How long does the Offer in Compromise process take?

Let me make one thing clear at the outset, dealing with the IRS is not like dealing with your neighbor down the street or a local business. A submitted Offer will not be resolved in a matter of a few weeks or even months. It generally takes eight months to a year 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 two to three 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. In most instances I then appeal the Offer, where I can negotiate further with an Appeals Officer, who generally has somewhat more latitude in helping the taxpayer. In that case, the time can extend to eighteen months or more.