IRS to Roll Out New Program for Small Biz Tax Payers

The IRS is planning to roll out a new program that would help small businesses deal with audit disputes pertaining to their taxes. Read more to find out why this is helping small businesses in more ways than one.

The IRS says they plan to roll out their new program, which is designed to help small businesses and self-employed taxpayers, resolve disputes that arise from an audit in record fast time. The program was modeled by one that is currently available for larger, medium sized businesses with assets of $10 million or more.

According to the IRS, “The Fast Track Settlement (FTS) program is designed to help small businesses and self-employed individuals who are under examination by the Small Business/Self Employed (SB/SE) Division of the IRS.”

The IRS claims that this program will allow issues related to an audit to be resolved within 60 days rather than months or years in some cases where the problem goes to appeals and even litigation.

The program, known as The Fast Track Settlement Program, plans to use an arbitration process to resolve disputes between the IRS and small businesses who have just been audited. “An arbitration process is in simple terms a dispute resolution procedure where an arbitrator listens to a dispute in a private setting and makes the final decision for the parties involved. The arbitrator typically specializes in the specific dispute area.”
According to www.smallbiztrends.com, applications for the IRS Fast Track Settlement, require business owners to fill out the 14017 form and include a brief description on the IRS’s position on the tax return that under audit. The IRS says there is no guarantee of a positive resolution with them, however they claim to try their best to implement a mediation process that would involve an IRS appeals officer serving as a neutral party.

Previously in 2006, the IRS launched a pilot version of this program and an expanded program was set to release in 2008, however the launch scheduled for this year, will be streamlined and ready to really start functioning to its maximum efficiency.

The IRS says that it’s a great step forward in helping small businesses and offering them services that larger businesses already have access to. However the IRS will also benefit from this move, because the process will be streamlined, meaning less headaches and more time for other major issues (e.g. budget cuts and furloughs).

By: Lauren Rockwell, a business writer and works on the marketing staff at Liberty Capital Group, Inc. She writes about the latest business trends and industry conditions, from international economics to small business funding and financing. Her blogs are intended to offer accurate and concise advice to readers.