Allan R. Pearlman, Esq. Member Spotlight
Allan Pearlman’s earliest writings were not legal briefs. Before he had his thriving practice in tax resolution, he wrote poetry, short stories, and even plays. His skillful way with words is one of the reasons for his success in negotiating with the IRS. Allan could be called “the IRS whisperer.” “Something that inspired me to consider law school was having a really bad landlord when I was living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1980s, when an empty building was more valuable to a landlord than a full building,” Allan begins. “Our landlord was pretty terrible, and so a couple of neighbors and I went on rent strike.”The landlord sued Allan and his fellow tenants for nonpayment of rent, and
heard the whole thing about putting an ad on ‘The Howard Stern Show’ and getting like 100 calls in a day, and he was off to the races.” So, when Michael launched his Tax Resolution Success System and program in 2014, Allan was one of the first people to sign up. Over the years, Allan has used multiple strategies to build his clientele. Right now, he is updating his website and sending out his newsletter more often, saying, “Historically, the newsletter has been a pretty good thing. When I do it monthly, it works to stimulate referrals.”Word-of- mouth referrals, of course, are frequently the best, as they begin with a foundation of trust and good will.
the case went to court. “We succeeded in compelling this guy to do the work necessary for the building not to have leaks, to provide heat and hot water, and all those great things that are considered basic services,” Allan says. At the time, Allan was working the graveyard shift as a proofreader to pay the bills, first at Sports Illustrated and later at law firms, where he quickly saw that the better money was in word processing. He had been doing this for three years when he realized he wanted to do something more meaningful and went to law school. Upon receiving his Juris Doctor, Allan began a one-year judicial clerkship at the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York. After that year, he worked for the New York Supreme Court, researching and writing proposed decisions on motions for trial court judges. As interesting as working for the courts was, Allan wanted to get experience in the private sphere. And so, when offered an associate’s position at a boutique law firm, he accepted. But Allan found that he wanted to strike out on his own. He wanted a practice that would involve a large and heterogeneous population of potential clients. After some research, he began putting his energy into tax resolution. He signed up his first resolution clients in 2005, and like most newcomers to tax resolution, he faced a steep learning curve. He read, researched, and went to seminars on the topic and met Michael at one in 2008, when he still owned his tax resolution firm. “Michael is legendary,” Allan said. “I
Of the many clients Allan has helped, one stands out. The client was a life insurance salesman in his 40s, and over many years, he had accumulated a tax debt that ran to seven figures. According to Allan, “We submitted an offer in compromise and got an IRS reviewer who was crazy, dishonest, or just completely misinformed. Based on no facts whatsoever, he decided that my client had not been forthcoming about his business or his income, and so he was about to return the offer without appeal rights. I reached out to the Taxpayer Advocate Service, and ultimately, we were expecting the reviewer still to reject the offer but at least allow us an opportunity to appeal. “My client’s offer suggested that the minimum settlement amount was going to be $2,000, even though he owed more than $1 million,” Allan explains, “but then the reviewer contacted me and said, ‘If the taxpayer increases his offer to $6,094, we’ll take it.’ So, I settled — or ‘compromised’— a $1,070,050 federal tax liability for $6,094. I still have the number pinned on my wall.” “What I’ve been telling people is that I write poems that all start with the same line: ‘May it please the Court’—which is to say that most of my writing energy, talent, and even creativity are dedicated to persuading a judge, or in the case of the IRS, a revenue, appeals, or settlement officer, that the government should do what I’m asking them to do —within the bounds of the law, of course,” Allan adds with a smile.
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