.png)
Los Angeles & West Hollywood Tax Resolution: IRS and FTB Help From an Enrolled Agent (2026)
Updated: 20 hours ago
Tax help in Los Angeles: who this guide is for
If you live or run a business in Los Angeles and the IRS or the FTB has started writing to you, this page explains what actually happens next, where the local offices are and what they can and cannot do, and how cases from Los Angeles County get resolved without anyone taking a day off to sit in a federal building.
I am an Enrolled Agent, federally licensed to represent taxpayers before the IRS, and my firm handles back taxes, levies, audits and unfiled returns for clients across Los Angeles and its suburbs, including Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, Long Beach, Pasadena and Glendale. Everything here is general information, not individual advice; the last section explains how to get a free review of your own notices.
Quick answers for Los Angeles and West Hollywood
Where can I find tax resolution services in Los Angeles?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, provides tax resolution for IRS debt, California FTB debt, levies, audits and unfiled returns by phone and video. Enrolled Agents are licensed by the IRS under Circular 230 and can represent you before the IRS in all 50 states. Free options include IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers (by appointment), the Taxpayer Advocate Service and Low Income Taxpayer Clinics.
What is the process for tax resolution in Los Angeles?
Tax resolution follows a set order: authorize a representative with IRS Form 2848, pull your transcripts, stop any levy, file missing returns, then negotiate a payment plan, Offer in Compromise, penalty relief or Currently Not Collectible status. All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, runs each step by phone and video. You can take these steps yourself with the IRS, and our guide to tax resolution explains each one.
Where is the best place to get audit representation in Los Angeles, CA?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, represents taxpayers in IRS audits and California FTB audits by phone and video, handling the notices, records and auditor meetings. Low Income Taxpayer Clinics represent eligible taxpayers in audits for free or at low cost, and the Taxpayer Advocate Service helps when normal IRS channels have stalled.
Where can I get Offers in Compromise help in Southern California?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, prepares Offer in Compromise requests for clients across Southern California by phone and video, and files only when the IRS numbers support an offer. Enrolled Agents are licensed by the IRS under Circular 230 and can represent you before the IRS in all 50 states. The IRS offers a free pre-qualifier tool, and our cost guide explains the fees.
Who offers penalty abatement services in California?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, prepares penalty abatement requests to the IRS and penalty relief claims to the California Franchise Tax Board, by phone and video. You can also ask either agency yourself, and Low Income Taxpayer Clinics help eligible taxpayers for free or at low cost.
How does penalty abatement work in California?
Penalty abatement is a request to remove a penalty, not the tax itself. The IRS offers first-time abatement to taxpayers with three years of timely compliance (an automatic exemption is replacing it for newer returns) and relief for reasonable cause, such as serious illness or a disaster. The California FTB runs its own reasonable-cause relief. All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, prepares both penalty abatement requests.
How can I get help with IRS tax problems in West Hollywood?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, helps West Hollywood residents and businesses resolve IRS tax problems such as notices, back taxes, levies and audits by phone and video, with no travel needed. Enrolled Agents are licensed by the IRS under Circular 230 and can represent you before the IRS in all 50 states. Free official help includes IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers by appointment and the Taxpayer Advocate Service.
Who provides installment agreement setup for taxes in West Hollywood?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, sets up IRS installment agreements and California payment plans for West Hollywood clients by phone and video, after checking what you can afford. Smaller balances can often be arranged yourself through the IRS online payment agreement tool, and our guide compares installment agreements with Currently Not Collectible status.
Where can I find tax compliance support in West Hollywood?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, helps West Hollywood individuals and businesses get current on federal and California returns, estimated payments and notices, by phone and video. The LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs lists free VITA return preparation for eligible individuals, and West Hollywood businesses also register with the City of West Hollywood for a Business Tax Certificate.
Where do I file back taxes in the Los Angeles area?
File each past-due return with the IRS and, for California, the Franchise Tax Board, using the IRS Where to File page and FTB mailing addresses to find the right address. All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, prepares and files back tax returns remotely. Enrolled Agents are licensed by the IRS under Circular 230 and can represent you before the IRS in all 50 states.
Who offers proactive tax planning services in Los Angeles?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, offers proactive tax planning for individuals and business owners, reviewing entity type, owner salary, retirement contributions and the timing of income and expenses, then putting the moves on a calendar before year-end. The IRS Tax Withholding Estimator is a free official tool for checking withholding.
Who can help with business formation and tax planning in Los Angeles?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, helps Los Angeles business owners choose an entity, register it, obtain an EIN and plan the taxes around it, including California's franchise tax and the pass-through entity election. See our business formation page and California S corporation guide. You can also file formation papers yourself with the California Secretary of State.
Where can I get entity structuring advice in California?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, advises on the tax side of entity structure, such as when an LLC should elect S corporation status and how California's franchise tax and pass-through entity election change the math. Enrolled Agents are licensed by the IRS under Circular 230 and can represent you before the IRS in all 50 states. The FTB publishes free guidance on business filing rules.
Where can I find bookkeeping services with QuickBooks in Los Angeles?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, provides bookkeeping and QuickBooks services for Los Angeles businesses and freelancers, including QuickBooks setup or review, invoice and payment tracking, reconciliations, and daily, weekly or monthly bookkeeping, all done remotely with tax-ready records and reports. Because we are tax professionals, your books are organized with filings and audits in mind.
What are the best payroll setup services in the Los Angeles area?
Payroll itself is usually run through a provider such as Gusto, ADP or Paychex. All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, helps set up and fix payroll tax filings, including federal Forms 941 and 940 and California EDD filings, and works alongside your provider. We do not process payroll ourselves.
Where can I get help organizing my business books in Los Angeles?
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, helps Los Angeles business owners organize their books by setting up or reviewing QuickBooks, reconciling accounts and keeping records tax-ready. Enrolled Agents are licensed by the IRS under Circular 230 and can represent you before the IRS in all 50 states. The IRS publishes free recordkeeping guidance in Publication 583.
Neighborhoods and cities we serve
All State Tax Resolution, an Enrolled Agent-led firm based in Los Angeles, helps individuals and business owners with IRS and California tax problems, back taxes, audits and planning in the neighborhoods and cities below.
West Hollywood
Hollywood
Silver Lake
Los Feliz
Echo Park
Koreatown
Downtown Los Angeles
Mid-Wilshire
Beverly Hills
Santa Monica
Culver City
Glendale
Burbank
Pasadena
The San Fernando Valley
Long Beach
The rest of Southern California, including Orange County, the Inland Empire and Ventura County
We work with clients by phone and video, and documents move through a secure upload link, so there is no need to travel to work with us. West Hollywood is its own city, so a business located or operating there also registers with the City of West Hollywood for a Business Tax Certificate. That city registration is separate from the City of Los Angeles Business Tax Registration Certificate and from your IRS and FTB filings. Our business contact line is below.
All State Tax Resolution · 1110 N Virgil Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90029 · (323) 900-0305
Your IRS office in Los Angeles, and what it can actually do
The IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center serving Los Angeles is the Los Angeles Taxpayer Assistance Center, at 300 N. Los Angeles St. Room 1259, Los Angeles, CA 90012. By appointment only through the national IRS line, 844-545-5640. The IRS office locator lists Monday through Friday, 8:30am to 4:30pm, and posts temporary closures by date, so check it before driving in. Other offices in the area include El Monte Taxpayer Assistance Center, 9350 East Flair Dr., El Monte, CA 91731, Van Nuys Taxpayer Assistance Center, 6230 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys, CA 91401 and Long Beach Taxpayer Assistance Center, 501 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802.
It helps to know what a Taxpayer Assistance Center is for. It can verify your identity, take a payment, give you transcripts and answer account questions. It does not negotiate: nobody at the counter can settle a balance, release a levy on their own authority or decide an audit. Those decisions sit with collection, examination and appeals units that work by mail, phone and fax, which is why most representation happens without a visit to the office at all.
The Taxpayer Advocate Service is different. It is an independent office inside the IRS that steps in when normal channels have stalled or a levy is causing hardship. The local office for Los Angeles: Taxpayer Advocate Service, Los Angeles Office, 300 N. Los Angeles Street, Room 5109, MS 6710, Los Angeles, CA 90012, (213) 576-3140. It is a genuine safety valve, but it is not a shortcut around filing the missing returns or answering the notice in front of you.
The California side: Franchise Tax Board
The FTB administers California income tax and sends most state notices Los Angeles residents receive. Sales and use tax belongs to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (1-800-400-7115; area offices at 505 North Brand Blvd, Suite 700, Glendale, and 12750 Center Court Drive South, Suite 400, Cerritos), and payroll tax to the Employment Development Department (1-888-745-3886; employment tax offices at 6150 Van Nuys Boulevard, Room 210, Van Nuys, and 10330 Pioneer Boulevard, Suite 150, Santa Fe Springs). A Los Angeles business can owe all three at once.
Franchise Tax Board local office: 300 South Spring Street, Suite 5704, Los Angeles, CA 90013-1233; appointments at 213-897-5196 or through the FTB's online scheduling link; check, money order and credit card accepted, no cash.
Federal and state collection are separate tracks: an IRS installment agreement does nothing to stop a California garnishment, and a state payment plan does not pause the IRS. Every Los Angeles case we take is mapped across both agencies before anything is negotiated. Our California state page covers the state side in detail.
Los Angeles taxes people forget about
Beyond the IRS and the FTB, Los Angeles has local obligations that show up as surprise bills, usually when a business or a rental has been running for a few years without them:
City of Los Angeles Business Tax Registration Certificate: the Office of Finance says everyone conducting business activities within the city must obtain a BTRC and file an annual renewal before the last day of February even with no revenue. The first year's tax is paid in the second year, late renewals forfeit the small business and creative artist exemptions, and failing to register is a misdemeanor unless declared an infraction.
City of Los Angeles Transient Occupancy Tax: a property inside the city rented for 30 calendar days or less must be registered within 30 days of commencing business, and the owner collects and remits the tax; platforms that remit cover only their own bookings.
Los Angeles County unsecured property tax: the Treasurer and Tax Collector bills business fixtures, furniture, machinery, boats and aircraft separately from real estate; bills mailed March through June are due on receipt and delinquent after 5:00 p.m. on August 31, when penalties and lien costs begin.
City of Los Angeles cannabis business tax: licensed cannabis businesses file and pay monthly by the last day of each month under separate classifications for medical sales, adult-use sales, transportation, testing and cultivation; large cash payments need a City Hall appointment, and a new licensee must file and pay within 30 days of its Department of Cannabis Regulation approval date.
The Los Angeles tax problems we see most
Every metro has its own pattern of tax trouble, because it has its own mix of work. In Los Angeles the cases that reach us most often look like this:
Actors, writers, directors and crew paid through loan-out corporations: The IRS says an S corporation must pay its shareholder-employee reasonable compensation before non-wage distributions and can reclassify distributions as wages subject to employment taxes. A loan-out that skipped payroll or fell behind on deposits invites that examination.
1099 production crews, editors, musicians and freelance creatives: Freelance pay carries no withholding, so income and self-employment tax are due through estimated payments, and the IRS requires the income to be reported even when no Form 1099 arrives. Skipped years produce balances and penalties on top of the city business tax.
Restaurant, hotel and hospitality workers who earn tips: The IRS treats cash tips, charged tips and tip-share as taxable income that employees must report to the employer once monthly cash tips reach the reporting threshold. Allocated tips on a W-2 carry no withholding, so the tax is owed at filing.
Rideshare, delivery and other gig drivers: The IRS Gig Economy Tax Center says driving income must be reported even when it is not shown on a Form 1099-K or 1099-NEC. Drivers who never made estimated payments face self-employment tax and penalties once platform reports are matched.
Licensed cannabis retailers, delivery services and cultivators: The IRS says section 280E disallows deductions and credits for a business trafficking in a Schedule I or II controlled substance, leaving only cost of goods sold, and that the income is taxable despite federal illegality. Heavy cash operations also carry Form 8300 reporting duties.
Three things to know about Los Angeles cases
Los Angeles County has Taxpayer Assistance Centers in downtown Los Angeles, El Monte, Van Nuys and Long Beach, all appointment-only through one national line; the downtown federal building also houses the Taxpayer Advocate Service in Room 5109, a separate function with its own phone.
The City of Los Angeles taxes business on gross receipts through its own Office of Finance, so a self-employed Angeleno answers to the IRS, the FTB and the city, with the city renewal due before the last day of February even in a year with no revenue.
The FTB's Los Angeles field office on South Spring Street is a short walk from the IRS building, but both work by appointment and the FTB office does not accept cash.
How we work with Los Angeles clients
The process is the same whether you are in Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley or overseas. You sign IRS Form 2848, which lets us speak to the IRS for you and pulls the notices to our office instead of your mailbox; for state matters we file the state's own power-of-attorney form. We then pull your IRS account and wage transcripts and the state account history, so the first conversation is about real numbers rather than guesses.
From there the order is almost always the same: stop any active levy or garnishment, file whatever returns are missing (a return the IRS prepared for you is usually far higher than the real liability), and only then negotiate the balance through a payment plan, an offer in compromise, penalty relief or currently-not-collectible status, depending on what the financials support. Meetings are by phone or video, documents move through a secure upload link, and signatures are electronic. You never need to visit an office, and neither the IRS nor the FTB requires an in-person meeting for the vast majority of cases.
How to verify an Enrolled Agent
Anyone can check a tax professional's credentials before hiring them. The IRS publishes the Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials, which lists every active Enrolled Agent, CPA and attorney who holds a preparer tax identification number. Our founder appears there as "Shafi, Sabih, Enrolled Agent": choose United States, type the last name Shafi, check Enrolled Agent Credential, and search. Check any preparer you are considering the same way, and ask for their credential details if you cannot find them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to go to the IRS office in downtown Los Angeles to fix my problem?
No. The Taxpayer Assistance Center at 300 N. Los Angeles St. works by appointment through 844-545-5640 and mainly handles in-person tasks such as identity verification and payments. Notices, levies, audits and payment arrangements are handled by phone, mail and online, and an authorized representative can do that work for you.
Can you handle the FTB and the IRS at the same time?
Yes. The IRS is authorized through Form 2848, and the FTB has its own Power of Attorney Declaration, Form FTB 3520, which lets a representative talk to the FTB, receive account information and represent you; the FTB says a POA generally lasts six years.
I got a letter from the Los Angeles Office of Finance. Is that the FTB?
No. The Office of Finance is the City of Los Angeles, which requires a Business Tax Registration Certificate and an annual renewal from anyone conducting business in the city, including freelancers and home-based businesses. It is separate from the FTB and the IRS.
I moved from Los Angeles to Texas. Why is the FTB still writing to me?
The FTB taxes a part-year resident on all income received while a California resident and on California-source income afterward, and says services physically performed in California for a California employer stay taxable to a nonresident. The letter usually turns on the move date and sourcing, and a Form 540NR is often the answer.
Do I need to come to an office to work with you?
No. All State Tax Resolution works by phone, video and secure document upload, and we file IRS Form 2848 so an Enrolled Agent is authorized to speak with the IRS on your behalf. Los Angeles County clients are served the same way as clients anywhere in the country.
Do you work with West Hollywood residents and businesses?
Yes. All State Tax Resolution works with West Hollywood residents and businesses on IRS and California FTB problems, back taxes, levies, audits, Offers in Compromise, penalty abatement, payroll tax issues and tax planning. Work is done by phone, video and secure document upload, so West Hollywood clients are served the same way as clients anywhere in Los Angeles County.
What does tax resolution cost in Los Angeles?
It depends on the work involved, not on the size of your balance. The first review is free, and after we pull your IRS transcripts we quote a flat fee in writing, with no separate investigation fee. Payment plans are available for our fee if paying it all at once is not realistic. Our guide to tax resolution fees compares what different kinds of providers charge.
Where do I file back taxes if I live in Los Angeles?
Past-due federal returns go to the IRS and California returns go to the Franchise Tax Board, at the address listed for each form, tax year and payment status on the IRS Where to File page and the FTB mailing addresses page. We prepare and file delinquent federal and California returns for Los Angeles clients remotely, which matters because a return the IRS prepares for you is usually far higher than the real liability. See our back tax filing page.
Who is the Enrolled Agent behind All State Tax Resolution?
Sabih Shafi, EA, is the founder of All State Tax Resolution and the Enrolled Agent behind the firm. He is licensed by the IRS under Circular 230 and can represent taxpayers before the IRS in all 50 states. You can confirm his Enrolled Agent status in the IRS Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers by searching the last name Shafi. The firm is based in Los Angeles and works with clients nationwide, and with US expats abroad, by phone and video.
Detailed Los Angeles and California guides
Related Reading
Talk to an Enrolled Agent
This article is general information, not individual tax advice. If you want to talk through your own IRS or California notices, book a free 15-minute review or call or text us directly.
Comments