Installment advice

Not a tax pro but I know my way around tax software and have a decent amount of knowledge of most routine tax situations - but haven’t seen this one yet. An in-law started a new job last year and botched their withholding and now finds themselves owing ~$15k with their 1040. They want to go on an installment plan. I see there is a form where you can make a partial payment with the return and apply to pay $x evenly over some number of months. Other than obviously applying to pay it back as quickly as possible and thus with as few future payments as possible, any advice as to how to (or not to) apply to structure this? How likely is it that the IRS would actually deny the application for an installment agreement? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

https://www.irs.gov/payments/payment-plans-installment-agree…

If they have all of their tax returns filed and all previous taxes paid, the odds of the IRS approving an installment plan is very high.

Penalties and interest continue to accrue. Paying it off as quickly as possible while not creating another tax problem for 2022 is the best option.

The decisions are do they need a short or longer term installment agreement? The first decision is how long they request to pay it off.

Paying by electronic debit incurs less fees.

Are they low income? Owing $15K in one year, it is unlikely that they are low income.

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If they have all of their tax returns filed and all previous taxes paid, the odds of the IRS approving an installment plan is very high.

Penalties and interest continue to accrue. Paying it off as quickly as possible while not creating another tax problem for 2022 is the best option.

The decisions are do they need a short or longer term installment agreement? The first decision is how long they request to pay it off.

Paying by electronic debit incurs less fees.

Are they low income? Owing $15K in one year, it is unlikely that they are low income.

Thanks! No, not low income. Just cash strapped with a variety of 1st world problems - already have a 2nd mortgage from too much spending, always buying new cars every 3 years, son in college, and were literally closing on a vacation property (with a mortgage, of course!) the same weekend I was preparing their taxes and realized they were in the hole. I’ve tried to tell them they are living above their means, are leveraged, etc., but nothing changes. So, not much else I can do.

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I’ve tried to tell them they are living above their means, are leveraged, etc., but nothing changes. So, not much else I can do.

You are right there is nothing else you can do.

In 2000, I tried to help a friend straighten out her tax issues. Those tax years were resolved but she hasn’t changed. At one point, she called me on April 14th asking if I still had a copy of her tax return for three years prior. I had printed them for her to file three years earlier but she wanted to make a minor change in donations and hadn’t gotten around to telling me. I had those files but another time I lost some files when upgrading. Backups failed and I didn’t realize it until it was too late. I told her I didn’t know if she had filed for the year the IRS was questioning because that was in the time range of the lost files. She couldn’t find any of her files for that tax year.
She kept asking if I had the files. The answer didn’t change. In April of 2020, I gave her a list of the information needed to complete her 2019 tax returns. She hasn’t provided that information. I should hear from her regarding her taxes in about a month.