The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) is the most difficult of the three tax agencies to deal with.  The law changed in 2012 making employers personally responsible for state unemployment taxes.  This raised the stakes for taxpayers tremendously since their business could no longer go bankrupt and take unpaid unemployment taxes to the grave.  Now employers are personally responsible for unpaid state unemployment taxes, which can really add up quickly in certain industries. 

              Unfortunately, IDES did not grant additional time to contest determination and assessments.  For example, IDES only allows twenty days to protest a proposed determination and assessment, i.e. the tightest deadline among taxing agencies.  Whereas the IRS liberally allows reconsideration of substitute returns, IDES not so much.  Once the twenty day deadline has passed, IDES can modify a future tax rate in light of the actual tax return, but the incorrect tax liability itself won’t budge.  Thus, a taxpayer who took a three week vacation might miss an opportunity to dispute an erroneous tax assessment.

Moreover, IDES frequently requests large down payments and speedy repayment of one or two years in order to negotiate a payment plan.  While the IRS might allow five years, or sometimes more, to repay taxes, IDES usually allows one, or at the most two, and in rare circumstances three year payment plans.