I owed $45K last year and I got them to defer payments for 6 months on the agreement that I would pay $1K a month after 6 months. Then, this year I got $25K back and they kept it all. Uncle Sam is gonna get his money. It was my fault for not putting away a portion of my check (I was 1099 contractor) so I knew all year long I was going to have to pay something. I have $3800.00 left to pay off. If you call the IRS and explain your situation (make sure you are 100% truthful) they will work with you. I didn't have an attorney and didn't bother. I figured I'm going to have to pay them and an attorney was just adding to the amount of $ out of my pocket. I called them and we worked out an agreement, but be forewarned, they looked 5 years back into my "reported income" and said that the MINIMUM they would go for was $650.00 a month payment. They averaged 5 years worth of reported income and used that to calculate what next years "estimated income" would be. I'd pay them if I was you. Don't kill yourself to pay them though and don't hurt yourself or your credit doing it. If you pay them whats agreed upon between the two of you, they WILL leave you alone. It's when you don't pay that the IRS gets nasty.
