Everyone, including me, is afraid of the IRS.  That doesn’t mean that there are not reasonable people at the IRS, and reasonable methods for dealing with tax debt.  For many people, the financial problems came before the tax problems.  Sometimes, there was not enough money to pay the self-employment taxes.  Sometimes, a 401(k) or IRA was raided to pay debt, only to find the IRS waiting when the next year’s taxes were filed.  Often times this was a double-edged sword – withdrawal penalties and forgiveness of debt income.

Some tax debt may be discharged in bankruptcy, and there are ways to negotiate with the IRS.  See the Solutions section of this website for further details.