Alidade does not represent clients before the IRS
Referral · partner directory
When the matter escalates — and how the handoff works.
Alidade routes cases to three credentialed tiers — Enrolled Agents, CPAs, and Tax attorneys — but never represents clients before the IRS itself. This page answers the four questions that come up at the routing moment: what we see through vs. what we hand off, the trigger conditions that escalate a case, how the handoff actually works, and how to tell a legitimate practitioner apart from a "tax relief" mill.
In vs. out
What Alidade sees through to a written plan — and what it routes out.
The line is statutory. Anything that requires speaking to the IRS on your behalf, signing a return as your representative, or exercising a procedural right at a hearing is a credentialed-partner job. Alidade handles the administrative support, partner routing, and written plan around it.
Stays with Alidade
- Document organization against the notices and tax years you have
- Financial-information preparation — Form 433-A / 433-B draft substantiation
- Notice-response drafting support — a working document for you or your credentialed partner to file
- Written Tax Resolution Action Plan with named issue, missing documents, real deadlines, and a referral flag
- Partner routing to the credentialed tier the matter actually requires, with a structured handoff
Routes out
- Any verbal or written communication to the IRS on your behalf
- Any signed return filed as your representative (Forms 1040 / 1120 / 1120-S)
- Collection Due Process hearings — LT 11, Letter 1058
- Notice of Federal Tax Lien appeals and withdrawals
- Levy / wage-garnishment responses already in progress
- Summons responses and Tax Court petitions
A matter that resolves at the administrative level — without any of the above — comes back with the referral flag set to Not required: you complete it on your own with the Action Plan checklist.
Escalation triggers
Conditions that escalate a case to representation.
These are the situations where the administrative support above is not enough — the matter needs a credentialed practitioner in front of it. Each row below names the condition, the signal that tells you it applies, and the tier the Action Plan routes to.
| # | Condition | Route to |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Active levy or wage garnishment in progress A CP 504 / CP 90 / CP 297 paired with a levy notice has been issued, or a wage-garnishment order is already showing on a recent pay statement. | Tax attorney |
| 02 | Multi-year unfiled (three or more tax years with no return on the transcript) Request the wage-and-income transcript via Form 4506-T; any tax year missing from the transcript is unfiled. Collection math is unpredictable until each missing year files. | CPA |
| 03 | Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP) exposure IRC §6672 — personal liability assessed against a "responsible person" of a business that failed to collect or remit payroll withholdings. The responsible-person defense is separate from the entity’s liability; this is a payroll-business-specific statutory term, distinct from a regular income-tax balance. | Tax attorney |
| 04 | Open IRS collection action already underway A Notice of Federal Tax Lien has been filed; a continuous levy is in effect; a bank-account freeze has occurred; a field-call visit or revenue-officer assignment has happened. The matter is no longer administrative. | Tax attorney |
| 05 | Offer-in-Compromise candidate The financial-condition math on Form 433-A / 433-B points to an RCP (Reasonable Collection Potential) below the total assessed balance — making an OIC an option worth filing. The OIC form must be filed by a practitioner authorized to negotiate on the taxpayer’s behalf; the math is conditional on a complete 433 package, which the Action Plan already produces. | Tax attorney |
| 06 | IRS audit response or Examination correspondence A CP 2000 (underreporter inquiry), a CP 2501 (information-document matching), or an in-person Examination appointment letter has been issued. The response carries representation and statutory-interpretation weight — the substantive answer cannot live in an administrative-support deliverable. | Tax attorney |
The trigger table is escalation-only — it lists conditions that route to a credentialed partner. Matters that resolve inside the administrative scope above come back with the referral flag set to Not required.
The handoff
What actually happens next, in three steps.
Alidade does not collect a referral fee, does not co-sign the engagement letter, and does not oversee the representation. The handoff is a clean transfer of the financial-information package, the document map, and the written Action Plan — and then the partner carries the engagement on their own letterhead.
Step 01
Alidade preparesWe build the financial-information package, map every document against every notice, and deliver the written Action Plan with the referral flag set to the tier the matter requires.
Step 02
You pickAlidade routes to a tier — Enrolled Agent, CPA, or Tax attorney — never to a specific named firm. You read the directory below and choose the partner you engage.
Step 03
Partner retainsThe contract, the retainer, and the privileged communication are with the partner. Alidade does not collect a referral fee, does not co-sign the engagement letter, and does not oversee the representation. This keeps Circular 230 §10.5 and state fee-sharing rules clean — your matter, their engagement.
Share boundary
What gets shared with the partner — and what does not.
We organize and clarify; the partner decides strategy and represents. The share boundary follows that line — you set it, we honor it, the partner receives exactly the package you authorize.
Forwarded
The structured package — the written Action Plan, the document map, the missing-document checklist, and the financial-information draft (Form 433-A / 433-B). The package is scoped to items you marked REPORTED_BY_CLIENT or VERIFIED_FROM_DOCUMENT in the Action Plan editor and explicitly handed to Alidade. The partner receives the package; nothing more.
Not forwarded
Bank-login credentials are never requested or stored. Anything you did not place on the Action Plan's shared list is not forwarded. Anything you marked private or explicitly withheld is not forwarded. You review the package and can remove items before handoff — the boundary is yours to set.
Alidade does not see partner correspondence. The partner does not see your broader account state — only the transferred package. The boundary reads the same way on both sides.
We organize and clarify; the professional decides strategy and represents.
Telling the two apart
A legitimate EA, CPA, or tax attorney vs. a “tax relief” mill.
The IRS collection industry has earned scrutiny. The comparison below is behavior-by-behavior — credentials, paperwork, fees, promises — so you can read it against any firm you are considering and tell, on paper, which kind of operation you are looking at.
| Behavior | Legitimate | Mill |
|---|---|---|
| First contact with the IRS | Names the credentialed practitioner who signs the response — that name appears on the IRS correspondence. | Calls itself a "tax resolution specialist" without a named EA, CPA, or tax attorney credential. |
| Power of Attorney (Form 2848) | Prepares Form 2848 before speaking with the IRS on your behalf. The POA is on file before any filing is made. | No Form 2848 prepared until payment clears — leaving the IRS time to levy or continue collection while you wait. |
| Fees and retainer | Quotes fees in writing and itemizes them in a retainer you sign before any work begins. Refuses refund-as-fee and advance-fee arrangements that exceed your state’s cap. | Refund-as-fee ("we take our fee out of your refund") or advance fees at or above your state’s cap, collected up front. |
| Outcome promises | Refuses outcome guarantees on Offer-in-Compromise, Currently-Not-Collectible status, and penalty abatement. Reports typical historical rates with the disclosures Circular 230 §10.29 requires. | Advertised guarantee of forgiveness — "pennies on the dollar" — or a fixed settlement amount stated before any financial review. |
| Who works the file | The same credentialed practitioner works the file end-to-end. The salesperson is not the practitioner. | Scripted same-day "stop the IRS" pitch from a closer; the practitioner only appears at signing. |
| Disclosures | Discloses any past enforcement actions on the Form 2848 disclosure section and in marketing material, as Circular 230 §10.29 requires. | Discloses nothing — no public record of disciplinary history, no Form 2848 disclosure entries. |
The framing is behaviors, not practitioner-bashing — the column on the right names the patterns the FTC, the state bars, and Circular 230 enforcement have flagged repeatedly.
By tier
What each credentialed tier handles.
Alidade routes to one of three credentialed tiers, plus the resolved outcome (no partner needed). Below, each tier card lists the kind of work the partner picks up, the signals that point to that tier, and the contact line to start the routing conversation.
Tier · EA
Typical engagements
- Set up an installment agreement (Form 9465)
- Submit Form 433-A — Collection Information Statement
- Build a hardship packet for CNC status
Route to this tier when…
A response where the IRS process is administrative — paperwork and payment terms, not statutory interpretation.
Referral contact for Enrolled Agent
Share the action-plan draft and the notice — Alidade does not see partner correspondence.
Tier · CPA
Typical engagements
- File prior-year Forms 1040 / 1120 / 1120-S
- Reconcile payroll-cycle deposits against the notice
- Address state-side penalties that follow federal
Route to this tier when…
A preparation + representation stack — preparing returns and handling the balance in a single engagement.
Referral contact for CPA
Share the action-plan draft and the notice — Alidade does not see partner correspondence.
Tier · ATTORNEY
Typical engagements
- Request a CDP hearing (Form 12153)
- Appeal a Notice of Federal Tax Lien (NFTL)
- Defend against a summons or civil fraud referral
Route to this tier when…
A formal hearing, a procedural appeal, or any matter where statutory interpretation drives the outcome.
Referral contact for Tax attorney
Share the action-plan draft and the notice — Alidade does not see partner correspondence.
Tier · NOT_REQUIRED
Typical engagements
- Log the notice into the document map
- Pre-fill the missing-documents checklist
- Compose a first draft response for client review
Route to this tier when…
A matter that does not require representation before the IRS — administrative support only.
Referral contact for Not required
Share the action-plan draft and the notice — Alidade does not see partner correspondence.
Referral contact
One email starts the routing.
Send the notice, the action-plan draft, and a sentence describing what happened. We answer within one business day with the partner tier that fits and a referral pointer — the partner engagement, pricing, and retainer happen with them, separately.