Discover IT Secured vs. Capital One Secured

[Anonymous]

Why don't you contact the IRS and do an offer in compromise. If the tax bill is as large as you say, and you are having trouble even buying a $500 laptop, they will accept an offer for pennies on the dollar.

I owed $40k few years ago and did an offer in compromise myself. Offered $500 and they accepted it. But at the time I was actually in financial trouble. They will probe in your bank statements, income, spending etc to determine how much they will accept. And they will pretty much accept whatever it is you can afford. They also took two years of my tax returns which wasn't much.

Don't wait till you're in better financial shape. They'll come after you and garnish your wages and freeze your bank acccounts.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Why don't you contact the IRS and do an offer in compromise. If the tax bill is as large as you say, and you are having trouble even buying a $500 laptop, they will accept an offer for pennies on the dollar.

I owed $40k few years ago and did an offer in compromise myself. Offered $500 and they accepted it. But at the time I was actually in financial trouble. They will probe in your bank statements, income, spending etc to determine how much they will accept. And they will pretty much accept whatever it is you can afford. They also took two years of my tax returns which wasn't much.

Don't wait till you're in better financial shape. They'll come after you and garnish your wages and freeze your bank acccounts.

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I have been wanting to do that, but since $500 for a laptop would be a huge deal I couldn't really offer them anything. And I owe almost twice what yours was. Maybe I should try it and show them our income and bills and they will see we have very little lift each month. We even canceled cable, Netflix, Hulu, etc. to save money each month. We have seven kids living at home, too. I guess it could be worth a shot. In fact, about half that happened over 10 years ago and they can no longer legally collect it. 

[Anonymous]

They will accept whatever you can afford. If it's $100 or $50. Since it has been 10 years don't know what the best thing would be to do. Good luck

[stellar]

If your laptop is running slow, you may just need to reformat it rather than buy a new one.

[Anonymous]

I would focus on the money you owe the IRS before anything else as that will never go away unless you take care of it.  You will be adding interest and penalties.    It isn't like a credit card charge off or foreclosure that has statue of limitations that you can just ignore and it will go away. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I would focus on the money you owe the IRS before anything else as that will never go away unless you take care of it.  You will be adding interest and penalties.    It isn't like a credit card charge off or foreclosure that has statue of limitations that you can just ignore and it will go away. 

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Some of the debt is outside the 10-year collectible period because a big chunk of it was in 2002-2003. It won't come off my credit reports, but at least technically they can't collect it. Of course, that brings to mind the potential that I MIGHT dispute it since it's beyond the SOL. Doubt it would work, but who knows?

I really wish I could just afford to have a CPA help me figure it out, but I just can't bear that expense at the moment.

[Anonymous]

You're probably not gonna like what I have to say, but from the details I have gathered about your situation, and from someone who also has a MacBook from 2011 that I use both photoshop and Lightroom on frequently; I would think the best move would be to not drop more money that you don't actually have on a computer and camera, and instead work to clear up IRS situation, then wait until you can actually pay cash for a new computer $1k should be pretty easy to save, even if you aren't making much at all. In your current situation, let's say you buy a laptop and camera and create a business that is extremely successful quickly. Let's say you make $100k in first 12 months. The IRS will see this and take it all anyway, and you will have actually still made close to $0. They will also be mad that you didn't think to settle up with them first. You're better off paying them now, prolonging your time in the hole a bit then work your way out to safety. As it is now, even if you climb out you're gonna live with an extremely high risk that they just find out your out and throw you back in. Then you are back at square 1 with less time left.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
You're probably not gonna like what I have to say, but from the details I have gathered about your situation, and from someone who also has a MacBook from 2011 that I use both photoshop and Lightroom on frequently; I would think the best move would be to not drop more money that you don't actually have on a computer and camera, and instead work to clear up IRS situation, then wait until you can actually pay cash for a new computer $1k should be pretty easy to save, even if you aren't making much at all. In your current situation, let's say you buy a laptop and camera and create a business that is extremely successful quickly. Let's say you make $100k in first 12 months. The IRS will see this and take it all anyway, and you will have actually still made close to $0. They will also be mad that you didn't think to settle up with them first. You're better off paying them now, prolonging your time in the hole a bit then work your way out to safety. As it is now, even if you climb out you're gonna live with an extremely high risk that they just find out your out and throw you back in. Then you are back at square 1 with less time left.

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My husband and I have been talking about it and we plan to save as much as we can over the next couple of months and then go to them and make an offer. They may reject it, but at least they will see we tried.

I do actually have a desktop as well, but I start classes at the end of August and I was hoping to get a laptop to use at school before then. I can make do with my Macbook if I have to, it's just so slow it's driving me crazy. The camera can wait, because I can use my phone camera for now. It will do. 

[Anonymous]

An old Macbook (or WIndows laptops) can be refreshed nicely and sometimes very cheaply by maxing out the memory (older style memory chips can be had for pennies sometimes), reformating the drive entirely and starting over.  I use a laptop from 2010 that is absolutely more than enough for even graphic design work.  I maxed out the RAM for under $30 (Amazon) and reinstalled a fresh version of Windows and it flies.  No need to update yet.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

An old Macbook (or WIndows laptops) can be refreshed nicely and sometimes very cheaply by maxing out the memory (older style memory chips can be had for pennies sometimes), reformating the drive entirely and starting over.  I use a laptop from 2010 that is absolutely more than enough for even graphic design work.  I maxed out the RAM for under $30 (Amazon) and reinstalled a fresh version of Windows and it flies.  No need to update yet.

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I upgraded this one from 4 Gb to 8 Gb of RAM a couple of years ago, but I haven't tried a fresh install. I don't have Time Machine or any way to back up my HD, which is why I haven't been able to format it. Maybe I'll buy an external HD and try backing it up after we get the IRS situation resolved.