July 21, 2025 • 22 mins
Back Taxes due pro Tennessee
Ask The Experts Florida is broadcast live Mondays at 9AM ET and Thursdays at 5PM ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Ask The Experts Florida is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Ask The Experts Florida Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Ask The Experts Florida is broadcast live Mondays at 9AM ET and Thursdays at 5PM ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Ask The Experts Florida is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Ask The Experts Florida Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio, it's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicitor implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or it's employees or affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to the Ask the Experts Show on W FOURCY
Radio and Talk for TV, where we bring you educational
information from top local experts in the fields of legal, health,
financial and home improvement. Now sit back and listen to
experts in family law, association, law, hearing laws, business brokers, homecare,
(00:48):
along with many other topics. Now here are your hosts,
Spivo and Sophia.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hey, good morning, Texas. Welcome to another sc expert show.
We bring you the finest experts in the field of legal, health,
financial and home improvement. Hey our show, our next show
is becoming This is amazing. How I've watched this show grow.
You know when you write this letters going, how come
(01:17):
you don't have more shows or it's not longer. First
of all, that means to me, we've got a great
show when people want to show to last longer. So
what we've done is we've actually added shows now and
we're going to be running this show again for Texas.
And we've got the greatest expert when it comes to
(01:40):
tax relief. And I got to tell you this past
when we started promoting the show. Last week, I got
to tell you we got so many emails from you.
I don't even have to prep for this show because
we get so many questions from you, which we are
going to ask today. But me introduce you to probably
(02:01):
one of the hardest working attorneys. Good morning, attorney Lance Drury.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
How you doing, Steve. It's great to be here. And
I got some exciting news for Texas. Oh my gosh,
we got I haven't even talked. I haven't hear you.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Just excited, Lance, I know I've been.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I'm going to San Antonio Sunday to meet my two
lawyers from Los Angeles, and they informed me last week
that they will be in San Antonio by the first
of the year manning that office on a full time basis.
Oh no, we go Texas.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Hey tax free for them.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yes, it's one of the primary reasons they're leaving California
because they take care of their parents and their grandparents,
and the state sales and the state income tax is
just killing them.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It's San Antonio, such a beautiful pity, Lance it is.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
I love going there. I just love going there.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, I got this firm. I've got so many questions
for you today. But before we get started, tell people
about the law firm of Lance Drury, which you've started.
You have developed into one of the finest most let me.
I got to tell you honorable packed relief companies in
(03:20):
the United States, and we just really appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Well, Steve. We have sixteen people in the firm. We
have more than a thousand clients at any one time.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
We have four offices Saint Louis, Saint Genevieve, Missouri, which
is where I was born and raised, small historical town
about in our south of Saint Louis. We have an
office in Nashville, Tennessee, and have six people there, four lawyers,
two legal assistants. And we have an office in San Antonio.
And I'll be there early next week. But I have
(03:53):
to tell you, Steve, I'm not done. I've just I
have an I'm going to be spending about fifteen hours
a week on it. But I am committed, committed to
three times this firm so that we not only have
a thousand clients at any one time, We're gonna have
three thousand clients at any one time. That's the goal,
(04:15):
because Steve, as you know, I'm in the prime of
my life. I gotta keep growing.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
You know what, I gave Lance a choice. I said,
would you like to do like an eight eight twenty
five show or a nine in the morning show or
an afternoon and he takes the earliest show. It was
so amazing, Which is this time slot is such a
big time slot for us. On Monday, we'll probably have
(04:43):
his his Texas show. On Mondays, he does his Tennessee
and Missouri show on Fridays back he'll be back with
his again. But Lance, I gotta tell you, people love
how you explain things. You know, you always wonder what
(05:04):
people think. You know, I have my own show and
now and what if people they really like it. They
love how you explain things to them. And one guy
who is moving to San Antonio. He's probably going to
be calling you in the next couple of weeks, said
you listening your show has reduced the burden, which is
(05:29):
what you'd one of the things you try to do.
He said, I've been walking around with such a heavy burden,
and that way to get moved to San Antonio. He's
going to be my first call. I thought that was tremendous.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
That sounds fantastic, and yes, we can certainly help him out.
And uh, you know, we've helped out a lot of people.
That's what we're here for. That's my purpose. That's why
I keep going at my age because I want to
help out as many people as possible. All my staff
here all the time, we have a moral obligation to
(06:04):
help as many people as possible because you know, I
tell people what I do is save thy ray from
the clutches of King Calling, with the irs being King calling,
and it's the truth, and you know, it just gives
me a lot of satisfaction to be able to create
a firm that helps so many people out.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Well. I got to tell you, Lance, I kind of
look at you like David Eliath because the irs with
you know, all their backings. They are so big and powerful,
and you go up against them every day and you win.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Yes, we take care of people. Probably eighty five to
ninety percent of our clients never pay back the full
amount of their tax liability, ten to fifteen percent, maybe
a little more, never pay a dime. But it's not
just that we make sure that their compliant moving forward,
so they get rid of this problem for once and forever,
(07:03):
and we also save their income and their assets from seizure.
Just think what that alone is worse to people, because
if they wipe out your bank account, take ninety percent
of your take on, pay one hundred percent of your
ten ninety nine how are you going to live? How
you going to pay the bills? So that, by far,
to me, is the biggest thing that we do for people,
(07:24):
and I want to keep on doing it for as
long as I can.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
He's true.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I heard.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
These bank accounts on Friday afternoon, where there's no way
you can do anything about it till the following week.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Is truth that Well, I don't know. I got to
tell you, Steve, I'm having a little time, a hard
time hearing you. You're kind of getting a little frozen there,
But that does happen. But what's even worse is I've
seen revenue officers levy people and then they go on vacation.
Oh so, you know, depending upon who you get, there's
(08:03):
a lot of good revenue officers, but there's a lot
of revenue officers you don't want to have to deal
with on your own because they will take advantage of you.
And that's the type of thing that they pull, which
I just think is reprehensible.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I mean, that is that wrote to us here, okay,
that rs can go to your neighbors and your relatives.
Is that true?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Well, they can, and there's a form letter that they
send out to the taxpayer that says that, but most
of the time they don't do that. They send it
out saying anybody that could have financial information about you,
we could go see them. But I don't see it
happen too often because they're not going to waste their
time doing that unless they have some information. But that
(08:51):
person actually has knowledge of the taxpayer's financial situation. But boy,
does it really stare people when they do that. And
so we get a lot of phone calls when they
receive that notice, and of course we get them calmed
down because the odds are good they're not going to
make any of those contacts.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I also heard that the IRS is tougher than ever
before and they're really going after people like they never have.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Is that true, Well, it is, I'm going to tell
you right now. In June we had a record revenue month,
which is highly unusual because people think the IRS is
going to come after them during tax season more than
any other time of the year. So normally July through May,
January through May or our big months. But June was
(09:40):
a huge month. And it's because they're threatening or they're
levying people left and right, and that's when people call us.
When they send those nasty letters to taxpayers saying we're
coming after you, that's when our phones ring off the hook.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
This is from Julie said, I know you're in a attorney,
mister Drury, but what is an enrolled agent.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
An enrolled agent is an individual who's federally licensed to
practice before the IRS. If you're an attorney or you're
an accountant, you can automatically practice before the IRS. But
if you're not an attorney or an accountant, you have
to take a test, and you have to pass that
test in order to practice before the IRS. Now, if
(10:28):
you're a farmer IRS employee and you apply for that status,
I believe it's within two or three years, then you
can be granted in road agent status without taking that test.
I have to tell you, though, that my experience within
road agents has not been great. I used to think
(10:48):
I'll hire en road agents. They're just as smart as
an attorney, they know just as much, and they won't
cost me as much money. Not true. That was one
of those lessons I had to learn. They're not very
client oriented attorneys. That's instilled in them to zealously represent
their clients. And the other thing is they're much better
(11:09):
at argumentation. I hired a couple people who were ex
IRS employees, and I don't think they ever got out
of that IRS revenue officer mode. They just couldn't make
the transition, and so I don't think that I would
ever hire anybody except an attorney again to represent my
(11:30):
people before the IRS.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Good to know this is from Greta in New Brunsville,
which is right outside San Antonio. She said, now, you've
been a you have been in the tax business for
quite a while, it seems, and you have a lot
of experience dealing with the IRIS. What has that experience
taught to you.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Well, that experience has taught me that people should never
ever try to do this on their own. They think
it's easy, they think it's it's something that they can do.
And I get all the time, I get phone calls
from people who thought they could do it on their own,
and either over the telephone or in person, they'll tell
me I can't afford the monthly payment. And I'll go, then,
(12:15):
why did you agree to it? And they'll say, because
this is what the IRS told me I had to pay.
That's not true. They're taking advantage of you. They know
you're a lay person. They know that you don't know
how the game's played. They know that you don't know
all the rules and the maneuvers that are needed to
get this done. Let me tell you, Steve. When I
(12:35):
was a regular small town lawyer in Saint Genevieve, I
spend fifteen hours of continuing legal education a year. Now,
myself and all of my attorneys, I have eight other attorneys.
We all spend a minimum a minimum of fifty to
one hundred hours a year or more just keeping up
(12:56):
on what's going on with the IRS because everything is
common instantly changing, and I have to tell you, I've
never seen the IRS as bad as it is now
ever since the pandemic. They are just messing up full time.
And we can call people and they don't know what
they're talking about because they have been trained properly in
(13:17):
the automated collection system. But guess what, if you're a
lay person you've got a tax problem, you call them up,
You're not going to know whether that person's telling you
the correct information or not. But we do because of
all the training that we've had in dealing with the
IRS and all the cases we've probably had represented fifteen
thousand people or more over the years. I don't even
(13:39):
know how much it was. Obviously we didn't represent a
thousand people at a time until the last few years.
But it's just it's exploding. The whole thing is exploding.
It's going to keep on. They're going to keep coming
after people, and you better have an attorney by your
side to deal with the IRS.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Ron just wrote, he said, I wish I'd had known
you ten years ago. You hear all these commercials on TV,
but they never talk about their success rate. I wish
I would have had someone like you, because I got
into deeper trouble by trying to do this myself. That's
(14:22):
what we were just talking about. Can you talk about
your success stories.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Oh, We've had numerous success stories over the years. You know.
It's we've gotten people out of I had a guy
who owed two million dollars, he didn't pay a dime.
We've gotten people prevented from going criminal that old hundreds
of thousands of dollars and didn't have any documentation for
(14:48):
their business expenses. But here's the thing I tell everybody,
if you don't hire me, there's three rules. You hired
an attorney that does this every single day. Accountants are
great with the numbnumbers, but they just dabble with the IRS.
And all my attorneys have seen accountants give horrendous advice
to their clients. And here's one of the biggest. You
(15:09):
go to an accountant. The IRS only requires that you
file the last six years tax returns in order to
be compliant. So if prior to twenty nineteen you haven't
filed and the IRS hasn't filed, your tax liability is zero. Well,
these accountants, they get self employed people, they tell them
you got to file all the returns. They're putting tens
(15:30):
of thousands of dollars of tax liability on the books
for their clients that they don't have to do. Number two,
go local. Number three, don't hire one of the big boys.
There's a lot of scam artists out there. You've got
to watch who you are. I get a lot of
people that go to the big boys and then they
come to me because they didn't get any service from them.
(15:53):
They didn't get any phone calls back. So that's one
thing we pride ourselves on is the service that we
give to our client lance.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
I've told you during the show many times we do
our due diligence. And I see other tax relief companies
and it's the messages that people leave on there that say,
you know, I gave them my money, and after they
got my money, it was impossible to read them. Tell
(16:23):
people how important customer services to your firm.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Oh, it's incredibly important to the firm. We try to
get back with people once a month. If nothing's going
to happen on your case for a while, we let
you know upfront, and then we'll say, well, we may
not call you every month because nothing's going to happen. Well,
we want people to know that upfront, and Steve, here's
here's the deal. The number one complaint, the number one
(16:51):
bar complaint that people have with their attorneys is lack
of communication. So even if you know we don't call
people every week, there's some people that expect you to
call them every week or even every few days. But
you know, once a month, even if there's nothing going
on in the case, we try to get a hold
(17:11):
of our clients and let them know. And you know,
there are going to be a lot of periods where
there's a lull. For example, you know when we get haired,
it takes a month now for our power of attorney
to process, if not longer. Wow, if you horror, if
you file a collection due process hearing or an equivalency
hearing to stop a levy, you're not going to get
(17:35):
a hearing, Nate for three, four or five months. It's
just totally ridiculous how bad things are at the IRS.
But part of it is not their problem. They're not
funded properly, and everybody doesn't want them to be funded
because they want don't want them to come after them.
But guess what if you got a problem and you
want service from the IRS, you're not going to get
(17:56):
it because they're just not staffed enough.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
One. People also know we're talking about individual but you
also handle business too. I want it's a business owner.
You try to get the IRS on the phone, and
you can be on the phone for hours when you
could be taking care of your business. You know, when
Lance's firm handles this for you, you don't have to
(18:22):
worry about that anymore. Isn't that true? Lance?
Speaker 4 (18:24):
That is true? In fact, it's a part of our
engagement letters that the clients are prohibited from communicating directly
with the IRS because then we don't know what's going on.
Plus you know they're probably going to say something that's
going to incriminate them, So we make it very clear
from the outset that they are not to contact the
(18:44):
IRS directly. That's what they've hired us.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Far. Oh, I've got a great letter here. I have
not filed taxes in five years. Do I wait till
I get a letter from the IRS before I countact
your firm? Or do I contact you now?
Speaker 4 (19:03):
You contact us now for two reasons. Number one, not
filing your tax return is a crime. You have to
file your tax returns. Neither I nor any other lawyer
could tell you not to file your tax returns because
we don't be telling you to engage in illegal behavior.
But here's number two. You have to file because if
(19:26):
you owe the irs, and what a lot of people
do is they prepare the returns, they see they owe
all this money, and they don't file it because they
don't have the money to pay it. You're putting more
liability for yourself on the books because there's a failure
to file penalty. It's five percent per month when you're late.
(19:46):
For the first five months that you're late, it maxes
out at twenty five percent. So if you've got tax liability,
say of ten thousand dollars, you've you've just increased that
to twelve one thousand and five hundred dollars because of
the failure to file penalty. And we haven't even begun
to talk about the penalty for failure to pay are
(20:09):
the interest. So it adds up pretty quick. In fact, Steve,
and I've probably said this before, if you and I
charged with the federal government charges for penalties and interest
for delinquent taxpayers, we'd be in the federal clink. We
couldn't get by with that, but they can amazing.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Lance, We've got a couple minutes left. Tell people why
they should hire your firm.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Because we help people. We want to give people back
their peace of mind. We save people's businesses, we save
their marriages, we save their bank accounts. We give them
their life back, is what we do. That's that's our
mission here is to give people their lives back, and
we do that all the time when we get their
(20:54):
irs problems resolved. So that's why I'm doing this yet.
I'm going to be seventy two in less than two months,
but I hope I'm working another ten years. Steve.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
I think you will be. I think you're going to
have other states. Listen, Lance, I got to tell you,
this is my fifteenth year. I love your show. I
love how you educate people, and you're in a business
that trust is so important, and we're just so blessed
(21:26):
to have you. Lance is going to be doing our
next show the last Friday of the month, and this
show will be repeated the end of this week. Lance,
thank you so much. Every time I see your name
on the schedule, I get so excited. You're the best.
I'm so glad we have you as our expert.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Well, I'm so glad to be here, Steve. It's always
a pleasure talking to you. You're one of my favorite people.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
No, you're one of my favorite and I'm.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Just glad that i'm here. I'm just glad that i'm here.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
We love your show. Thank you so much. That's attorney
Lance Brewery. That's going to do it for us today.
We'll be back in with you next week with more
sc experts.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Thanks for tuning in today to the Ask the Expert
Show on the W four CY Radio and Talk for TV.
Tune in next week and every week to hear more
from our experts on personal injury, insurance, air condition repairs,
estate planning, medicare, and many other topics in the areas
of legal, health, financial and home improvement. See you next week.
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
those of W FOURCY Radio, it's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicitor implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or it's employees or affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to the Ask the Experts Show on W FOURCY
Radio and Talk for TV, where we bring you educational
information from top local experts in the fields of legal, health,
financial and home improvement. Now sit back and listen to
experts in family law, association, law, hearing laws, business brokers, homecare,
(00:48):
along with many other topics. Now here are your hosts,
Spivo and Sophia.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hey, good morning, Texas. Welcome to another sc expert show.
We bring you the finest experts in the field of legal, health,
financial and home improvement. Hey our show, our next show
is becoming This is amazing. How I've watched this show grow.
You know when you write this letters going, how come
(01:17):
you don't have more shows or it's not longer. First
of all, that means to me, we've got a great
show when people want to show to last longer. So
what we've done is we've actually added shows now and
we're going to be running this show again for Texas.
And we've got the greatest expert when it comes to
(01:40):
tax relief. And I got to tell you this past
when we started promoting the show. Last week, I got
to tell you we got so many emails from you.
I don't even have to prep for this show because
we get so many questions from you, which we are
going to ask today. But me introduce you to probably
(02:01):
one of the hardest working attorneys. Good morning, attorney Lance Drury.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
How you doing, Steve. It's great to be here. And
I got some exciting news for Texas. Oh my gosh,
we got I haven't even talked. I haven't hear you.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Just excited, Lance, I know I've been.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
I'm going to San Antonio Sunday to meet my two
lawyers from Los Angeles, and they informed me last week
that they will be in San Antonio by the first
of the year manning that office on a full time basis.
Oh no, we go Texas.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Hey tax free for them.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Yes, it's one of the primary reasons they're leaving California
because they take care of their parents and their grandparents,
and the state sales and the state income tax is
just killing them.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
It's San Antonio, such a beautiful pity, Lance it is.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
I love going there. I just love going there.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well, I got this firm. I've got so many questions
for you today. But before we get started, tell people
about the law firm of Lance Drury, which you've started.
You have developed into one of the finest most let me.
I got to tell you honorable packed relief companies in
(03:20):
the United States, and we just really appreciate you.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
Well, Steve. We have sixteen people in the firm. We
have more than a thousand clients at any one time.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
We have four offices Saint Louis, Saint Genevieve, Missouri, which
is where I was born and raised, small historical town
about in our south of Saint Louis. We have an
office in Nashville, Tennessee, and have six people there, four lawyers,
two legal assistants. And we have an office in San Antonio.
And I'll be there early next week. But I have
(03:53):
to tell you, Steve, I'm not done. I've just I
have an I'm going to be spending about fifteen hours
a week on it. But I am committed, committed to
three times this firm so that we not only have
a thousand clients at any one time, We're gonna have
three thousand clients at any one time. That's the goal,
(04:15):
because Steve, as you know, I'm in the prime of
my life. I gotta keep growing.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
You know what, I gave Lance a choice. I said,
would you like to do like an eight eight twenty
five show or a nine in the morning show or
an afternoon and he takes the earliest show. It was
so amazing, Which is this time slot is such a
big time slot for us. On Monday, we'll probably have
(04:43):
his his Texas show. On Mondays, he does his Tennessee
and Missouri show on Fridays back he'll be back with
his again. But Lance, I gotta tell you, people love
how you explain things. You know, you always wonder what
(05:04):
people think. You know, I have my own show and
now and what if people they really like it. They
love how you explain things to them. And one guy
who is moving to San Antonio. He's probably going to
be calling you in the next couple of weeks, said
you listening your show has reduced the burden, which is
(05:29):
what you'd one of the things you try to do.
He said, I've been walking around with such a heavy burden,
and that way to get moved to San Antonio. He's
going to be my first call. I thought that was tremendous.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
That sounds fantastic, and yes, we can certainly help him out.
And uh, you know, we've helped out a lot of people.
That's what we're here for. That's my purpose. That's why
I keep going at my age because I want to
help out as many people as possible. All my staff
here all the time, we have a moral obligation to
(06:04):
help as many people as possible because you know, I
tell people what I do is save thy ray from
the clutches of King Calling, with the irs being King calling,
and it's the truth, and you know, it just gives
me a lot of satisfaction to be able to create
a firm that helps so many people out.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Well. I got to tell you, Lance, I kind of
look at you like David Eliath because the irs with
you know, all their backings. They are so big and powerful,
and you go up against them every day and you win.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
Yes, we take care of people. Probably eighty five to
ninety percent of our clients never pay back the full
amount of their tax liability, ten to fifteen percent, maybe
a little more, never pay a dime. But it's not
just that we make sure that their compliant moving forward,
so they get rid of this problem for once and forever,
(07:03):
and we also save their income and their assets from seizure.
Just think what that alone is worse to people, because
if they wipe out your bank account, take ninety percent
of your take on, pay one hundred percent of your
ten ninety nine how are you going to live? How
you going to pay the bills? So that, by far,
to me, is the biggest thing that we do for people,
(07:24):
and I want to keep on doing it for as
long as I can.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
He's true.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
I heard.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
These bank accounts on Friday afternoon, where there's no way
you can do anything about it till the following week.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Is truth that Well, I don't know. I got to
tell you, Steve, I'm having a little time, a hard
time hearing you. You're kind of getting a little frozen there,
But that does happen. But what's even worse is I've
seen revenue officers levy people and then they go on vacation.
Oh so, you know, depending upon who you get, there's
(08:03):
a lot of good revenue officers, but there's a lot
of revenue officers you don't want to have to deal
with on your own because they will take advantage of you.
And that's the type of thing that they pull, which
I just think is reprehensible.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
I mean, that is that wrote to us here, okay,
that rs can go to your neighbors and your relatives.
Is that true?
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Well, they can, and there's a form letter that they
send out to the taxpayer that says that, but most
of the time they don't do that. They send it
out saying anybody that could have financial information about you,
we could go see them. But I don't see it
happen too often because they're not going to waste their
time doing that unless they have some information. But that
(08:51):
person actually has knowledge of the taxpayer's financial situation. But boy,
does it really stare people when they do that. And
so we get a lot of phone calls when they
receive that notice, and of course we get them calmed
down because the odds are good they're not going to
make any of those contacts.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I also heard that the IRS is tougher than ever
before and they're really going after people like they never have.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
Is that true, Well, it is, I'm going to tell
you right now. In June we had a record revenue month,
which is highly unusual because people think the IRS is
going to come after them during tax season more than
any other time of the year. So normally July through May,
January through May or our big months. But June was
(09:40):
a huge month. And it's because they're threatening or they're
levying people left and right, and that's when people call us.
When they send those nasty letters to taxpayers saying we're
coming after you, that's when our phones ring off the hook.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
This is from Julie said, I know you're in a attorney,
mister Drury, but what is an enrolled agent.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
An enrolled agent is an individual who's federally licensed to
practice before the IRS. If you're an attorney or you're
an accountant, you can automatically practice before the IRS. But
if you're not an attorney or an accountant, you have
to take a test, and you have to pass that
test in order to practice before the IRS. Now, if
(10:28):
you're a farmer IRS employee and you apply for that status,
I believe it's within two or three years, then you
can be granted in road agent status without taking that test.
I have to tell you, though, that my experience within
road agents has not been great. I used to think
(10:48):
I'll hire en road agents. They're just as smart as
an attorney, they know just as much, and they won't
cost me as much money. Not true. That was one
of those lessons I had to learn. They're not very
client oriented attorneys. That's instilled in them to zealously represent
their clients. And the other thing is they're much better
(11:09):
at argumentation. I hired a couple people who were ex
IRS employees, and I don't think they ever got out
of that IRS revenue officer mode. They just couldn't make
the transition, and so I don't think that I would
ever hire anybody except an attorney again to represent my
(11:30):
people before the IRS.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Good to know this is from Greta in New Brunsville,
which is right outside San Antonio. She said, now, you've
been a you have been in the tax business for
quite a while, it seems, and you have a lot
of experience dealing with the IRIS. What has that experience
taught to you.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Well, that experience has taught me that people should never
ever try to do this on their own. They think
it's easy, they think it's it's something that they can do.
And I get all the time, I get phone calls
from people who thought they could do it on their own,
and either over the telephone or in person, they'll tell
me I can't afford the monthly payment. And I'll go, then,
(12:15):
why did you agree to it? And they'll say, because
this is what the IRS told me I had to pay.
That's not true. They're taking advantage of you. They know
you're a lay person. They know that you don't know
how the game's played. They know that you don't know
all the rules and the maneuvers that are needed to
get this done. Let me tell you, Steve. When I
(12:35):
was a regular small town lawyer in Saint Genevieve, I
spend fifteen hours of continuing legal education a year. Now,
myself and all of my attorneys, I have eight other attorneys.
We all spend a minimum a minimum of fifty to
one hundred hours a year or more just keeping up
(12:56):
on what's going on with the IRS because everything is
common instantly changing, and I have to tell you, I've
never seen the IRS as bad as it is now
ever since the pandemic. They are just messing up full time.
And we can call people and they don't know what
they're talking about because they have been trained properly in
(13:17):
the automated collection system. But guess what, if you're a
lay person you've got a tax problem, you call them up,
You're not going to know whether that person's telling you
the correct information or not. But we do because of
all the training that we've had in dealing with the
IRS and all the cases we've probably had represented fifteen
thousand people or more over the years. I don't even
(13:39):
know how much it was. Obviously we didn't represent a
thousand people at a time until the last few years.
But it's just it's exploding. The whole thing is exploding.
It's going to keep on. They're going to keep coming
after people, and you better have an attorney by your
side to deal with the IRS.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Ron just wrote, he said, I wish I'd had known
you ten years ago. You hear all these commercials on TV,
but they never talk about their success rate. I wish
I would have had someone like you, because I got
into deeper trouble by trying to do this myself. That's
(14:22):
what we were just talking about. Can you talk about
your success stories.
Speaker 4 (14:27):
Oh, We've had numerous success stories over the years. You know.
It's we've gotten people out of I had a guy
who owed two million dollars, he didn't pay a dime.
We've gotten people prevented from going criminal that old hundreds
of thousands of dollars and didn't have any documentation for
(14:48):
their business expenses. But here's the thing I tell everybody,
if you don't hire me, there's three rules. You hired
an attorney that does this every single day. Accountants are
great with the numbnumbers, but they just dabble with the IRS.
And all my attorneys have seen accountants give horrendous advice
to their clients. And here's one of the biggest. You
(15:09):
go to an accountant. The IRS only requires that you
file the last six years tax returns in order to
be compliant. So if prior to twenty nineteen you haven't
filed and the IRS hasn't filed, your tax liability is zero. Well,
these accountants, they get self employed people, they tell them
you got to file all the returns. They're putting tens
(15:30):
of thousands of dollars of tax liability on the books
for their clients that they don't have to do. Number two,
go local. Number three, don't hire one of the big boys.
There's a lot of scam artists out there. You've got
to watch who you are. I get a lot of
people that go to the big boys and then they
come to me because they didn't get any service from them.
(15:53):
They didn't get any phone calls back. So that's one
thing we pride ourselves on is the service that we
give to our client lance.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
I've told you during the show many times we do
our due diligence. And I see other tax relief companies
and it's the messages that people leave on there that say,
you know, I gave them my money, and after they
got my money, it was impossible to read them. Tell
(16:23):
people how important customer services to your firm.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
Oh, it's incredibly important to the firm. We try to
get back with people once a month. If nothing's going
to happen on your case for a while, we let
you know upfront, and then we'll say, well, we may
not call you every month because nothing's going to happen. Well,
we want people to know that upfront, and Steve, here's
here's the deal. The number one complaint, the number one
(16:51):
bar complaint that people have with their attorneys is lack
of communication. So even if you know we don't call
people every week, there's some people that expect you to
call them every week or even every few days. But
you know, once a month, even if there's nothing going
on in the case, we try to get a hold
(17:11):
of our clients and let them know. And you know,
there are going to be a lot of periods where
there's a lull. For example, you know when we get haired,
it takes a month now for our power of attorney
to process, if not longer. Wow, if you horror, if
you file a collection due process hearing or an equivalency
hearing to stop a levy, you're not going to get
(17:35):
a hearing, Nate for three, four or five months. It's
just totally ridiculous how bad things are at the IRS.
But part of it is not their problem. They're not
funded properly, and everybody doesn't want them to be funded
because they want don't want them to come after them.
But guess what if you got a problem and you
want service from the IRS, you're not going to get
(17:56):
it because they're just not staffed enough.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
One. People also know we're talking about individual but you
also handle business too. I want it's a business owner.
You try to get the IRS on the phone, and
you can be on the phone for hours when you
could be taking care of your business. You know, when
Lance's firm handles this for you, you don't have to
(18:22):
worry about that anymore. Isn't that true? Lance?
Speaker 4 (18:24):
That is true? In fact, it's a part of our
engagement letters that the clients are prohibited from communicating directly
with the IRS because then we don't know what's going on.
Plus you know they're probably going to say something that's
going to incriminate them, So we make it very clear
from the outset that they are not to contact the
(18:44):
IRS directly. That's what they've hired us.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Far. Oh, I've got a great letter here. I have
not filed taxes in five years. Do I wait till
I get a letter from the IRS before I countact
your firm? Or do I contact you now?
Speaker 4 (19:03):
You contact us now for two reasons. Number one, not
filing your tax return is a crime. You have to
file your tax returns. Neither I nor any other lawyer
could tell you not to file your tax returns because
we don't be telling you to engage in illegal behavior.
But here's number two. You have to file because if
(19:26):
you owe the irs, and what a lot of people
do is they prepare the returns, they see they owe
all this money, and they don't file it because they
don't have the money to pay it. You're putting more
liability for yourself on the books because there's a failure
to file penalty. It's five percent per month when you're late.
(19:46):
For the first five months that you're late, it maxes
out at twenty five percent. So if you've got tax liability,
say of ten thousand dollars, you've you've just increased that
to twelve one thousand and five hundred dollars because of
the failure to file penalty. And we haven't even begun
to talk about the penalty for failure to pay are
(20:09):
the interest. So it adds up pretty quick. In fact, Steve,
and I've probably said this before, if you and I
charged with the federal government charges for penalties and interest
for delinquent taxpayers, we'd be in the federal clink. We
couldn't get by with that, but they can amazing.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Lance, We've got a couple minutes left. Tell people why
they should hire your firm.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Because we help people. We want to give people back
their peace of mind. We save people's businesses, we save
their marriages, we save their bank accounts. We give them
their life back, is what we do. That's that's our
mission here is to give people their lives back, and
we do that all the time when we get their
(20:54):
irs problems resolved. So that's why I'm doing this yet.
I'm going to be seventy two in less than two months,
but I hope I'm working another ten years. Steve.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
I think you will be. I think you're going to
have other states. Listen, Lance, I got to tell you,
this is my fifteenth year. I love your show. I
love how you educate people, and you're in a business
that trust is so important, and we're just so blessed
(21:26):
to have you. Lance is going to be doing our
next show the last Friday of the month, and this
show will be repeated the end of this week. Lance,
thank you so much. Every time I see your name
on the schedule, I get so excited. You're the best.
I'm so glad we have you as our expert.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Well, I'm so glad to be here, Steve. It's always
a pleasure talking to you. You're one of my favorite people.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
No, you're one of my favorite and I'm.
Speaker 4 (21:54):
Just glad that i'm here. I'm just glad that i'm here.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
We love your show. Thank you so much. That's attorney
Lance Brewery. That's going to do it for us today.
We'll be back in with you next week with more
sc experts.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Thanks for tuning in today to the Ask the Expert
Show on the W four CY Radio and Talk for TV.
Tune in next week and every week to hear more
from our experts on personal injury, insurance, air condition repairs,
estate planning, medicare, and many other topics in the areas
of legal, health, financial and home improvement. See you next week.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.