Did the enrolled agent help negotiate a lower amount overall or just handle the payment plan? Wondering if it's actually possible to get the IRS to accept less than what they say you owe.

The EA didn't get the actual tax amount reduced - that's rarely possible unless there are actual errors in how your tax was calculated. What they did get reduced were the penalties, which in my case had added about $7k to my original tax bill. They managed to get about $5k of those penalties removed through the first-time penalty abatement program and reasonable cause arguments. They also made sure I was claiming all legitimate business deductions that I had missed on my original filings, which lowered the taxable income and therefore the tax due. This is different than "negotiating" with the IRS - it's just proper tax preparation that I had failed to do correctly.

I tried for an OIC but got rejected. They look at your income, expenses, assets... basically if they think you CAN pay (even over time), they won't accept less. Those radio ads are super misleading. Like 40% of OICs get accepted, and usually for people with serious hardships or very little income/assets compared to their debt.

Thanks for sharing your experience. That's pretty much what I suspected - those ads do sound way too good to be true. I guess I'll look more into payment plans instead since I do have a steady income. Did you end up with an installment agreement after your OIC was rejected?

Thanks for mentioning this! If I do sell, is there any problem with just putting that money into a total market index fund instead? Or would that still trigger this wash sale thing?

Putting the money into a total market index fund would be perfectly fine and wouldn't trigger the wash sale rule. The rule only applies to "substantially identical" securities, which a diversified index fund definitely is not compared to an individual stock like Mullen. This is actually a smart strategy many investors use - they harvest the tax loss from individual stocks or sector funds, then immediately reinvest in broader index funds to stay invested in the market while avoiding wash sales. Just make sure you don't buy back into Mullen or any security that's too similar to it within that 30-day window before or after your sale.

This is actually brilliant advice that most people overlook. The 0% capital gains bracket is massively underutilized. I did exactly this last year when I was between jobs.

Thanks for the suggestion! Does TurboTax handle foreign income well? I have earnings from two different countries plus some US investments, so my situation is a bit complicated.

TurboTax does handle foreign income pretty well in my experience. They have specific sections for foreign earned income exclusion (Form 2555) and foreign tax credits (Form 1116). They'll walk you through determining which is better for your situation. For multiple countries, they can handle that too, though you'll need good records of how much you earned in each place and what taxes you paid to each country. The investment income adds another layer, but their premium version specifically covers investment income scenarios. Just be prepared to pay more for the versions that handle international situations.

I used OLT for my 2021 return and it worked fine, but when I tried to do my 2020 return, they only offered paper filing. This was about 6 months ago though, so maybe things have changed. Their customer service was pretty responsive when I asked about it.

Thanks for the info! Guess I'll check with their customer service directly to see if anything's changed. Really hoping to avoid paper filing if possible.

How can you tell if a CP2000 is legit? I got one recently but now I'm worried it might be fake. Are there specific things to look for?

A legitimate CP2000 will always come by U.S. mail (never email), include your tax ID number, the tax year in question, and a detailed explanation of the proposed changes. It will have specific contact information for the IRS, including a toll-free number. The notice will also include your rights as a taxpayer and explain the appeals process. Fake notices often have spelling/grammar errors, demand immediate payment (especially via gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency), don't provide clear explanation of the discrepancies, or direct you to unofficial websites. You can always verify a notice by calling the IRS directly at 800-829-1040 (not using any number on the suspicious notice itself).

Does asking for an extension stop the interest from continuing to accrue though? I'm worried about making the amount owed even higher by delaying.

We haven't received any official letters from the IRS about this yet. Our accountant just called saying his contact at the IRS mentioned there's some kind of "hold" on our claim during a call about something totally unrelated. Super frustrating to get such vague information! We're filing Form 843 to try to get some interest on the delayed amount, but not sure if that will just complicate things further.

That's pretty typical unfortunately. The IRS is seriously understaffed for handling ERC claims, especially the larger ones that get flagged for review. I wouldn't recommend filing Form 843 while your claim is still pending - that could actually create a duplicate file in their system and potentially cause more delays. What worked for us was having our accountant file Form 911 (Taxpayer Advocate Service request) after the 9-month mark, which at least got us assigned to someone who could provide updates.

This is super important! My accounting firm has seen a huge difference in processing times between clients who received earlier ERC payments versus those filing for the first time in 2022-2023. First-time claims over $200k are getting flagged for manual review almost automatically now.