How long does it take for an Offer in Compromise to be approved or rejected?
- David Greene
- Comments Off on How long does it take for an Offer in Compromise to be approved or rejected?
Let me make one thing clear, dealing with the IRS is not like dealing with your neighbor down the street or a local business. It will not be resolved in a matter of a few weeks or even months, especially since the COVID epidemic in 2020. It generally takes eight months to a year or longer to have an Offer accepted or rejected. About a month after we prepare the Offer and send it to the OIC center we will get a notice either that it has been accepted for consideration or that it is being returned as “unprocessable.” This simply means that a technical requirement has not been met, e.g. all pages were not initialed by the taxpayer. We can correct any technical problem and resubmit the offer. Then, after a period of time, generally three or four months, we will get a letter stating that the Offer has been assigned to an Offer Specialist and with that letter is a request for additional information and documents. From that time forward, I negotiate with the Offer Specialist to try to get our Offer accepted. Many times I will agree to increase our Offer slightly to get acceptance and sometimes we cannot reach a compromise and the Offer is rejected at the first level of review. I then appeal the Offer, where I can negotiate further with an Appeals Officer, who generally has somewhat more latitude in helping the taxpayer.