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.