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Unpaid payroll trust fund taxes don't stay with the business. Under IRC §6672 (the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty), the IRS can assess the balance against you personally — and the 4180 interview is how they decide who pays it.
Beacon Tax Relief is software, not a representative. It helps you organize your trust fund accounting, prepare documentation for the 4180 interview, and generate IRS forms for your own signature — at $499/month, versus $7,500–$25,000 at a tax-relief firm.
Six questions. Based on IRS qualification rules for payroll tax resolution. No outcome guaranteed.
Question 1 of 6
~60 seconds total
Including penalties and interest, your best estimate.
Plain-English explanation of IRC §6672 and the 4180 interview.
Every time you run payroll, you withhold federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare from employee wages. That money is not yours — you are holding it in trust for the federal government. It must be deposited with the IRS on schedule (typically semi-weekly or monthly for most small businesses, via EFTPS). These are the "trust fund" taxes.
If your business does not remit those withheld amounts, IRC §6672 authorizes the IRS to collect the unpaid trust fund portion — not the employer share, not penalties, just the employee-withheld amounts — from any person who was "responsible" and "willful." This is assessed separately from the business debt and survives the business dissolving.
Before assessing the TFRP against individuals, IRS Revenue Officers conduct interviews under IRM 5.7.3. You (or each potentially responsible person) fills out Form 4180 and may be interviewed in person or by phone. Questions cover: your title and duties, who made payroll decisions, who signed checks or initiated ACH payments, who had online banking access, whether you knew taxes were unpaid, and whether you directed funds elsewhere. The answers determine who gets assessed.
Beacon Tax Relief helps you prepare a written narrative and supporting documentation for the 4180 interview. It does not represent you at the interview, attend in your place, or provide legal advice. If your interview is within 30 days or you have received Letter 1153, see the EA referral section below.
We say this clearly because it matters for your decision.
Tax-relief firms typically charge $7,500–$25,000 flat fee for payroll tax cases. Beacon Tax Relief Business tier is $499/month.
Three-month case at $499/month = $1,497 total. That is less than the minimum retainer at most firms. Firms that quote "as low as $2,500" for payroll cases typically add fees for the 4180 response, appeals, and installment agreement separately.
Business Collection Information Statement — pre-filled from your business financial profile. You review, sign, submit.
Written narrative, authority timeline, and documentation checklist to organize your TFRP response. You bring it to the interview.
Forms 9465, 943, 843, 2848, 8821, 656-B — generated for your review and signature. All business-entity variants.
Two hours per month of priority phone access to an EA, plus a quarterly review call. You get a human who knows your file.
No cold call. No win-back when you cancel. One click to cancel. You keep every PDF and worksheet generated.
Upload any IRS payroll notice. Plain-English explanation of what it means, what is due, and the hard deadlines. CP162, CP215, LT16, Letter 1153, CP504B all supported.
The IRS uses a two-part test: (1) you were a "responsible person" — someone with authority over the financial decisions of the business, including corporate officers, directors, check-signers, shareholders with financial control, and in some cases bookkeepers or office managers with bill-pay authority; and (2) you were "willful" — meaning you knew the trust fund taxes were unpaid and either used the money for something else or consciously disregarded the obligation. Both elements must be present. The IRS construes both broadly.
Yes — if they had authority to decide which creditors got paid and knew payroll taxes were outstanding. Actual check-signing authority is not required; the test is whether the person had significant influence over financial disbursements. The 4180 interview explores this in detail. If you are a bookkeeper or controller who processed payroll for a business that owed 941 taxes, document your actual authority and report lines carefully.
Willfulness under §6672 means the person either knew the trust fund taxes were not being paid and paid other creditors anyway (voluntary, conscious, and intentional failure to remit), or recklessly disregarded an obvious risk. Courts have found willfulness even when officers claimed ignorance, if the circumstances showed they should have known. Importantly, paying other business expenses when you know taxes are overdue is itself evidence of willfulness. The 4180 interview is designed to surface exactly this.
Yes, but the window is narrow. Within 60 days of receiving Letter 1153 (the TFRP proposal), you can submit a written protest to the IRS Office of Appeals. Common grounds: you were not actually a responsible person, or you lacked the authority to remit taxes. After final assessment, you can pay a small portion and file a refund claim in Tax Court. Beacon Tax Relief helps you organize the documentation for a protest; for the actual protest filing and Appeals representation, you need a licensed EA or tax attorney.
Generally three years from the later of the return due date or the date the Form 941 was filed. If the employer omitted more than 25% of the trust fund taxes owed for a given quarter, the period extends to six years. The IRS can also toll the statute during certain events. Beacon Tax Relief helps you map the 941 filing history and identify which quarters may still be within the assessment window.
The IRS will likely assess the TFRP based on whatever information it has — which typically means assessing it against every person who appears to have had financial authority. Non-response does not protect you; it removes your ability to present evidence that you were not a responsible person or lacked willfulness. Responding — with organized, factual documentation — is almost always better than silence.
Payments on a business Installment Agreement are applied to the trust fund portion first (per IRS allocation rules), which reduces the TFRP base. But if the business IA defaults, the TFRP can still be assessed against individuals for any remaining trust fund balance. The TFRP is a separate legal liability — a business payment reduces it but does not eliminate the personal exposure until the trust fund balance reaches zero.
Yes. If a licensed EA or tax attorney is attending the 4180 interview on your behalf or representing you in the TFRP process, they need a valid Form 2848 (Power of Attorney and Declaration of Representative) authorizing them to act for you in that specific matter. Beacon Tax Relief generates Form 2848 for your review — you sign and submit it. The representative must still be licensed independently of anything this software does.
Organize your records. Understand what the IRS is asking. Know when to get a licensed EA. Start here.
Beacon Tax Relief is a software company — not a law firm, CPA firm, or Enrolled Agent firm. We do not negotiate with or represent you before the IRS. No outcome is guaranteed.