More often then not due process is interpreted as putting a limitation on the laws and legal proceedings in order to take the decision making process out of the hands of legislators and into the hands of judges to determine basic fairness, justice, and liberty.
So, how does the average taxpayer know when they have the right to appeal?
Typically before a levy is applied on a taxpayer, that taxpayer is notified of the intent to levy. The taxpayer will also receive (at the same time) a notice of their right to appeal the process. Not being notified would of course lead to the taxpayer not knowing of their rights to appeal – which would in turn lead to the taxpayer claiming that they were not provided with due process.
Depending on if the taxpayer is requesting a hearing for a lien or for a levy, there are two separate time lines for the request of a hearing. Taxpayers may demonstrate that late responses were due to acts of God or extenuating circumstances and still have that response treated as a timely response (such as if you are not in the country, ill, etc.)
In order for a Collection Due Process hearing to be timely, each taxpayer has 30 days from the date after the levy notification to submit their request, in writing, to request a CDP hearing. The same is true for a Federal Tax Lien hearing.
Another very important thing to note is that your request must be processable. There are a number of things that must be on the request, according to the IRS manual. A request is processable as long as none of the following is true:
1) the request is not signed
2) the request is signed, but the signature is not from an authorized party to sign on behalf of the taxpayer (signer does not have power of attorney)
3) doesn’t have a valid EIN, ITIN, SNN or the one included could not be identified
4) doesn’t include a specific reason for the request
No related posts.
Mon, Nov 23, 2009
Legal