totally right. We're getting about $280 more per month in our paychecks compared to last year. That adds up to around $3,360 for the year, which almost exactly accounts for the difference in our refund. I guess I never noticed the slightly larger paychecks since it wasn't a huge difference per pay period, but it definitely adds up over the year! This makes me feel so much better. We might still adjust our W4 to get a slightly bigger refund next year since we like having that forced savings, but at least now I understand what happened.

I think they mean their W4 withholding at work is set to HOH, not their actual filing status. That's actually a common mistake - people have their withholding set wrong all year and then file with their correct status.