Which IRS Notice Actually Starts the Clock on Your Client’s Rights (Hint: It Is Not the CP504)

The last time a new client slid an IRS notice across your desk and said “they are going to take my house,” did you read the notice number before you answered? Or did you react to the bold, all-caps, “FINAL NOTICE” language at the top and start managing the panic?

Here is the problem. The IRS prints scary words on notices that carry almost no procedural weight, and it prints calm-sounding words on the one notice that starts a clock you cannot un-start. If you cannot tell them apart on sight, you are guessing with your client’s appeal rights. And in collections, guessing is how you miss the only deadline that actually matters.

This is the kind of distinction we drill at Tax Resolution Academy(R), because it separates the pro who quotes the right Code section from the one who Googles it in front of the client. Today I am going to give you the exact notice that triggers your client’s Collection Due Process rights, the one that looks just like it but does not, and a sequence you can run the next time a notice lands on your desk.

The CP504 Is the Great Impostor

Here is the notice that fools more preparers than any other: the CP504.

It arrives in an envelope. It says “Notice of Intent to Levy.” It is printed in urgent language. Clients read it and assume the agents are coming Tuesday. And a lot of practitioners, if I am being honest, treat it the same way.

Read this part twice. The CP504 is a Notice of Intent to Levy issued under Internal Revenue Code section 6331(d). It is NOT the Final Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to a Hearing under section 6330.

That difference is not academic. It is the whole ballgame.

The IRS says it plainly in its own guidance. With a CP504 alone, the IRS cannot levy your client’s wages, bank accounts, or other property. The one thing the CP504 does authorize is a levy on your client’s state income tax refund. That is it. Everything else still requires another notice first.

So when a client brings you a CP504 in a cold sweat, the honest answer is not “we are out of time.” The honest answer is “we have a window, and here is what we do with it.” The CP504 does not start the 30-day Collection Due Process clock. Which … Continue reading

How to Raise Your Fees Without Losing Your Best Clients

Every year you hold your price steady, you quietly give your clients a raise out of your own paycheck.

When was the last time you raised your fees? Not “added a line item.” Not “charged the new client a little more than the last one.” I mean actually went back to your existing book of business, the people you’ve carried for years, and told them the number was going up.

For most of the tax professionals I coach, the honest answer is “I can’t remember.” Three years. Five years. One guy told me he was charging a client the exact same $400 for a return he first quoted in 2014. Same client. Twelve years. Same four hundred bucks.

Read that again. Twelve years of inflation, twelve years of harder returns, twelve years of your time getting more valuable, and the price never moved.

You are not running a practice. You are running a charity, and you’re the donor.

Here’s the promise. In this post I’m going to walk you through exactly how to raise your fees without watching your best clients walk out the door. The math behind why you have to. The real reason you haven’t. The script, almost word for word. And what to do with the handful who push back. This is the same kind of practice-building work we teach inside Tax Resolution Academy®, and the willingness to send one letter is the only thing it costs you.

The Math You’ve Been Avoiding

Let me do the arithmetic out loud, because the numbers are uglier than you think.

Say you’ve held a client at $400 a return since 2019. Feels loyal. Feels like good service. Now run the inflation on it. To have the same buying power as that 2019 $400, you’d need to charge somewhere north of $500 today just to stand still. So you didn’t “hold your price.” You gave that client a raise every single year, out of your own pocket, without them ever asking.

Now stack it. Say you’ve got 200 clients and you’ve been underpricing the book by an average of $150 each. (Your numbers will vary. These are illustrative, not a promise.) That’s $30,000 a year. Gone. Every year. Not theoretical money, not “potential.” Real revenue you earned the right to and chose not to collect.

And here’s the part that should sting. That $30,000 isn’t sitting in a drawer waiting for you to redeem it … Continue reading

The Referral System Most Tax Pros Never Build (And Why Your Best Clients Stay Quiet)

Let me ask you something, and I need you to be painfully honest with yourself.

When was the last time a client referred someone to you, and you had absolutely no idea it was coming?

It felt great, didn’t it. Free money. A warm lead who already trusted you before the first call. No ad spend, no funnel, no cold outreach. Just a name and a phone number and a problem you knew how to solve.

Now answer the harder question. How many of those did you get last month, on purpose?

If you are like most of the tax professionals I coach, the honest answer is none. Not because your clients don’t love you. They do. It’s because you have no system. You are sitting on the single cheapest, highest-converting lead source in your entire practice, and you are treating it like the weather. Something that happens to you. Something you wait for.

That stops today. In this post I am going to hand you a repeatable referral system you can run every quarter, with the exact moments to ask, the words to use, and the follow-up that turns one happy client into three new ones. This is the same kind of practice-building work we teach inside Tax Resolution Academy(R), and it costs you nothing but the willingness to ask.

Why Referrals Stay Quiet (It’s Not What You Think)

Here’s the problem. You believe your clients aren’t referring because they’re busy, or they forgot, or they just don’t think about you between tax seasons.

Wrong. Read that again, because the real reasons are completely different, and once you see them you can fix them.

Your clients aren’t referring you for three specific reasons:

  • They don’t know they’re allowed to. You never told them you take referrals or that you have room for more clients. Plenty of pros project a “I’m slammed, don’t send me anyone” energy without ever saying a word. Or sometimes you even just say, “I’m busy” or “I’m slammed”. You are telling them you can’t handle anymore, and they don’t want their service to suffer by sending you more business.
  • They don’t know who to send. “Send me anyone” is not a referral request. It’s noise. A client cannot scan their contacts for “anyone.” They can scan for “a small business owner who just got an IRS notice.”
  • They don’t know how. Even a client who wants to help freezes when
… Continue reading