Significance

• The IRS Collection Information Statement requires you to list your business income and expenses in order to gauge the amount of money you have available to pay your taxes owed. Once the form is received, the IRS will make a final determination with regard to whether your Installment Agreement or Offer in Compromise will be approved and how the payments will be structured.
  
  

Features

• On the Collection Information Statement (also known as Form 433-B), you are required to list details about your business's day-to-day operations as well as your assets. There are a number of pieces of required information which must be included such as whether or not the business has filed bankruptcy, if any of the parties to the business owes a debt to the business, the business's banking information, the amount of cash the business has on hand, the dollar amount of any investments held by the business, and the amount of available lines of credit.
  
  

Considerations

• Self-employed persons do not need to complete Form 433-B. Instead, they can complete Form 433-A for wage earners. The only people who need to complete Form 433-B are those who run a business which has employees. Also, if you are applying for an Offer in Compromise, you will need to complete IRS Form 656 along with Form 433-B and if you are requesting an installment agreement, you will need to complete Form 9465 (Installment Agreement Request) and attach it to your request. If you have any questions regarding how to complete either form, call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040.
  
  

Process

• Once Form 433-B has been completed, mail it to the local IRS office which processes returns in your area. If you are completing the form to request an Offer in Compromise and not an installment agreement, then send your completed forms to the office which handles OIC requests for your area (see Resources).
  
  

Warning

• Failure to complete Form 433-B, or completing it with fraudulent or incorrect information, could result in you being denied your installment agreement or Offer in Compromise from the IRS.