Years helping taxpayers
Taxpayers Assisted
IRS Debt Eliminated
Success Rate on Offers in Compromise
William J. McLee is an Enrolled Agent authorized by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service, and the editor-in-chief of Get Tax Relief Now. For more than two decades, he has practiced tax resolution from his Minnesota office, working with individuals, families, and small businesses through offer-in-compromise filings, installment-agreement negotiations, payroll-tax disputes, levy releases, collection due process hearings, and the full range of IRS collection-side procedures.
He oversees the editorial direction of the publication's tax-news coverage and reviews every article before publication.
William holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Master of Business Taxation (MBT) from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management. He is a graduate of Cornell University.
William is a licensed Enrolled Agent (EA), a credential issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Enrolled Agent status is the highest credential the IRS awards, authorizing the holder to represent taxpayers before the IRS in all 50 states, on any tax matter, at every administrative level. The scope of practice is equivalent to that of attorneys and Certified Public Accountants when it comes to IRS representation.
The credential requires passing the Special Enrollment Examination, a three-part exam covering individual taxation, business taxation, and representation, practice, and procedures. Maintaining it requires completing 72 hours of continuing professional education every three-year enrollment cycle and adhering to the ethical standards established in U.S. Treasury Department Circular 230.
William is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents (NAEA).
William's practice covers the full range of IRS collection-side representation. The following are the areas he works in most frequently.
He has filed Offers in Compromise (Form 656) under Doubt as to Collectibility, Effective Tax Administration, and Doubt as to Liability. He has prepared the financial analyses, asset valuations, and income projections that the IRS uses to evaluate these offers, and he has advocated for clients when the IRS initially rejected their applications.
He has negotiated streamlined, non-streamlined, and partial pay installment agreements and has worked with taxpayers classified as Currently Not Collectible (CNC). This includes cases in which clients had defaulted on a prior agreement and needed to reinstate or restructure it.
He has secured penalty abatements for failure-to-file, failure-to-pay, and accuracy-related penalties using First-Time Abatement (FTA) waivers, reasonable-cause arguments, and statutory exception provisions.
He has represented taxpayers in Collection Due Process (CDP) hearings (Form 12153) and equivalent hearings, including representation before IRS Appeals.
He has secured bank levy releases, wage garnishment releases, and federal tax lien withdrawals and subordinations.
He has defended taxpayers and responsible persons in trust fund recovery penalty cases, including Form 4180 interviews and willfulness defenses.
He has helped taxpayers who had fallen behind on filing, sometimes by multiple years, reconstruct their records through Substitute for Return (SFR) reconstructions and voluntary disclosure filings to get current with the IRS before enforcement actions escalated.
He has assisted taxpayers affected by tax-related identity theft, including by filing Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit, enrolling in IP PINs, and reconstructing returns.
He has worked with ITIN holders on Form W-7 applications and renewals, Certified Acceptance Agent (CAA) referrals, and the specific filing considerations that apply to non-SSN filers.
He has advised taxpayers on state-level matters, including Minnesota Department of Revenue cases, multi-state residency disputes, state Offer in Compromise programs, and state payment plans.
Most tax news is written by journalists who cover tax policy as one of many beats. The reporting is often accurate at the headline level but misses the practical details that matter to the person who actually has to respond to an IRS notice or decide whether to apply for a program.
William's coverage is different because of what he brings to the reporting. He knows which IRS programs have long processing times and which move quickly. He knows what the IRS actually requires versus what their guidance implies. He knows the difference between what a regulation says and how revenue officers apply it in the field.
That knowledge comes from having done the work, not from having read about it. This practitioner perspective is embedded in every article, in the way we frame the practical impact of a policy change, and in the specific mistakes and pitfalls we flag for readers.
As editor-in-chief, William is responsible for every phase of our editorial process.
He reviews IRS press releases, Internal Revenue Bulletins, state agency announcements, legislative activity, and Tax Court opinions to identify the stories that matter most to our audience. He ensures that every factual claim in every article is checked against the primary source document before publication.
He writes the section of each article that translates an official announcement or policy change into practical guidance for readers. He reads every article before publication for accuracy, clarity, completeness, tone, and reader value. The decision to publish is his.
He serves as corrections editor, investigating reader-reported errors, classifying them under our three-tier system, and recording corrections in our public corrections log. He also oversees the use of AI tools in our workflow, ensuring that AI-assisted drafting is followed by human verification, practitioner analysis, and editorial review, as described in our AI usage policy.
He currently holds several editorial roles simultaneously (editor-in-chief, fact checker, and corrections editor), as our masthead reflects. As the publication grows, these responsibilities will be divided among additional qualified staff.
Readers who want to reach William regarding editorial matters, error reports, or story suggestions can contact the newsroom.
Phone: (888) 260-9441
