{"id":28246,"date":"2017-09-18T19:28:25","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T19:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/?p=28246"},"modified":"2018-05-02T13:31:25","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T18:31:25","slug":"tax-dictionary-ability-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-ability-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"Ability to Pay"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>IRS Definition<\/h2>\n<p>The IRS looks at the taxpayer\u2019s income and assets to make a determination on his or her ability to pay.<\/p>\n<h2>More from H&amp;R Block<\/h2>\n<p>From the IRS perspective, your ability to pay is the amount you can pay toward your tax balance. The IRS uses specific calculations to determine this amount for some types of IRS payment plans, called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-installment-agreement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">installment agreements<\/a>. The IRS determines your ability to pay using the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-collection-information-statement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">financial statement<\/a> you provide, listing all your assets (home, cars, bank accounts, etc.), income, and expenses.<\/p>\n<p>If you owe taxes and don\u2019t qualify for a simple payment plan, or if you don\u2019t think you can make any payments toward your tax balance, the IRS will calculate your ability to pay.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/bill-for-unpaid-taxes\/\">Learn all the options you may have if you can\u2019t pay your taxes.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IRS Definition The IRS looks at the taxpayer\u2019s income and assets to make a determination on his or her ability to pay. More from H&amp;R Block From the IRS perspective, your ability to pay is the amount you can pay toward your tax balance. The IRS uses specific calculations to determine this amount for some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":26539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irs","category-audits-and-tax-notices"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<title>Tax Dictionary - Ability to Pay | H&amp;R Block<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you can&#039;t pay your taxes and request an IRS installment agreement, the IRS may need to determine your ability to pay using specific calculations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-ability-pay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ability to Pay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you can&#039;t pay your taxes and request an IRS installment agreement, the IRS may need to determine your ability to pay using specific calculations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-ability-pay\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"H&amp;R Block\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hrblock\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-18T19:28:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-02T18:31:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/summer-job-cash-payment-1024x370-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elyce Luegers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@hrblock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@hrblock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elyce Luegers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-ability-pay\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-ability-pay\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elyce Luegers\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/#\/schema\/person\/91512e91ae00a37478a4f91b90022449\"},\"headline\":\"Ability to Pay\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-18T19:28:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-02T18:31:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-ability-pay\/\"},\"wordCount\":144,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-ability-pay\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/summer-job-cash-payment-1024x370-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"IRS\",\"Audits and tax notices\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-ability-pay\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.hrblock.com\/tax-center\/irs\/audits-and-tax-notices\/tax-dictionary-ability-pay\/\",\"name\":\"Tax Dictionary - 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