Discussion:Payroll Tax Penalties --- the best order to apply payments

The IRS is applying this credit to the oldest return (Form 941 3/31/06) first. However, this only stops penalties and interest as of 4/15/07. On this form, they have already incurred most of the wrath of the IRS penalties (late filing penalty, federal tax deposit penalty, failure to pay penalty).

Would it not be better to first apply this 4/15/07 credit to (Form 941 6/30/07, Form 941 9/30/07, ...)? Is it not true that those payroll tax penalties are assessed against the balance due? If no balance due, then no penalties or interest. Is this true even though the return was not filed on time?

Does this change what Blrgcpa & Irsfixer had to say?

Since the TAO is letting me designate, I guess I will go with what I mentioned above as the preferable ordering and see what happens. I talked to 2 people at the TAO and neither said that I could not designate. They even told me to send them a fax of how I want it done.

Was the huband involved in the business?

His two-part answer:

"How else could I get a refund if I don't have withholding?"

followed by

"I would never work this hard for free."

Perhaps this additional info matters. The entire overpayment on the joint 1040 is from the husband's withholdings. He had 2 W-2s. One for his real job and the other from the wife's SMLLC. So does the IRS consider the entire credit from the joint return as belonging to the husband, and therefore a voluntary payment?

I am familiar with the 90-day notice as it typically applies to protesting the IRS' automatic application of payments for semi-weekly depositors.

In my particular case, the client received penalty notices in early-March after they finally got around to filing their payroll returns. There were no payments made at that time nor was the 1040 overpayment moved. It's only been recently (within 90 days) that the IRS has applied the 1040 overpayment to their payroll accounts. I am in disagreement with the order and the amount of this application.

So, in this case, when did the 90-days begin to run?

The one that infuriates me is calling an attorney general a "general", as if he was some sort of military general. For one thing, it's not historically accurate. What is meant by "general" then? Well, for example, General Motors is not called General because it was founded by a general. It's called that because it makes motors in general. Just as an attorney general handles the general legal business of the USA or a state. William Safire wrote a piece in the NYT about this misuse of the word some years back.

My second great pet peeeve is the misuse by the press of "burglary" and "robbery". To the press, if someone breaks into your home when you are not there, you have been robbed. Not so, you have been burgled, hmmm, probably burglarized.

I was watching TV, Food Network or something, and found that Colonel Sanders of KFC fame was also such an "honorary" colonel.

910. (a) Except as otherwise expressly provided by statute, the community estate is liable for a debt incurred by either spouse before or during marriage, regardless of which spouse has the management and control of the property and regardless of whether one or both spouses are parties to the debt or to a judgment for the debt.