The Tax Debt Detective Blog
Real cases. Real strategies. No fluff. Stories from the front lines of IRS and California FTB collection resolution.
By Carlos Samaniego, EA · NTPI Fellow
Featured Guides
Guide
5 Ways Out of IRS Tax Debt
Pay in full, Installment Agreement, Currently Not Collectible, Offer in Compromise, or the 10-year collection statute. The real answer lives in your transcript.
Read Guide →Guide
How Long Can California FTB Collect on a Tax Debt?
CaliClaw (the California FTB) has a 20-year collection clock, and most taxpayers never see it coming. Here is how it actually works.
Read Guide →FAQ Hub
IRS Tax Debt FAQ
Straight answers on the 10-year IRS clock, Offers in Compromise, wage garnishments, passport revocation, and more.
Read Guide →FAQ Hub
California FTB (CaliClaw) FAQ
The California questions I get asked every week: bank levies, wage orders, the 20-year clock, and how to fight back.
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Am I Responsible for My Spouse's Tax Debt?
Pre-marriage debt stays separate, but a joint return, a joint refund, and California community property change the math. Injured spouse and innocent spouse relief explained.
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How Do I Get My License Unsuspended by the California FTB?
Contractors, nurses, real estate, insurance: how the Top 500 list works, what compliance really means, and how fast the board turns your license back on.
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Do You Help People With Tax Debt Over $250,000?
High-balance IRS and California FTB defense for business owners and professionals owing $250,000 to $1 million and above. What changes at this altitude, and the order you defend it.
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Can I Go to Jail for Not Paying Payroll Taxes?
Yes, if willful. IRC 7202 makes it a felony, up to 5 years per count. Most payroll tax cases resolve civilly through the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty.
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Can a Federal Employee Be Fired for Owing Back Taxes?
Owing alone is not automatic removal. Unfiled returns can now support an OPM suitability action against a sitting federal employee under the July 30, 2026 rule.
Read Guide →Latest Dispatches
April 28, 2026
He Mailed the IRS the Same Letter Twelve Years in a Row. Guess Who Was Reading Them.
Not a lawyer. Not a judge. Not a congressional committee. The Collector(IRS). Every single one. Flagged. Filed. Dated. Indexed to a Social Security number that now sits near the top of an enforcement priority list. Here is what the man on the other end of my phone did not understand when he started this in...
By Carlos Samaniego, EA
Read Full ArticleMarch 31, 2026
He paid $30,000 and got betrayed three times.
Let me tell you about Ray Calloway. Ray was 65 years old when the letter arrived. It had been forwarded from his old California address - the house he'd sold after his wife died, after the heart attack, after the doctors told him to slow down or else. $47,488.74. Tax year 2018. A year he...
By Carlos Samaniego, EA
Read Full ArticleMarch 31, 2026
The Promise Thief: How Three Tax Companies Took $30,000 From a Grieving Widower and Left Him Worse Off Than Before
THE PROMISE THIEF A Tax Underworld Story CHAPTER ONE The letter was postmarked six weeks ago. Frank almost missed it. It had gone to the old California address first - the house he'd sold after the funeral, after the hospital, after the doctors started using words like stent and permanent damage and you need to...
By Carlos Samaniego, EA
Read Full ArticleMarch 26, 2026
Tax Filing Urgency
Quick one today. April 15 is 23 days away. My team handles IRS resolution. That's our main mission. But we also prepare tax returns for our clients that has past due returns. And Liz just told me we have room for a few more clients before the deadline hits. So if you still need your...
By Carlos Samaniego, EA
Read Full ArticleMarch 25, 2026
The EMT who skipped a step (and what it cost)
There's a saying in emergency medicine that sounds obvious until you're standing over someone who's dying. "Treat what kills first." Not what hurts most. Not what's loudest. Not what the patient is asking you to fix. What kills first. I learned that in an ambulance. Eleven years of lights-and-sirens, crash scenes, cardiac arrests, and trauma...
By Carlos Samaniego, EA
Read Full ArticleMarch 24, 2026
Why did the IRS file a lien if we already have a deal?
What does an IRS lien actually do to you? (Most people get this wrong) A guy called me last Tuesday. Let's call him Ray. Ray had done everything right. He owed the IRS about $62,000. He didn't run. He didn't hide. He called us, we built his case, and we got him into an Installment...
By Carlos Samaniego, EA
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