Some IRS problems persist for years - notices arriving, balances growing, the same dread every time the mail comes - not because they are unsolvable but because they are stuck on a hinge nobody has identified. After 32 years of inheriting stuck cases, I can tell you they almost always hang on one of four.
Hinge One: Compliance
The IRS will not finalize any resolution - agreement, offer, hardship status - while returns are missing or current-year taxes go unpaid. People negotiate for years without realizing one unfiled return is vetoing everything. The fix is mechanical: identify the missing pieces from transcripts, file them, and watch doors that were mysteriously closed swing open.
Hinge Two: The Statute Nobody Checked
Every assessment carries a 10-year collection deadline, and a problem that has dragged on for years may be closer to expiring than anyone realizes - or may have been kept alive by filings that paused the clock. I regularly find stuck cases where the right strategy is the opposite of the current one: stop filing offers that freeze the statute, get into a posture that lets the calendar run, and let the problem die of old age. You cannot make that judgment without the dates, and the dates are sitting in your transcripts.
Hinges Three and Four: Posture and Follow-Through
Posture: some cases are stuck because the resolution being pursued was never the right one - a doomed offer resubmitted instead of a partial-pay agreement, full payment demanded where hardship status fit. Re-matching the facts to the right exit unsticks years of stalemate. Follow-through: other cases died of silence - a request that needed one more document, an appeal deadline that slipped, an agreement that defaulted over a missed estimated payment. The IRS does not chase you to fix these; the file just sits, accruing.
A stuck case audit is one of my favorite assignments: transcripts pulled, hinges checked, and usually a specific answer for why this thing has survived so long - plus the plan to end it. Bring me yours. Let's finally close it.