Atlanta Employment Tax Lawyers

Employment tax matters affect employers of every size, and the firm represents clients across the full range of payroll tax exposure.

• Businesses with unpaid Form 941 liabilities: Quarterly federal tax return balances that have grown across one or more reporting periods.
• Owners and officers facing TFRP assessment: Individuals targeted by the IRS as responsible persons under IRC § 6672, before or after the assessment is issued.
• Employers in worker classification disputes: Companies under audit or notice of proposed reclassification of 1099 workers as W-2 employees.
• Businesses in active IRS collections: Employers facing Revenue Officer field visits, Notices of Federal Tax Lien, levies on accounts, or proposed seizure of assets.
• Companies with FUTA and Form 940 exposure: Federal unemployment tax liabilities that have escalated alongside or independent of 941 issues.
• Employers with Georgia withholding liabilities: Businesses facing parallel state-level enforcement from the Georgia Department of Revenue.
• Successor liability situations: Buyers or new entities exposed to predecessor employment tax debt through asset purchases or operational continuity.

The facts of each case determine the resolution path. The firm evaluates eligibility for each available option before recommending one.

Different employment tax matters require different procedural and legal strategies. The firm represents Atlanta clients across the full range.

Each category follows a different procedural track and a different legal standard. The firm matches the strategy to the case type from the first meeting.

Employment tax cases are rarely resolved in a single step. A properly handled case produces measurable, durable outcomes for the business and the individuals exposed to liability.

• Installment agreements that allow continued operations: Payment plans structured around realistic business cash flow, not aspirational projections.
• Trust fund liability limited or eliminated: Successful TFRP defenses that prevent personal assessment, or post-assessment challenges that reduce the amount.
• Section 530 relief on classification matters: Statutory safe-harbor defenses that bar retroactive reclassification in qualifying cases.
• Released or withdrawn federal tax liens: Lien releases following payment and discharge or subordination strategies that allow business financing.
• Stopped levy activity: Halted bank levies, accounts receivable levies, and asset seizures through procedural intervention and resolution agreements.
• Coordinated federal and state resolution: Parallel agreements with the IRS and Georgia Department of Revenue that resolve the full liability picture.

These outcomes follow from strategy. They do not follow from waiting for the next notice.

The Trust Fund Recovery Penalty is the part of employment tax law that turns a business problem into a personal one. Under IRC § 6672, the IRS can assess unpaid trust fund taxes directly against any individual the agency identifies as a responsible person who acted willfully. 

Trust fund taxes include withheld income tax and the employee share of FICA. The corporate form does not protect the people behind the business. The penalty equals 100% of the unpaid trust fund portion.

The IRS evaluates two elements when proposing TFRP:

• Was the individual a responsible person? Responsibility is a question of authority and control over the financial decisions of the business. It does not require ownership. A controller, a CFO, a bookkeeper with check-signing authority, or any officer with the power to direct payment of bills can fall within the definition.
• Did the individual act willfully? Willfulness in the TFRP context means voluntary, conscious, and intentional action. It also includes reckless disregard. It does not require bad motive. Paying other creditors while knowing payroll taxes were unpaid is the most common willfulness fact pattern the IRS pursues.

How the IRS Builds a TFRP Case

The agency develops the responsible-person and willfulness analysis through a Form 4180 interview. The interview is structured, documented, and used as the evidentiary foundation for the assessment. Answers given without preparation often supply the IRS with the willfulness admission it needs.

• Form 4180 interviews: The Revenue Officer asks targeted questions about check-signing authority, bill-paying decisions, knowledge of unpaid taxes, and payments made to other creditors. The format is not casual.
• Documentary evidence: Bank signature cards, corporate resolutions, payroll records, and email correspondence build the record alongside the interview.
• Multiple potential targets: The IRS often proposes TFRP against more than one person per business. The agency does not collect the full amount from each, but the assessment can sit against each one until paid.
• Appeal rights: A proposed TFRP assessment can be challenged through the Office of Appeals before it is finalized, and a final assessment can be contested in federal district court or the Court of Federal Claims through a refund suit.

What does not work is showing up to the Form 4180 interview unprepared, hoping the Revenue Officer will see the situation sympathetically. The interview is not a conversation. It is the evidentiary record the IRS will use to assess significant amounts personally against the people who answer the questions.

Wiggam Law represents responsible persons before, during, and after the Form 4180 interview. That representation includes preparing the client for the interview, managing the document production, framing the responsibility and willfulness analysis on the legal standard, and litigating the assessment through Appeals or in court when the facts support it.