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Portland, OR Tax Help: IRS & State Back Taxes, Levies, Audits (2026)
Tax help in Portland: who this guide is for
If you live or run a business in Portland and the IRS or Oregon DOR 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 Multnomah County (with Washington and Clackamas counties) 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 Portland and its suburbs, including Beaverton, Gresham, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego, Tigard and Vancouver, WA. Everything here is general information, not individual advice; the last section explains how to get a free review of your own notices.
Your IRS office in Portland, and what it can actually do
The IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center serving Portland is the IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center, Portland, at 1220 SW Third Ave., Portland, OR 97204. Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., by appointment only through the national IRS appointment line, 844-545-5640. Closed on federal holidays. Other offices in the area include Salem: 1660 Oak St. SE, Salem, OR 97301 (daily midday closure listed), Eugene: 211 E. 7th Ave., Eugene, OR 97401, Bend: 250 NW Franklin Ave., Bend, OR 97703, Medford: 960 Ellendale Dr., Medford, OR 97504 and Portland is the only IRS office in the metro area; none is listed in Beaverton, Gresham, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego or Tigard. Vancouver, Washington residents should check the Washington list in the IRS locator..
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 Portland: Taxpayer Advocate Service, Portland: 1220 SW 3rd Ave., Suite G044, Mail Stop O-405, Portland, OR 97204 (fax 855-832-7118), in the same federal building as the IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center and the only TAS office in Oregon., 503-265-3591 (Portland office); 877-777-4778 (TAS national line). 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 Oregon side: Oregon Department of Revenue
Administers Oregon income tax, withholding, the transit self-employment taxes and the state marijuana retail tax; Oregon has no general sales tax or transaction tax. Main lines 503-378-4988 and 800-356-4222, Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The City of Portland Revenue Division, not the state, administers the Arts Tax, the Metro SHS tax, the Multnomah County PFA tax and the city and county business taxes.
Oregon Department of Revenue local office: Portland regional office, 800 NE Oregon St., Suite 505, Portland, OR 97232, 971-673-0700, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a short midday closure; a Gresham office is at 1550 NW Eastman Parkway, Suite 220, Gresham, OR 97030, 503-674-6272. Regional offices take walk-ins, appointments can be booked online or at 800-356-4222, and cash is accepted only at the Salem headquarters..
Federal and state collection are separate tracks: an IRS installment agreement does nothing to stop a Oregon garnishment, and a state payment plan does not pause the IRS. Every Portland case we take is mapped across both agencies before anything is negotiated. Our Oregon state page covers the state side in detail.
Portland taxes people forget about
Beyond the IRS and Oregon DOR, Portland 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:
Portland Arts Education and Access Income Tax (Arts Tax): a flat annual amount owed by every Portland resident age 18 or older who lived in the city more than 30 days in the year and has Oregon taxable income above the threshold for their filing status. It is due with the federal return, carries late penalties, and is administered by the Portland Revenue Division, 503-865-4278.
Metro Supportive Housing Services (SHS) personal income tax: a marginal tax on taxable income above a filing threshold for people who live in, work in, or have income sourced within the Metro district, which covers 24 cities and unincorporated parts of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. Employers withhold for higher earners or anyone who opts in, thresholds are indexed for inflation from tax year 2026, and a companion SHS business income tax applies above a gross receipts threshold. The Portland Revenue Division collects it on Metro's behalf.
Multnomah County Preschool for All (PFA) personal income tax: in effect since January 1, 2021 for county residents, including part-year residents, and for nonresidents on income sourced within the county above the filing thresholds, with a second higher bracket and a scheduled rate increase beginning in 2027. The Portland Revenue Division collects it through Portland Revenue Online, and employers withhold for eligible employees.
Portland Business License Tax and Multnomah County Business Income Tax: any business operating in Portland or Multnomah County, including rideshare drivers, must register for a Revenue Division account within 60 days. The two taxes have been jointly administered since 1993 and are filed together but remain separate programs with separate gross receipts exemptions; the Portland exemption threshold rises for tax years 2026 and 2027.
TriMet self-employment tax: anyone with net self-employment earnings from business or service activities performed in or delivered to the TriMet district files Form OR-TM with the Oregon Department of Revenue. It is due the same day as the federal and Oregon returns, each spouse with self-employment earnings files separately, and the payment must not be combined with any other Oregon tax payment.
The Portland tax problems we see most
Every metro has its own pattern of tax trouble, because it has its own mix of work. In Portland the cases that reach us most often look like this:
Tech contractors and salaried engineers in Hillsboro, Beaverton and the Pearl District: Stock compensation and 1099 contract work push income over the Metro SHS and Multnomah PFA thresholds without matching withholding, so the first Revenue Division notice arrives with penalties. Under-withholding on vested stock creates a parallel IRS balance.
Vancouver, Washington residents who commute into Portland: Oregon taxes only wages for work physically performed in Oregon, but employers often withhold on everything and the worker never files Form OR-40-N to allocate remote days. The Metro SHS and PFA taxes can also reach Portland-sourced wages.
Licensed cannabis retailers, growers and processors: Internal Revenue Code section 280E denies ordinary deductions to businesses selling a federally controlled substance even where the state has legalized it, leaving only cost of goods sold, so federal balances run ahead of book profit. Retailers also hold the Oregon marijuana retail tax for the Department of Revenue and need a tax compliance certificate for OLCC licensing.
Food cart operators, restaurants and hospitality workers: Tip reporting, cash sales and thin payroll records lead to IRS employment tax assessments and trust fund recovery penalties against the owner. Carts also miss the Revenue Division business tax registration and the TriMet self-employment return that comes with Schedule C income.
Remote workers who moved from California to Portland: California's Franchise Tax Board often keeps treating a mover as a resident until the move is documented, while Oregon taxes from arrival, so two states claim the same income. Part-year returns, the credit for taxes paid to another state and a residency file have to be built together.
Three things to know about Portland cases
A Portland resident can owe four income-based taxes on one year's earnings: Oregon income tax, the Metro SHS tax, the Multnomah County PFA tax and the flat Arts Tax, and only the first is administered by the state; the other three are run by the City of Portland Revenue Division at 111 SW Columbia Street.
The IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center and Oregon's only Taxpayer Advocate Service office share the federal building at 1220 SW Third Avenue downtown, while the Department of Revenue's Portland office is across the river at 800 NE Oregon Street.
Oregon has no general sales tax, so state audits of Portland businesses center on income, withholding and transit taxes, but OLCC-licensed marijuana retailers must still register with the Department of Revenue as tax collectors and file quarterly marijuana tax returns.
How we work with Portland clients
The process is the same whether you are in Beaverton, Gresham and Hillsboro 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 Oregon DOR requires an in-person meeting for the vast majority of cases.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Portland have so many extra income taxes?
Voters approved them separately: the Arts Tax in 2012, and in 2020 both the Metro Supportive Housing Services tax and the Multnomah County Preschool for All tax. Each has its own thresholds, filing rules and withholding, and all three are collected by the City of Portland Revenue Division rather than the state, so missing one usually means a penalty notice years later.
I live in Vancouver, Washington and work in Portland. Do I owe Oregon?
Oregon taxes nonresidents on wages for work performed inside Oregon, reported on Form OR-40-N, and does not tax wages for days you work from home in Washington. Washington has no individual income tax, so there is no home-state credit to fall back on. Getting the day count right, and checking whether the Metro SHS or Multnomah PFA taxes apply to your Portland-sourced pay, is where most notices come from.
Do I have to go to the IRS office on SW Third Avenue?
No. The Portland Taxpayer Assistance Center is appointment-only through 844-545-5640 and handles things like identity verification, payments and transcripts. Collection cases, payment plans, penalty relief and audits are worked with IRS units by phone, fax and mail, which is how we handle them for you.
Can you handle the Oregon Department of Revenue and the Portland Revenue Division as well as the IRS?
Yes. A federal adjustment usually flows to the Oregon return, and the Portland Revenue Division taxes start from the same income figures, so we work all three together and make sure the numbers agree. As Enrolled Agents we are licensed to represent taxpayers before the IRS from anywhere in the country.
How do you work with Portland clients remotely?
Everything is done by phone, video and secure document upload, and we file IRS Form 2848 so we can speak to the IRS for you and receive your IRS notices directly. Oregon and the Portland Revenue Division each have their own authorization forms, so you never have to take time off to sit in a federal building.
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 Oregon notices, book a free 15-minute review or call or text us directly.
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