St. Paul is where the Minnesota Department of Revenue is headquartered, and that is not a trivia point. A St. Paul taxpayer with a tax problem is usually dealing with two collectors at once: the IRS, and a state agency that runs its own enforcement program and tends to move faster than the federal one. CLAW Tax Group works both sides of that fight.
This is a tax resolution and defense practice, not a prep storefront. The work begins after the return is filed, when notices harden into liens, levies, and wage garnishments. The firm represents St. Paul individuals and businesses before the IRS Collections and Examination divisions and before MN Revenue’s enforced collection unit, and represents clients in all 50 states from an east metro base minutes away.
Call or text: (651) 323-2255
The State Agency in Your Backyard
Owe the IRS and there is a strong chance you owe Minnesota too, because a federal change usually carries down to the state return. The two agencies collect on different rules, and a plan built only for the IRS can walk straight into a state levy.
The IRS works under a ten-year collection statute and a federal appeals process. The Minnesota Department of Revenue runs its own Enforced Collection Actions under Minnesota Statutes Chapter 270C, and it does not ease off. The state can levy up to 25 percent of disposable wages, freeze and seize bank accounts, file liens, revoke a business or professional license, and intercept state refunds and payments through Revenue Recapture. For a St. Paul taxpayer, that collector is not in some distant federal building. It is down the street.
Understanding how both agencies operate, and how a move on the federal side changes the state balance and the reverse, separates a firm that files forms from one that defends the case. A national resolution mill working a St. Paul file from out of state often does not account for MN Revenue until it has already taken the money.
Commissioner Filed Returns: The State’s Most Aggressive Move
The Minnesota Department of Revenue does not wait politely for a missing return. If it decides one is overdue, it prepares the return itself and assesses tax on it. This is the Commissioner Filed Return, or CFR, and the authority sits in Minnesota Statutes Section 270C.33, subdivision 3. Many St. Paul taxpayers do not even realize the state can do this until the assessment is already on their account and collection is already moving.
The number on a CFR is almost never the right number, and it is never in your favor. Revenue assembles it from third-party data alone: the W-2s, 1099s, and other income reports filed under your name. None of the offsets that make a real return accurate are in there. No deductions. No exemptions. No dependents. No business expenses. No credits. The tax is calculated on gross income as if you had nothing to subtract, which inflates the balance, and then penalties and interest compound on top of that inflated figure. Until you replace the CFR, the state treats that number as valid and can levy, seize bank funds, and intercept refunds through Revenue Recapture to collect it.
Replacing a CFR is not optional cleanup; it is the entire fix. Filing your own accurate return overrides the state’s version, and because the real number is almost always lower, the corrected filing usually cuts the liability substantially. When the corrected return shows the state actually collected more than it was owed, the result is a refund instead of a bill.
That refund is not open-ended, though. Under Minnesota’s refund rules, the replacement return has to be filed within 3 1/2 years of the original due date, or within one year of the CFR notice date, whichever of those two is later. That one-year window is what rescues a refund on an old year the normal period would have already closed. Let it lapse and the overpayment is gone, even with a corrected return in hand proving the state was paid too much.
There is also a separate, faster clock if you intend to contest the CFR head-on rather than replace it: a direct appeal to the Minnesota Tax Court runs only 60 days from the Notice Date under Section 271.06, with administrative reconsideration available under Section 270C.35. Between the replacement deadline and the appeal deadline, a CFR notice is one of the few tax documents where sitting on it for a couple of months can permanently cost you money.
What the Firm Handles
IRS and MN Revenue audits. Outcomes turn on what gets produced and what gets said. With representation, the examiner deals with the firm, and the document flow stays controlled.
Levies and wage garnishments, federal and state. A levy is not a verdict. Many can be released or reduced with the right filing, but the time to act is short. A Minnesota wage levy reaches up to a quarter of disposable pay, which makes speed the whole game.
Unfiled tax returns and Commissioner Filed Returns. Unfiled federal or state back years are the most common path from a routine balance to a collections emergency, and on the state side they trigger the CFR problem above.
Tax fraud and criminal exposure. When a case carries the threat of civil fraud penalties or a criminal referral, it is no longer ordinary. Through the affiliation with Wildes At Law, a St. Paul taxpayer in that position has enrolled agent representation and a licensed attorney and CPA, Matt Wildes, working the same file. That is legal counsel and tax depth together, before anything is said that cannot be walked back.
Offers in Compromise and settlements. An IRS offer can resolve federal debt for less than the full amount, and Minnesota has its own settlement track. Both have strict qualification rules and timing that interacts with the collection statute. You get a straight answer before spending a dollar chasing one.
Installment agreements and Currently Not Collectible status. When a settlement is not realistic, the work shifts to terms you can sustain, or stopping collection while you stabilize, with both agencies accounted for.
The People on Your Case
CLAW Tax Group is led by Jon Call, an Enrolled Agent, NTPI Fellow, and a contributor to national taxpayer policy through the NAEA. Enrolled Agents are federally licensed with unlimited authority to represent taxpayers before the IRS, in any state, on any matter. It is the credential built for a St. Paul taxpayer staring down a tax notice.
He does not carry cases alone. The firm staffs additional Enrolled Agents whose work is exclusively representation and resolution, not seasonal prep, so a St. Paul file is handled by people who do this daily. And through the affiliation with Wildes At Law, the firm brings in Matt Wildes, JD and CPA, when a matter needs licensed legal counsel alongside enrolled agent representation. Matt’s tax law roots are local: while finishing his law degree, he worked for the IRS at the Wells Fargo tower in downtown St. Paul before moving to the taxpayer’s side of the table. For a St. Paul case that may need an attorney, that is firsthand knowledge of how the agency operates from the inside.
Our Process
It starts with the transcripts and the state account. The full picture gets mapped: the years, the balances, the penalties and interest, the assessment dates, the federal collection statute expiration date on each year, and the parallel standing with MN Revenue. Working a resolution case without that picture is guessing.
Then the plan is built around the real numbers, not a one-size template. Some years may sit close to statute expiration and be left undisturbed. Others point toward an installment agreement, an offer, or a hardship designation, federal, state, or both. The strategy fits the liability, the income, and the timeline.
Before any commitment, you get the honest read on what is achievable. A St. Paul taxpayer is better served by the realistic version than by a resolution that was never going to clear.
By appointment only. No walk-ins. Please call ahead to schedule an in-person meeting.
The Bottom Line
Tax problems do not shrink on their own. Penalties build, interest compounds, and neither the IRS nor Minnesota Revenue returns the time. If you are in St. Paul and either agency is on you, the right move is representation before the next letter becomes a levy.
Call or text: (651) 323-2255
CLAW Tax Group is a tax resolution firm based in the east Twin Cities metro, serving St. Paul and clients in all 50 states. Led by Jon Call, EA and NTPI Fellow, with a staff of Enrolled Agents dedicated to representation work. Affiliated with Wildes At Law, where Matt Wildes provides licensed attorney and CPA representation.
References: Minnesota Statutes Chapter 270C (collection); Minn. Stat. § 270C.33, subd. 3 (Commissioner Filed Return); Minn. Stat. § 270C.35 (administrative reconsideration); Minn. Stat. § 271.06 (Tax Court appeal); Minn. Stat. § 289A.40 (refund claim period); Minn. Stat. § 270C.69 (levy); Minn. Stat. § 270A (Revenue Recapture); Internal Revenue Code § 6502 (federal collection statute).