IRS form walk-through
Form 433-A (OIC): The Worksheet That Decides Your Offer
Form 433-A (OIC) (Rev. 4-2026) is the financial statement that ships inside the Form 656-B booklet, and it is doing something the ordinary 433-A never does: it calculates an offer amount. Where the plain 433-A supports a monthly payment or hardship decision, this version walks you to a number representing what the IRS believes it could collect from your assets and future income. That figure, not your hopes about pennies on the dollar, is what a realistic offer is built on.
General information, not tax or legal advice. Deadlines and dollar figures below reflect what the IRS publishes and can change; the controlling dates are the ones printed on your own notice. ClearChoiceRadar is not affiliated with the IRS or any government agency.
The collection paperwork, mapped
Why the OIC version exists
It computes, it does not just disclose
The regular Collection Information Statements gather facts so a collection employee can set a payment or grant hardship status. The OIC version keeps going: it takes the equity in your assets, adds a multiple of your monthly income remaining after allowable expenses, and arrives at a figure the IRS treats as the minimum an acceptable offer must generally reach. That is why two people with the same balance can face very different offer amounts, and why an offer below the number the worksheet produces usually goes nowhere.
What the worksheet pulls together
Personal and household information, and employment for wage earners.
Bank, investment and retirement accounts, with the equity the IRS counts rather than the headline balance.
Real property, vehicles and other valuable assets, again measured as realizable equity.
For the self-employed, business assets, income and expenses on the same basis.
Monthly household income against allowable living expenses, producing the remaining income the calculation multiplies.
The trap in the expense column
Allowable expenses, not your actual budget
As with every form in this family, the expense side is measured against the IRS's published Collection Financial Standards rather than purely what you spend. A household that spends generously on housing or transportation does not automatically get credit for it, which raises the remaining income figure and therefore the offer amount. Understanding that before you file is the difference between a realistic offer and a rejected one.
433-A (OIC) questions
What is the difference between Form 433-A and Form 433-A (OIC)?
The plain 433-A is a collection financial statement used to set an installment payment or support hardship status. The 433-A (OIC), which lives inside the Form 656-B booklet, is built to calculate an offer amount from your asset equity and future income. Same family, different job: one sets a monthly payment, the other prices a settlement.
Do I need Form 433-A (OIC) for every offer in compromise?
It is the individual and self-employed version used for offers based on doubt as to collectibility. Businesses use Form 433-B (OIC) instead. An offer based on doubt as to liability uses Form 656-L and does not require this financial statement at all, because the argument there is about whether the tax is correct rather than what you can pay.
How does the IRS decide if my offer is high enough?
Broadly, by comparing your offer to what the worksheet says it could collect: the realizable equity in your assets plus your future income after allowable expenses. An offer meaningfully below that figure is usually rejected unless special circumstances apply, which is why the free Pre-Qualifier tool and the worksheet math are worth running before paying anyone to prepare an offer.
Can I use my actual expenses on Form 433-A (OIC)?
You report them, but the IRS evaluates against its published Collection Financial Standards, with national allowances for food, clothing and out-of-pocket health care and local caps for housing, utilities and transportation. Spending above the standards generally does not reduce the calculated offer amount unless you can justify it as a necessary expense.
Sources: Form 433-A (OIC) (Rev. 4-2026) PDF, Form 656-B booklet (Rev. 4-2026) PDF, IRS: Collection Financial Standards. The deadline that governs your case is the one printed on your notice.
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