The Pattie Gentile Show as heard on WADK Radio Ep 34

Pattie Gentile's "Fighting the Good Fight Podcast" is now a weekly radio program! Heard Saturday evening's at 6 and again Sunday morning at 10 at www.wadk.com or 1540AM Newport RI.

Host Patricia Gentile continues "Defending Taxpayers & Solving Their Tax Problems". With this new format, The Pattie Gentile Show will be your weekly appointment with Host Pattie Gentile & her guest experts as they discuss the latest tax news, issues and cutting-edge strategies to resolve and prevent tax problems.

Here on episode 34, our Memorial Day cookout episode we welcome the one and only Cajun Mike, Michael King of The Cajun Caterer NOLA. Cajun Mike is the "originator not the duplicator" and he teaches us the secrets of authentic New Orleans authentic BBQ. 

Enjoy and tune in on WADK.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

This is Patricia Gentile, founder of New England Tax Relief and host of the Patty Gentile Show. A client once wrote me, quote, My husband and I found ourselves in debt to the IRS for $167,000. I had contacted a company that said they would help. After I paid them $6,000, I found out that they took my money and ran. I was desperate and searched for a local tax attorney and found Patricia. She was able to get our tax debt reduced to $36,000. End quote. The moral of that story is that you really need to be able to trust the person you choose to represent you with the IRS. With over 43 years of combined experience as a taxpayer, defense attorney, and CPA, I have successfully resolved hundreds of difficult IRS situations. One-on-one, personal attention is the hallmark of my representation, and my strategies are customized to your specific needs to completely resolve your IRS issues. So go to my website, New EnglandTaxrelief.com, and schedule a free telephone consultation or call me at 1-800-880-8388, where a live person will always answer and take your message 24-7. Welcome everyone to the Patty Gentile Show. And in studio with me as always is my producer, John Ianuzi. We'd like to start the show off with notable dates. Of course, we need to note Memorial Day. Memorial Day this year is on Monday, May 25th. It's a federal holiday here in the United States. It's dedicated to honoring and mourning the United States military personnel who died while serving in the armed forces. It's traditionally observed on the last Monday of May. It features specific traditions and moments of remembrance, like honoring the fallen decoration day origins came from the graves of the fallen Civil War soldiers in 1868 where flowers and flags were placed. So there's that decoration day origin. I know that all through the cemetery that my dad is in, he was a veteran of the Korean War, and they go all around and place the flags and flowers on all the veterans' graves. It's also a national moment. I did not know this until I looked this up, John. It's a national moment of remembrance that at 3 p.m. local time, whatever your local time is on Memorial Day, Americans are asked to pause for one minute in an act of national unity to remember and reflect on the sacrifices made by fallen service members. I won't forget that. I will do that no matter where I am on Monday at 3 p.m. And of course, as we are all well aware, that it's the unofficial start to summer where it's widely celebrated, you know, as the beginning of our summer season and typically marked by the backyard barbecues and parades and a three-day weekend getaway. So uh John, what do you have to know about Memorial Day?

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Well, the first thing is that I noticed just last week at the community center where I live and where I stream your program on Sunday morning while we're doing our swimming laps, some veterans were out in front selling poppy lapel pens.

SPEAKER_05 3:59

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

And the poppy is the flower that is tied to the commemoration of those who have died in service.

SPEAKER_05 4:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

So every dollar that was raised would go back to different organizations that support veterans. Uh, I read a number that blew my mind. There's only 40 some odd thousand World War II veterans left, and they're all approaching 100 years old.

SPEAKER_04 4:26

Whoa, that's an amazing statistic right now.

SPEAKER_00 4:30

I was actually surprised that there are still 40,000 left. What I was told by this gentleman who was selling the poppies was that we're losing, you know, dozens every day. Sure. That right there is a sobering fact. But as far as what we do for Memorial Day, I have to tell you, we bit we're being heard right now in an area where some people are spending tremendous amounts of money to find space to bring their families and enjoy everything that Newport has to offer. And I always feel bad when the weather doesn't cooperate with these people who save and spend on these big weekends in these towns like Newport or Montauk or anywhere in the Northeast. I hope that they're all enjoying their holiday weekend.

SPEAKER_04 5:15

On Cape Cod.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Because I I know you camp. Have you ever camped in lousy weather? It's um oh yeah, not easy. It's not it's not the the most fun.

SPEAKER_04 5:25

Well, here's what I've I can recall about Memorial Weekend all the way back to high school when we used to go camping on Memorial Weekend and throw these great parties at the campgrounds ourselves. Is that Memorial Weekend is notorious for being cold and rainy?

SPEAKER_00 5:46

50-50, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:47

I even think it's over 50% of the time. Considering that I just went through four days with this excessive heat wave that we've had with my AC off because it's broken and they can't come and service it until the day after Memorial Monday. I sat here with everything wide open, hoping for a breeze, and of course I had my table fan. So I kind of welcome this chill right now because we're gonna be working in the yard and we're we're just gonna be out and about. We're gonna be camping, actually. You mentioned camping in three weeks. We're going up Lake Winnipesaukee area actually to celebrate National Bike Week up in Laconia, New Hampshire. And we're gonna be camping that week. And it reminds me that I read this article called Holy Rollers, where of course, because of the warm weather in May, whether you're a motorcyclist or you pedal, you get that call for the open road to get your seat in the saddle and get out there. You know, many religious institutions they hold the blessing of the bike ceremony. And we've we find the local chapter that's doing the blessing of the bikes, and we'll take our bikes and ride through as well. But I read here that in 1972 the blessing of the bikes became the ritual each May in Baldwin, Michigan. Over 10,000 motorcyclists and bicyclists congregate at the Baldwin airport for a blessing ceremony, and now some churches have added a new twist inviting wheelchairs, strollers, and skateboards for a blessing of the wheels. I thought that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_04 7:36

Yeah, I love that. I I'd like to put out our text phone number here, 603-204-0104. And here's the poll question for for next week. What do you ride? You know, how do you roll? Let us know so we can give you a shout-out and and uh celebrate if it's nice and cool. The weather's cool. I'm not hearing much rain. I'm hearing sporadic, wherever your location is, but you can still get out and do some uh riding and rolling.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

I the one thing I really miss is that at least around where I am, there are no more bike stores. There used to be bike shops where you could go and get your tire fixed, or you could get the brakes, you know, redone, or yeah. They're not around as much as they used to be.

SPEAKER_04 8:28

Well, we have tons of them. From here all the way up. It's very big here in New Hampshire and and in uh Massachusetts bike riding. So you could come up this way. Used to get the annual tune-up on the bike.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 8:42

Before you get going. I do want to mention, John, do you have some taxes? Because I I have one.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Well, we had one gentleman, Jordan, who uh wanted to let us know that he of all the cartoon characters he appreciates the Daffy Ducks, Elmer Fuds, and Sylvester the Cats of the World. So that would make him a Looney Tunes fan.

SPEAKER_04 9:08

That's right. And we had that poll question, and thank you for being a downloader and catching up on your podcast and responding. That's why that's what the phone number's for anytime. 603-204-0104. We did that poll question on the let's see, I think I mentioned it was a notable day of April 30th, that it was Bugs Bunny Day. So thank you so much. I've always loved Bugs Bunny and the and the Looney Tunes characters for sure. We also had a poll question. I got a text from Linda of Warwick, Rhode Island, who, by the way, says hello to everybody at WADK because she's a big fan, and a special shout out to Bruce, Bruce Newberry of WAD.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Hardest working man in showbiz.

SPEAKER_04 9:57

Well, there you go. But uh she was saying that for her memorial day. Let me read this. Her memorial day, um, what she's going to put out on the grill. Her hers menu is wrapped in foil. She says that's the secret. Salmon, corn on the cob, and then she'll be doing s'mores.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Now I can see the salmon and the corn on the cob, but wouldn't I wonder this? How do we keep the s'mores from getting stuck?

SPEAKER_04 10:29

You know what, Linda? Will you text me?

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Yeah, you gotta let us know.

SPEAKER_04 10:33

I don't think you meant that the s'mores are gonna be in foil. I really didn't think that was the case. But then again, I don't know. That could be pretty cool. You have all that melted chocolate and it's oh marshmallow.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Yeah, that's what would get real sticky, right? Hey, can I shout out a new listener? Sure. Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn, New York. Oh, Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_04 10:56

Welcome, Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Probably the hippest of all the boroughs. I was a Bronx boy, but I think Brooklyn's right now the coolest of the boroughs.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

Uh I also want to mention, because Linda talked about her menu on the grill, our guest today is actually Chef Cajun Mike, host of the cable show Cooking with Cajun. He's gonna share his recipes for barbecuing chicken, ribs, and steak and making chowder. Let's hear about how Louisiana makes their authentic chowder. So come on back and we will pick up with the taxpayer bill of rights number two. And as I mentioned last week, leading up to the 4th of July this year and the 250th birthday of the United States, I wanted to cover the 10 taxpayer bill of rights. As our Declaration of Independence has our 10 Bill of Rights, there is a taxpayer bill of rights, and there's 10 of them as well. How they came about was that in 2014, so they're not that old, the IRS adopted the taxpayer bill of rights as proposed by the former national taxpayer advocate, Nina Olson. And just as a sidebar here, the taxpayer advocate service, they like to say who we are, we're your voice at the IRS. And who they are is they're an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service. And their job is to strive to ensure that every taxpayer is treated fairly and knows and understands their rights. And they're here to help taxpayers resolve problems with the IRS and also recommend changes that will prevent the problems. So the 10 taxpayer bill of rights, I'm going to read them off, is the right to be informed, and we covered that on last week's show. Today we're gonna cover the right to quality service, and then there's the right to pay no more than the correct amount of tax, the right to challenge the IRS's position and be heard, the right to appeal an IRS decision in an independent forum, the right to finality, the right to privacy, the right to confidentiality, the right to retain representation, and the right to a fair and just tax system. So taxpayer bill of rights number two, the right to quality service, is described as you have the right as a taxpayer to receive prompt, courteous, and professional assistance in dealings with the IRS, to also be spoken to in a way that you can easily understand, and to have a way to file complaints about inadequate service. I love that right to quality service, but I can't really say that it happens quite the way they're describing it here. I would love for that to be the case, and this is nothing against the IRS employees because they're all trained in these taxpayer bill of rights. And you know, the IRS continues to regularly remind their employees about these rights, and they expect them to understand and apply these rights throughout every encounter with taxpayers. This is why I love being an advocate for the clients that I represent, because I always have these Bill of Rights in the forefront in my mind with every representation I do. Going back to the right to quality service, what this means for you is that the IRS must include information about your right to the taxpayer advocate service for assistance and how to contact them in all your notices of deficiency. And there is an internal revenue code section stating that. It also means that when collecting tax, the IRS should treat you with courtesy. And generally, the IRS should only contact you between 8 in the morning and 9 p.m., your local time. The IRS should not contact you at your place of employment if the IRS knows or has reason to know that your employer does not allow such contacts. That's in a code section, internal revenue code section. It also means that if you are an individual taxpayer eligible for a low-income taxpayer clinic assistance, generally your income is at or below the 250% of the federal poverty level. And you can look that up on IRS.gov. You probably can Google that anywhere. What is 250% of the federal poverty level? You can Google the federal poverty level, and your income is at or below 250% of that. The IRS may provide information to you about your eligibility for assistance from the low-income taxpayer clinic. So if you wanted more information about the low-income taxpayer clinics, there's a list. The IRS has a publication, 4134. You can also go to the website and actually search in the search box on their homepage, low income taxpayer clinic or L ITC. And what pops up is a list of low uh income taxpayer clinics in your state in your area. You can see if you are eligible for assistance there in those clinics. The IRS provides grants to tax professionals or universities that are in order to help taxpayers in the low income level who are eligible, and it's really a clinic that is supported by grants from the IRS for to help uh low-income taxpayers get assistance. The right to quality service, which is what we're on uh right now, the other um item here is that certain notices written by the IRS must contain the name, phone number, and identifying number of the IRS employee. And all notices must include a telephone number that the taxpayer may contact. During a phone call or in-person interview, the IRS employee must provide you with his or her name and their ID number. And this is also codified. Lastly, what the right to quality service means for you is that the IRS is required to publish the local address and phone number of the IRS in local phone books. I haven't seen a local phone book in ages, but you know, there are publications of them out there that businesses will buy into and uh will be published in, and maybe you could find one there. But you could definitely go on irs.gov and find local address and phone numbers as well. After the break, our guest is Chef Mike. He's Cajun Mike with Cajun Mike's Catering and the host from the cable show, Cooking with Cajun. He also is an author of a soon-to-be released cookbook called From Cajun Mike's Kitchen. And Mike's uh Mike is a Chef Mike, excuse me, is a direct descendant of the original Cajuns that landed on the banks of St. Martinville, Louisiana in 1755 from the Canadian provinces of North Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. So at a very early age, what he did is he he learned and developed both Cajun and Creole cuisines from both of his grandmothers and his great-grandmothers. So Chef Mike is, as he says on his website, an originator and not a duplicator. He's the real thing. So come on back. I know you'll enjoy hearing from Chef Mike.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

Silver hair and ragged shirt and baggy pants. The old soft shoe.

SPEAKER_04 21:13

Welcome everyone to the Patty Gentile show. And as I mentioned before our break, our special guest today is Chef Cajun Mike of Cajun Mike's Catering and the host from the cable show Cooking with Cajun. So welcome, Chef.

SPEAKER_06 21:31

Well, first of all, thank you. And I, you know, I got to put a big shout out to all my Kajans, all my Kasheen descendants down in the Boston area. People don't realize that uh, you know, when we got thrown out of Canada, uh, I'm an original descendant of the original family. And that the king, uh, he actually put four boats, 200 apiece, and went all the West Indies and Florida. And, you know, my my my grandma, and I'm gonna call it my grandma, landed in South uh West Louisiana in Little Town County St. Martinville, which is the landing of the Kajenes. And y'all call us Cajuns, but there's no such thing as a Cajun. The original descendant is called a Kajen. But people don't realize that we have just as many Cajuns in Boston because a lot of them, before they got uh captured and thrown on a boat, they did a mass exodus to down into the Massachusetts area. So I have a lot of Kajans out there that uh I want you to step up, y'all Kajans. Y'all know who y'all are, but uh this just thank you. We're gonna have a great time. And uh I love food. And uh so hey, let's let's let's get this thing going.

SPEAKER_04 22:31

Sure, sure. Well, we uh we have Memorial Weekend, and why don't we start off with your barbecue tips?

SPEAKER_06 22:42

Well, I tell you what, um, first of all, you got to start off with there's three things you have to remember about barbecue. It doesn't matter where where you're at, what you know your territory is or part of the country. The three things I want to stress right now is safety prep and patience. That's what you have to have in barbecue. Now let's let's talk about the safety. Before we even start, we have to have the safety issues because more deaths and injuries uh happened during memorial and 4th of July than I've ever seen. But the biggest problem is you want to stay safe. And how do you stay safe is that you want to be at least three feet from your home. So don't set your barbecue underneath the carport, be three feet away from your home and get away from them overhangs, get away from that sighting. Uh, and you have to establish a kid-free pet zone. So you got to make sure you don't have the kids around, pets around, and you have to use listen to this now, a food thermometer to check internal meat temperatures. That will get you sick. And preferably, well done, 165 and up. And please, please never leave a hot grill unattended and always let that grease get cool before you're cleaning. So let's start with that first. Let's get safer. We don't want we don't want no injuries. Okay, so yeah. So uh barbecue is very simple. Uh, so let's talk about what's popular. You have beef, ribs, and chicken. That's most what people uh want to do. Now, the key to cajin cooking or Cajun cookings down here is that it's the marinade. So let's let's start with chicken, which is the most popular. So I want to do what we call a brine solution, a marinade brine solution. And you're gonna say, well, what's a brine? It's a solution that we're gonna soak our chicken overnight. We're gonna marinate our chicken in a brine solution, and that's made out of water, sugar, salt, peppercorns, garlic, onion, celery, Worcester sauce. You can put hot sauce if you want it. But we're gonna stick that in a big pot, put your chicken after it's washed, and we're gonna let that chicken brine overnight in an ice box. And and I'm telling you, after it's brine and you get it on that grill with that smoke and that briness, your barbecue chicken is gonna come out so moist and tender. Specifically the breast, because I know a lot of you out there saying, Man, you know, my chicken's up there, but my breast is always tough and dry. Well, if you brine it out before you um you barbecue it, you know, it's it's gonna really be fantastic. So let's talk about let's talk about pork ribs, which was the uh most popular short ribs, baby backs, things like that. Now, pork is slow grilling, slow cooking. The average pork ribs are gonna take four to five hours. That's the key. So we're still gonna do the bryming method overnight, okay, with the pork. So I'm doing the bryming method, and then I'm gonna take it out. And then obviously, it doesn't really matter if you do charcoal or if you do your gas grill. So it can be done the both ways. It's just temperature control, it's a difference. Now I prefer charcoal, but that's a story for another day. But okay, let's talk about the pork ribs, how I'm gonna do it. It's very simple. So after you brine it out, let's just go ahead and get it on that uh on that grill. So your grill is nice and hot, it's ready to go. So your your ribs are gonna take between four and five hours. Now you just stick it on the grill. Now, here's the key. After about two hours, you want to take them pork ribs off the grill, let it cool down for like five or ten minutes, because if you don't let it cool down a little bit, it's gonna break up. Okay, so you just want it to cool down a little bit, and then you're gonna wrap it in aluminum foil. Completely wrap it in aluminum foil, and then you're gonna stick it back on the grill for another two hours. Now, here's the key take some of that brine and solution and splash a little bit of that that water brine solution on top of that grip on top of them ribs because pork likes to get steamed. The more you steam out a pork rib, the better, because it's gonna be moist and tender. Now, some people put the sauce in it, some people wait to at the end and put it back on. It don't really matter, it just depends on your preference. But the chowder down here, y'all call it, you can call it bisque, you can call it chowder. Bisque is more floury, more um thick. But down here, we we have the chowder. Now, y'all in in the New England area, y'all invented the chowder. Now, I'm not gonna take away from that, but I need to tell you guys, it's all about flavor. And that chowder y'all making up there, I know I'm probably gonna lose a whole bunch of listeners out there. Y'all just don't have it. Uh, and I've already proved it. I've had people down, came down to Louisiana, my restaurants, um, that ate my my my chowder compared to the original chowder and how I do it compared to y'all do it. Um, you know, I have a little different recipe I invented to give it that flavor. It's basically simple. You just melt some butter down, and after you get that butter down, you want to put your trinity. Now, we call it Trinity down here, which is the Holy Trinity, which is basically onions, celery, and green pepper. Now, okay. Up y'all, y'all trinity is the maricor, which has carrots. We don't put carrots in food down here, okay? That ain't gonna happen. Not in South Louisiana Cajun Club. We ain't gonna put carrots in our food. So that's where you start. So you want to melt that down a little bit, melt your butter, just go ahead and put your trinity in there. You want to make it translucent. You don't want to brown it or anything, you just want to translucent a little probably about three or four minutes. And here's the key. Here's the key. Then what you want to do is you want to take some flour because our thickening base is the flour itself. So once we get the flour in there, okay, and then the next thing after I do that flour, then I'm gonna add whole milk. And boy, y'all freaking out right now. Y'all freaking out because y'all want to put that old cream in it. No, whole vitamin D milk. Better, won't clump up on you. And and uh, and then after you get that milk in there, and then now the difference is mine is a seafood. Now you can put any protein, but we're gonna do a seafood corn chowder. And then the next thing I'm gonna do is do two things. I'm gonna put um, say if I'm using uh eight quarter pot, which is a standard uh pot, then what I'm gonna do is when I put that milk in there, then I'm gonna put a can of cream corn in it.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

Oh, cream corn.

SPEAKER_06 29:13

Cream corn. And then I'm gonna put two cans of regular corn in it. Now, to spice it up a little bit, I'm gonna put some diced tomatoes in it or some rotel. Now, down here we like the rotel. So if you don't want, if you can't have a hand of rotel, then you want to go with the regular dice. And then what you do, you let that milk simmer very low because you don't want to scorch it. Um, so you want to go about an hour, maybe an hour 15 minutes on a very low low fire, and then before you finish, then you want to put your your protein in there. Shrimp, chicken, whatever you want, what lobster, clam, whatever you want to put in it. It really don't matter. And then this is the seasoning you're gonna put in it now.

SPEAKER_05 29:55

Oh, okay, all right.

SPEAKER_06 29:57

You want chicken powder?

SPEAKER_05 29:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 30:00

You want thy basil, garlic powder, onion powder, and fresh parsley. And that's your flavor.

SPEAKER_04 30:12

Chef, uh, you have a cookbook.

SPEAKER_06 30:15

It's coming out, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 30:17

Coming out. It's called From Cajun Mike's Kitchen.

SPEAKER_06 30:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 30:22

And when do you think you'd be releasing that?

SPEAKER_06 30:24

I'm hoping in another probably four to five months right now. It's um we had we had to kind of tweak them a little bit on some stuff because things have changed. And it's it's from an original book that we did a long, long time ago. These are the original recipes from my family that they've been cooking since 1765. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 30:42

Oh, that's gonna be oh, that's gonna be the original gumbo recipe. Yeah, so will you please contact John when you release the book so we can have you back on?

SPEAKER_06 30:52

You got it.

SPEAKER_04 30:52

Uh, we would absolutely love that. And could you let our listeners know how they can reach out to you because you're you're a private chef, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 31:02

Cajun CajunMike.com. Simple, CajunMike.com. Yep, everything's there. You want to know about me? Hey, if you want to come down to Louisiana, I do I do Airbnbs, I do you know private chef lessons. I get a lot of people in the northeast that wants me to do private cooking for on their vacations. Uh uh, just go to CajunMike.com and you can order me and I'll do a private chef cooking right in. And actually, I do cooking lessons too. So, whatever I do down here, hey, I want to say I'm the most famous Cajun chef in the world that nobody ever heard of. I'm the guy behind the I'm the guy behind the curtain. That's who I am.

SPEAKER_04 31:33

Chef, thank you so much. Have a great memorial weekend. I hope you're not spending your weekend cooking for others.

SPEAKER_06 31:39

I am, I am, I am, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:41

I got a big hired out for the weekend.

SPEAKER_06 31:43

Yeah, yeah. I just finished doing a big military ball, so uh yeah, nice. Yeah, all right. Well, thank you, Yahee. God bless, and be safe out there, safe cooking.

SPEAKER_04 31:51

Okay, uh thank you so much, Chef.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

I see you. You were shining like a diamond in a dress. We were young and love and reckless, we were just two kids.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Well now it's on now here I'm gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

In our last segment here of the show, this is the Patty Gentile show. I like to call this my coaching corner. Today I'm going to talk about my initial interview with a taxpayer who's having tax problems. And so, for taxpayers who do have tax problems, and maybe you've you're getting on a regular basis collection notices from the IRS right now, or you're going to soon receive collection notices because you have a balance due that you cannot pay from filing your 2025 tax return. And also for tax professionals who are helping their clients who have tax problems, you want to know that if you're a taxpayer and you're going to speak with a tax professional to assist you, or you're going to represent yourself, or if you're a tax professional representing your client, this is what I do in my initial interview. I ask questions such as, of course, how much is owed? And whether all the tax returns have been filed. Maybe there are some that haven't been filed. Maybe the taxpayer has had several non-filed returns. Is there a revenue officer right now involved in trying to collect from the taxpayer? And if yes, of course, I asked for the name and the contact. And the last time the revenue officer has contacted you or your client, as well as even if there isn't a revenue officer involved, then what's the last letter that you've received from the IRS? So that I can tell from that what the level of urgency is at this point, the type of letter, whether there's a deadline date, so that you don't miss exercising your rights to dispute the issue. I also ask for personal information, such as marital status, filing status, number of dependents. As just as important, I have to ask about financial information, such as your occupation, the amount of your income. I'll put it in terms of the IRS's form 433-A, which is their wage earner and sole proprietorship collection information statement. And you can find this on IRS's website, irs.gov, form 433-A. When I ask about income, I'll ask what's your average monthly income? Because that's what's asked on that form. What are your average monthly necessary living expenses, especially in these main categories of housing and utilities, transportation, health care costs, your taxes? What's your average monthly federal, Social Security, Medicare, and state, if applicable, income taxes? And what's your property tax? Do you have savings? Do you have investments, IRAs, 401ks? Do you have real estate? I just mentioned property taxes, but I need to ask, do you have property? And to discuss those items. I also asked if you have a passport, because it could be very possible that if you are a seriously delinquent taxpayer and seriously delinquent is in quotations as far as the IRS is concerned, because when you meet that category, they report to the United States State Department that you are seriously delinquent on your federal income taxes. And now you get a notice from the IRS stating that your passport can be revoked or it can be declined if you're submitting an application or it can be uh suspended. And so, of course, I'm going to ask in my initial interview, do you have a passport or do you need a passport? If you have one, when is it up for renewal? I also ask if you've seen a lien from the IRS filed, either on your registry of deeds or you've received the official notice of federal tax lien, and they have filed a lien either on real estate, which would be up at the registry of deeds, or in the local U.S. district, uh federal district court on your personal property and your future rights to property. And I'll ask, how is it this lien affecting you, or how will it affect you if the IRS files it? And and currently they don't have a lien, but if they do, and I'll ask, you know, are you planning to sell your property? I'll also ask, have you received any certified mail? And certified IRS notices are numbered C as in CAT, P as in Paul 504. That's a certified mail notice from the IRS. Notice CP504, letter 1058-1058, and letter 11. Those are certified mail IRS collection notices, but they have rights attached to them. And you never want to let those rights pass. The deadline where you can exercise that right could be a right to an appeal, it could be a right to petition the United States tax court, it could be a right to respond and dispute the tax at issue, but you want to open that envelope. I know it comes certified, and that's very intimidating to people, but you want to open that envelope. I'll ask if you've already retrieved your own account transcripts, and there's a lot that I can get from looking at these transcripts. I may actually, if you want me to represent you before the IRS with a proper power of attorney of Form 2848, contact the revenue officer if there's one involved and try and stop some collection action being threatened by you, like a levy on your bank accounts or your wages or a lien if uh if the revenue officer wants to file a lien. And lastly, that final notice of intent to levy, which is that letter 11 or letter 1058, you know, that does allow you to request a collection due process hearing within 30 days. If you open that envelope after that 30-day deadline, you can request what's called an equivalent hearing within one year. So here's a few takeaways from what I've just mentioned for both taxpayers and tax professionals. All cases are different, so treat each one individually, making a decision to hold back or moving forward based on the best interest of the taxpayer. And I'll talk about that next week and next week's show about when to hold back and not move forward. And keep your client informed of your plan and any changes to your plan. So until our next show, please have a safe and fun filled Memorial Weekend.