The Risk in Not Referring a Tax Debt Client Is Far Greater Than the Risk of Referring

A CPA I know had a small retail business owner client who'd been ignoring IRS notices for the better part of a year. She'd flagged it to him twice. He kept saying he'd deal with it.

Then a Final Notice of Intent to Levy showed up. The IRS was about to reach directly into his business bank account.

A colleague had recommended a tax attorney months earlier, but the CPA was hesitant to call.

Part of her thought was that if she made the introduction, another accounting professional would enter the picture and the client might start calling them instead of her.

The instinct makes sense in a vacuum - you've spent years building trust with the client, and handing off any piece of it feels like you're giving it to another tax professional who will take everything over.

But it's built on a picture of what I actually do that isn't accurate.

Let's talk about it.

1. Most Importantly: I Don't Do What You Do, So There's Nothing to Compete Over.

You and I don't have the same expertise. What I do is narrower and more specific.

A client comes to me with an IRS or state collections problem — back taxes, a levy, a lien, a Revenue Officer, a Trust Fund Recovery Penalty case. My job starts and ends with resolving that specific problem. Currently Not Collectible status. An accepted Offer in Compromise. A negotiated installment agreement. A resolved TFRP determination. Once we hit that outcome, the case is closed.

I'm not the person they call next year about their return. I'm not the person they call for tax planning advice.

That's you.

2. When the Case Closes, the Client Comes Back to You, Relieved — and They Associate That Relief With You.

This is the part that people don't realize because it's the opposite of what the fear predicts. You're not competing with the client's relief. You're the reason they feel it.

Let's go back to the retail business owner with the Final Notice of Intent to Levy. I pulled the transcripts, verified the balance, and moved fast, since a levy on a bank account can happen 30 days later once that notice goes out.

I got the IRS to hold off, then negotiated a Partial Pay Installment Agreement the business could actually sustain based on real cash flow. The full balance owed would never be paid.

When the case closed, I sent the client back to his CPA with a serious warning that he had to stay current going forward, including filing future returns and paying on time.

I don't file those tax returns for him; you do. I don't advise him on how to pay less in taxes every year. That's your expertise. The client continues to rely on you going forward.

The client is relieved that the threat to their business and bank accounts was gone. And because you, his CPA or tax advisor, were the one who had the connection, the one who knew whom to call, that relief attached itself to you.

Their CPA hooked them up with a connection that many CPAs don't bother to have. She kept doing his returns every year. She kept advising him. Nothing about their relationship changed, except that he trusted her more.

3. Not Referring the Client to an Attorney With Tax-debt Expertise Does a Disservice to the Client.

The instinct to hold on, handle it yourself, wait, or tell yourself you weren't hired to help with that may feel like the right move (for you) because you want to keep that client relationship to yourself.

It isn't.

You were never trained to negotiate with the IRS on a collections matter, structure a PPIA, or stop a levy before it hits.

That's not a failure on your part.

Your expertise is different than mine, and the problem is only effectively solved if you call a tax debt expert while there's still time to act, not after the notice has already turned into a seized bank account

My relationship with the client has a clear stop date. When their tax problems are resolved, I'm done. On the other hand, your client stays your client and that never changes.

TL;DR

⏩ I don't prepare tax returns or provide tax planning and advisory services. There's no overlap with what you do, so there's nothing to lose by referring.

⏩ A tax debt resolution is a specific engagement with a defined endpoint. It's not an ongoing relationship. Once the case closes, there's nothing left for the client to stay attached to on my end.

⏩ When the case closes, the client comes back to you, and the relief they feel gets credited to whoever pointed them toward the right help (you).

⏩ Holding onto a case you can't actually resolve doesn't protect your client. It does them a disservice, leaving them with a problem that can have serious consequences.

PS: I get the same three questions from CPAs, financial advisors, and attorneys almost every single time a client's tax debt lands on their desk, so I sat down and wrote out the answers.

You can find those answers here: https://stephen-a-weisberg-tax-attorney.kit.com/3questions

Want to understand your options before you call anyone?

Download my free book — Freedom From Tax Debt — a plain-language guide to how the IRS collections process actually works and what resolution really looks like.

➥ Contact Attorney Stephen A. Weisberg for a free Tax Debt Analysis.

Contact Me Here: https://www.weisberg.tax/contact-1

Email: s.weisberg@weisberg.tax

Phone/Text: (248) 971-0885

Address: 300 Galleria Officentre, Suite 402, Southfield, MI 48034