On January 20, 2012, the Internal Revenue Service annouced a new policy making it easier for taxpayers to obtain monthly installment payment agreements for up to 6 years for balances less than $50,000.
Under the general IRS policies, in order to obtain an installment agreement to pay taxes, taxpayers are required to disclose their assets and income. Such disclosure often requires taxpayers to submit volumnious documentation such as bank statements, receipts, paycheck stubs, business financial records, etc. Based on this information, the IRS follows written policies for analyzing the information to determine the payment amount that the IRS should accept. Such installment agreement require approval of the supervisor, and in some cases, approval of upper management. For streamline installment agreements, the IRS policy allows an IRS Revenue Officer (a collection employee of the IRS) the ability to accept an installment agreements without documentation and without supervisory approval. Previously, the IRS policy allowed streamlined installment agreements for up to 5 years for balances of less than $25,000.
On January 20, 2012, the Internal Revenue Service announced a new policy allowing streamline installment agreements for up to 6 years (72 payments) for balances less than $50,000.