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Welcome to Tech Diva Biz Talks, where we tune in, dive deep and level up. I'm your host, Audrey Wiggins, AKA the Tech Diva brand strategist, marketing mind, and your guide through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. Let's talk tech. Hello, Tech Diva Nation. We're going to meet Morgan Q. Anderson. She's a powerhouse who's been fearlessly representing clients before the IRS and state tax agencies for more than 25 years. Years. In that time, she's tackled thousands of tax debt cases. Personal business, income, payroll, sales, you name it, she's seen it all and solved it. To say she's handled every tax nightmare under the sun is an understatement. Her deep expertise inspired her to write a book, Tax Debt Rule number one, There's Always a solution. I'm glad to hear that. A guide packed with practical steps for both taxpayers and tax professionals. Professionals to cut through the fear, understand the process, and move toward resolution with confidence. We'll hear from Morgan after the break. Sponsored by Altogether Domains. Bringing your business online, whether you are launching a new venture or leveling up your brand, AltogetherDomains.com helps you secure your digital real estate the smart way. Visit altogether domains.com get your brim on. So since 1972, American hat makers has been dedicated to the art of fine hat making. Their diverse selection caters to outdoor adventurers, style conscious individuals and hat enthusiasts just like me. With a focus on meticulous detail and quality materials, I love wearing their hats. Embrace your own spirit of adventure and individuality. Visit Bit Lee Hats now. Bit Glee Hats now. Or use our affiliate link in the show notes to view their vast selection of men's and women's styles. From payroll problems to tax nightmares, she's cracked them all. Let's talk solutions with Morgan Anderson. Welcome, Morgan.
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Hey, thank you so much for having me here today. It is an honor. And I know most people, when they hear tax, their eyes start rolling in the back of their head.
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I know.
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But I'm here to take away all anxiety regarding all things having to do with our tax obligations. So I'm happy to be here today with you.
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Good. That's a promise. Now, we're going to hold you to that.
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You bet.
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All right, so before we get to that point, what's one fun fact about you, Morgan?
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Well, you kind of led right into it. I am an author. I know. And people are going to say, why did you write a book about tax debt? You know, is it something that I should buy just to put me to sleep at the end of the day.
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Right, right.
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But now I, as you mentioned, I've represented thousands of tax account issues for individuals and businesses. And when people first come to me, they always have this deep ridden fear that has almost caused paralysis with knowing what to do and how to do it and who to connect to and who can help. And, and it causes this fear driven paralysis to such a degree that they don't do any. Anything for a long time. And that just makes the situation a hundred times worse. So I wanted to write a book to kind of just push through all those fears and say there's always a solution, something you need to deal with. Yes. But if you just knuckle down and stand strong and face it, you're going to get to the other side of it before you know.
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All right, well, thanks for giving us a little insight into your book. Let's get some questions going here. So excited about that. And then we'll let people know where we can. Can grab a copy.
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You bet.
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Gr. Okay. All right, Morgan, so spill the tea. How did you land in the world of tax debt resolution? And was it passion, purpose, or a plot twist in your journey?
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It was definitely a plot twist. I call it a happy accident.
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Okay.
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I've always been a big problem solver. I love numbers, I love debating things. I love being a problem solver. So I, I was running a candle store of all things, a retail candle store in Boulder, Colorado, bored out of my mind. And I thought, my gosh, I'm. I'm 25 years old. There's gotta be more. I need to find my. My passion, the thing that I can do for the foreseeable future, that turns into a career that, that inspires me every day. And I answered an ad for an administrative assistant for a company that did nothing but tax debt resolution. And honestly, at first I was like, okay, now remember, I'm 25 years old. I've only, like, worked in restaurants and retail jobs and what have you. So you all get paid W2, right? You have your taxes withheld from your paycheck. This shows how naive I was. I did the interview and I called my dad, who's a lieutenant colonel in the military, and. And he said, how'd the interview go? And I said, well, it was fine. But Dad, I don't know, maybe it was a scam. Have you ever heard of people not paying their taxes? And you could hear the disappointment in his voice over the phone. I knew the look on his face as he was no doubt shaking his head at me, saying, daughter, you have so Much to learn. And that was 26 years ago. You know, he said, try it, see if it's something because you know, you love number you love, you love working through problems. Give it a try. And I tripped into this world that I love. Absolutely love. So.
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Wow, that's awesome.
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Yeah, thanks.
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Oh my goodness. All right, so when folks finally call you, what kind of financial storm are they usually caught in?
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There's, oh my gosh. As many types of financial situations you've ever heard of. I've probably dealt with it. It could be anything from, let's say I had a recent client come to me that didn't know that their business was supposed to collect and file and pay excise taxes for their business. Pardon me. And it took the state 11 years to figure out that they were missing this tax situation. By that time, the debt was over $750,000. So we've had that. We've had situations where people have lost family members, they inherit money, and before getting with a financial advisor or their accountant, they spend the money and it converts to taxable income. We've had situations where there's been embezzlement, theft, natural disaster, loss, you know, everything in between. We even to change of circumstances. And somebody who's self employed doesn't have all the information or just ends up in a financial situation where they can't pay estimated tax payments. But no matter the situation, there's always a solution. Which is why I love what I get to do.
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I know it's crazy because most of, most of what I sell are services and they're non taxable services. And so but every now and then, and I just put a slew of orders in today, they have, you know, they have the tangible thing, so it has sales taxes. And it's like you gotta put that together. You can't make mistakes. And the forms are crazy. Oh my goodness. All right, well, let's keep.
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I know. Oh, you know what, I have a really funny fact about that. Okay, so do you know that in the state of New York, if you are a plumber, your service hours are taxable for sales tax?
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Oh, no. Yes.
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So it is so important to know what, whatever business, whatever line of business you're in, call the state, call your city and county, talk to your CPA or your enrolled agent, whomever you use as a tax professional, make sure and walk through every aspect of your business to ensure every tax you're required to collect or pay and file that you are absolutely meeting your expectations. Because if not, like my client that found out 11 years later that they were supposed to be paying excise taxes. It turns into a huge problem really quick.
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Yeah, that's, that's crazy. And that just reminded me too. I've got an email. I think it was from open AI. I think it was from them. They're going to start charging sales taxes. And I thought it was kind of odd because most software, you know, software as a service or software companies, most of those items are taxable. Zoom. All of them, they charge sales tax. So. So somebody was, was slow on the draw over there.
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So there to show how smart AI is. Right.
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Okay. Okay. That was the human factor for sure.
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Absolutely.
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My goodness. Yes. All right, so let's just keep moving here. Okay. So let's get real. We' that really all the time. Right. Why do most people end up in tax debt in the first place? Is it bad luck, bad habits, or we just, you know, just not knowing the rules? And I think we kind of answered that. I read a little bit.
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Yeah. You know, it can be anything. It really can. I think the, the situations that have stuck with me, you know, kind of the, the cases that I'll never forget. There's usually something extreme that's gone on. A lot of times it's small business with embezzlement or theft within the organization. Some of the worst cases are family owned and operated businesses where family members are putting their hands in the coffers too much. And we just heard of an egregious case. I didn't handle it, but a friend of mine did where they had an in house accountant who created fake employees working for the business, it's a larger entity working for the business and cashing those payroll checks themselves. There are times in doing this where you question humanity. Right. When you hear those tales, when you hear of those situations, when you hear of people being scammed and losing their investments and losing money and you know, a lot of times I heard of a divorcing couple where the husband tapped the, the soon to be ex wife's 401k, withdrew all the money out of it. I mean, you hear these tales and your heart just breaks. But then these people are left with these tax situations that have to be dealt with. And you know, if anything, it has inspired me, all of these tales, all of these situations have inspired me to fight the good fight every day.
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Yeah.
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Put my arm around these people and say, you know what? This stinks. This absolutely stinks. My heart breaks for what you're going through. But I can alleviate the problem by getting this Part of it to a solution.
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Why is it so important to you personally that taxpayers hear your message loud and clear?
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No, because there, I don't want people to make their own situations worse by having that paralysis of not knowing what to do and letting that fear really overcome them. Because when you do that, right, if you're getting notices from the IRS or the state and you're hiding from them, you're giving up your own power. You're putting the tax agencies in that power position, which means you're hiding from it. They're in the power position. They think you're not paying attention. So it escalates the tactics that they use to collect on the debt versus if you just call them and say, you know what, I got a bill from you, I can't write a check for this, what do we do? What are my options? Then you are in the power position and you're going to feel better. You'll be able to sleep at night. You won't get so worked up with the anxiety of it that it impacts things like your health, your relationships, your focus, your ability to, to keep showing up at your, your work, your job every day, run your business every day. I mean, the anxiety over having a tax debt is so far reaching. To just be able to take that away from people that fear and giving up that power position, it's so important to me.
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Yeah, it's always, am I going to go to jail? Am I going to, am I going to get arrested for this? Last year, less than 500 people ended up going to to jail over tax debt issues. And it's usually, think about it, Al Capone, what did he go to jail for? They didn't get him on the racketeering, they didn't get him on the, the alcohol, they didn't get them on the prostitution rings, they got him over taxes. So yeah, when you think about it, that's the level of people that end up going to jail over tax debt. It's this, these big insidious cases where people have intentionally evaded taxes and filed fraudulent returns. And Ponzi schemes and things like that.
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Gotta play on top of the table, people. Oh my goodness. All right, so for those listening who are drowning in tax debt, what real options are actually on the table?
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It all depends on their financial condition. What kind of tax debt is it? Is it income tax? Is it payroll tax, Sales tax? Yeah, it just, it depends on their financial condition because what their finances show they can do above and beyond their health and welfare expenses or traditional expenses for their business starts that direction down one resolution path or another. So it really is all case dependent. But the big thing to remember is there's always a solution to it. It may be uncomfortable, it may be something that you shy away from for fear of the unknown, but just know there's always a solution. In, in almost 26 years of doing this, I've never had a case that I couldn't solve. There's always a way to work through it.
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And at least to the next question, what's the biggest fear? Taxpayers confessed or have confessed to you once they've built up the courage to reach out for help.
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A lot of them fear that it's going to force them into bankruptcy. A lot of them do. And, and there's just no need to go that far as long as the tax debt is really the primary debt that you have. I' clients where they only owed 50,000, I only, I'm sorry I say that, you know, kind of tongue in cheek, but when you. I know. Well, but it, but unless there are other financial problems, if that's the only thing, then you look at doing something like a compromise, an offer and compromise to settle the debt.
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What does that mean?
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So that is a formal agreement that you enter into with the IRS or the state to settle the balance owed. And it's all based upon your financial condition. So you, you have to kind of go under a microscope, right?
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Like they're going to look up your.
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Skirt, maybe a little uncomfortable. They're going to assess how you spent your money. But if you can say to the IRS or state, hey, look, I've got this debt, I know it, but here's my financial condition. I've got a family, we rent our, our home that we live in or our apartment. We, we don't drive Mercedes or Bugatti's or anything like that, you know, we're very reasonable with how we spend our money. And if we're tending to all of our necessary health and welfare expenses, I don't have any extra money to pay you. And that's when you go into a compromise situation with the IRS or state. I've had. I've had cases where clients have owed a million dollars, and based on their financial condition, we settle it at 25,000. So it's a very real opportunity to kind of draw that deep line in the sand and say, okay, moving forward, I'm going to get past this situation. And it's all based on my financial limitations right now. And it is very beneficial for those who can qualify for it. Believe it or not, most people think they qualify for it. But when we start digging through the bank statements and looking at everything the way the IRS will, we find a lot of people who have, you know, target habits of every week they're going to target and spending $500. And, you know, they. They take three vacations a year to Disney World. And I, I've seriously, I've had clients come to me and, oh, my gosh, you know, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. I owe the IRS $150,000. And you know what? We don't have the money to pay it. We don't have anything in our name. You know, mea culpa, right? So we get into the case and we start looking at bank statements. It's like you've got 14 or 15 thousand dollars coming into your household every month, and it's you and your wife and a cat. Where's the money going? And part of it is just people have a very detached relationship sometimes with bank accounts and with their money and their spending habits. And when you're dealing with a tax debt, the. The tax agencies want to see you doing everything you can to address the debt, and sometimes you just simply can't. And that's when they look at saying, okay, we'll settle it.
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That's great. So, you know, they do want to work with us, and I think that's good. Okay, so break it down for us. When can someone realistically do a diy, you know, for a tax debt issue, and when should they bring in their cpa and when do they absolutely need a debt resolution pro like yourself?
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You know, I would say if you're an individual who isn't afraid of sitting on hold with the irs, isn't afraid of standing up for yourself, then you could probably settle, handle dealing with the IRS or the state up to about 20, $20,000 debt, because at that point, you know, they're not going to push you too hard. When you get about above 20 to $25,000 of income tax, you want somebody who knows a little bit more about the tax world representing you. And that's where CPAs or your tax professional would be a good person to bring in above 50,000 in income tax. When they're talking about filing tax liens and the such, that's when you want to get a professional involved. If it's payroll or sales tax for your business, you want a professional involved from the very beginning. Because with those types of taxes, they can pierce the corporate veil and hold individuals personally responsible for the business failing to turn those monies over. So you really want somebody who knows how to work through those labyrinth and, you know, can say to you, okay, we have to go into an interview with a revenue officer at the irs, and they're going to be asking all these questions to see who's who should be held personally responsible. You want somebody who knows how to handle that type of interview and who can prepare you for it.
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This can't be light work. You're wrangling with the irs, state agencies every day. What keeps you motivated to stay in this fight for your clients?
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Seeing the impact that we have on people, that's the biggest thing, you know, being able to take somebody by the hand and say, okay, you're coming to me. And you, you can't even sleep at night because you've got this debt that has grown to such a degree that you feel like you can't breathe. You don't know where to go. Take hold of my hand. I'm going to stand as a protective barrier between you and the tax agency, the IRS or the state. They're going to deal with me. You just need to follow my lead. I'm going to get you through this. And inevitably, within a week of working with us, I have clients saying, I am finally sleeping at night. I haven't slept well for months or sometimes even years because of this problem. But I know you're looking out for us. You're my advocate. You're on my team. You're working with my CPA or my tax professional with anything that they are that they can provide you. Like, I feel like I've got somebody looking out for me, and that speaks to my soul. I don't know. I'm kind of twisted, I guess, right? My tax world and how that connects to me and who I am and what inspires me every day. But, boy, it really is the clients and the positive impact we have when. When they come to us feeling like there's no way they can get past a situation.
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Yes, definitely. What area of the United States do you serve?
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We handle Clients nationwide as enrolled agents. We're actually licensed by the federal government instead of the individual states as a CPA would be. So all of the states recognize that federal designation as tax experts and being the highest level of tax specialty, akin to a CPA and a tax attorney, but they're held by state lines. So.
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Yeah, that's great. That's great to know. All right, so switching gears for a moment then. What's the single best piece of advice you'd give to someone about the. To start a business so they don't wind up in a tax nightmare later?
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Oh, man. If I could require everyone who wants to start a business to meet with their tax professional first, that would be like the best thing I could ever ask our states, our, our country to do. Because so many people start a business and the financials are an afterthought. They're very passionate about wanting to open a restaurant or manufacturing a widget that they created. And they're so focused on that that they don't stop and think about the backside of having a business. Your numbers are what will make or break you. And if you can align with a tax professional who can sit down and look at your plan and say, okay, they can apply all of their experience, all of their schooling to your situation and say, okay, I've seen similar cases. Here are some, some pitfalls I want you to be aware of. Here's some things I want you to think about. Let's look at your tax obligations. Let's make sure from day one you are tending to them to keep you out of problems moving forward. And something that could pop up two years down the road, like not knowing you need to file and pay excise tax. If people would slow down and get with their tax professional and really think about that person being like a member of their board. Man, it pays off dividends. It pays off a hundred percent as you grow your business.
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That's great advice. I really appreciate hearing that. So as we come to a close in how can we get in touch with you? And I know you have free training on your website and we'll get that in the show notes.
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Just look up Morgan Q. Andersen EA and you're going to find me on social media, LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, our website@goldenliontax.com and if anybody has a question or a tax situation and you just need some insight, reach out to us. We love giving people simple answers to ease anxiety. We are happy to be that resource. We just want to help people.
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Awesome. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you coming today and a little sidestepping the tech, but this, we can be creative and innovative if we have money problems or tax money.
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Yes.
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That is, yes. Yeah. So thank you so much. So we look forward to seeing you again soon.
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Thanks so much, Audrey.
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You're welcome. That's it for today's Tech diva Biz talks. Hope you caught a gem or two. If you did, share it, review it, and most of all, put it into action. Until next time, tune in, level up, and talk tech.
