Long-term payment plan
Owe $50,000 or less in combined tax, penalties and interest, with your returns filed, and you can generally set up monthly payments. Setup runs $29 by direct debit or $69 without it, reduced or waived for low-income filers.
IRS & State Tax Relief
Back taxes don't fix themselves. What you pay still can.
Penalties and interest compound on your balance every day it sits there. The IRS runs real alternatives to that — payment plans, penalty abatement, hardship status, and in some cases a settlement for less than the full amount. Which one you fit comes down to your numbers. Answer six questions and Debt Relief Alliance will come back to you about where you actually stand.
- IRS and state balances
- Garnishments, liens and levies
- No credit pull to check
- Free, with no obligation
See which programs you may fit
Free · About 2 minutes · No credit check
What people come to us carrying
- Years of unfiled returns
- Wage garnishment
- Bank levy
- Federal tax lien
- Penalties stacked on penalties
- CP504 or LT11 notices
- Payroll tax (Form 941)
- State balance as well as federal
None of these are too far gone to look at. The one that gets expensive is the one nobody opens.
Your actual options
What the IRS really offers — with the numbers attached
These are the collection alternatives the IRS publishes. Eligibility is individual and has to be confirmed against your filings, income and assets — but you should at least know what is on the table before anyone pitches you.
Short-term payment plan
Under $100,000 combined? You can request up to 180 days to clear the balance, with a $0 setup fee. Penalties and interest keep running until it is paid.
Offer in compromise
Settles an eligible balance for less than the full amount — but only where the IRS agrees you cannot pay it in full through a plan or from the equity in your assets. It takes a $205 application fee and a first payment, both waived if you meet the low-income rules.
Penalty relief
First-time abatement and reasonable-cause relief can take penalties off a balance. When a penalty is removed, the IRS automatically reduces or removes the interest tied to it.
Currently not collectible
Genuine hardship can pause collection. It is a pause, not an eraser — the debt stays, penalties and interest keep accruing, and you file a Collection Information Statement (Form 433) to get there.
Innocent spouse relief
Where a joint return understated tax because of your spouse's income or errors, you may be able to be relieved of responsibility for that part of the liability.
Every one of these has the same gate in front of it: your required returns have to be filed. If you are years behind, that is the first piece of work — and filing late returns often lowers the balance, because a return the IRS prepares for you includes no deductions, no credits and no favorable filing status.
See which programs you may fit Free · About 2 minutes · No credit check
Straight talk
About the "IRS Fresh Start Program"
You have heard the name on the radio. Here is the honest version: Fresh Start is what the IRS called a package of changes it announced back in 2011 — easier installment agreements, a more workable offer-in-compromise formula, and relief from certain penalties. It is not a standalone program with its own application, and there is no such thing as being enrolled in it.
What it left behind is permanent, and it is listed above. Payment plans, offers in compromise, penalty abatement, hardship status — those are the things a qualified tax professional files for a client, under their own form numbers.
So when a company promises to get you into Fresh Start, or quotes your settlement before seeing a single return, you have learned something useful about that company.
What actually decides your outcome
- How much you owe, and whether it is federal, state, or both
- Whether every required return has been filed
- Your income measured against the IRS's allowable living expense standards
- The equity sitting in your assets
- How much time is left on the IRS's window to collect your balance
Five inputs, and none of them can be guessed from a headline. That is the entire reason this starts with questions instead of a quote.
How it works
Three steps, and none of them start with a sales quote
- 01
Answer six questions
Who you owe, roughly how much, whether your returns are filed, and whether collection has already started. About two minutes. No documents, no credit pull, no phone call to begin.
- 02
We look at what you sent
Your answers come straight to Debt Relief Alliance — federal or state, personal or business, current filer or years behind — and we read them against the programs that actually exist.
- 03
We follow up about next steps
We get in touch about which options look realistic for your situation and what each one would involve. Nothing is decided on this website, and you are under no obligation at any point.
Start here
One question now. Five more if you want to keep going.
There is no account to create and nothing to upload. Answer what you know, put "Not sure" where you don't, and you will still get a useful read back.
- Time to finish
- ~2 minutes
- Cost to check
- $0
Question 1 of 6
Who do you owe tax debt to?
No credit check to get started
Why Debt Relief Alliance
Tax relief advertising has earned its reputation. This reads differently on purpose.
Nothing here touches your credit
This is an information request, not an application. No hard inquiry, no soft pull, no score change — and tax balances are not reported to the credit bureaus by the IRS either way.
We tell you what we cannot know
Nobody can price your settlement off six quiz answers. Any company that quotes you a number before seeing your returns, your income and your assets is quoting you a sales target, not a result.
Unfiled years get dealt with first
Most relief companies take the case and mention the missing returns later. Filing is the gate on every program the IRS offers, so we ask about it on screen three, not after you have paid someone.
You are not buying anything on this page
Checking your options is free. This page asks for no payment, no retainer and no card number. If paid work turns out to make sense for you, it gets quoted in writing first — and you can still walk.
Straight answers
The tax questions people are too embarrassed to ask out loud
Last thing
The balance grows whether you look at it or not
Two minutes of questions costs you nothing and tells you which of the IRS's programs are realistically in reach. Whatever you decide after that is yours to decide.
Check my tax relief options Free · About 2 minutes · No credit check
Debt Relief Alliance is not the IRS, a law firm, or a tax preparer, and nothing here is tax or legal advice. Program details and figures are drawn from IRS published guidance and can change. Eligibility is determined by the taxing authority based on your individual circumstances — no outcome, reduction, or timeline is guaranteed, and results vary.