In my 70-plus years, I have engaged in a wide range of activities, both work and play. Raised on a farm by a workaholic, I learned to stay busy all the time. I lived “off the grid” for the first five years of my life in rural North Carolina in the 1940s. We had no electricity until I was five. We had indoor running water, but used an outhouse and had no indoor toilet. We used a kerosene refrigerator, and my mother cooked on a wood stove. The stove had plumbing in the firebox, so we had hot water and could take a shower in the basement, but only at mealtimes. We didn’t have a phone until I was 13. I managed to run over myself with a tractor at age 16 and took my first paying job that same year. What was the job? Driving a school bus in Stanley County, North Carolina. Yes, at that time, North Carolina used high school students to drive the buses. So, I lived off the grid for five years and started paying taxes at age 16.

After my father was killed in a farm accident, I left the farm and worked in factories for fifteen years while making my way through college and law school. My college degree was a BA in the delivery of Social Services, and in law school, I took every tax class that was offered (one!), as well as Estate Planning.

I started work as an investment broker during law school and continued that after graduation, becoming a Certified Financial Planner. After ten years, I moved to the Puget Sound home of my third spouse and continued the investment brokerage plus started a bed and breakfast. It was a financial disaster, resulting in us filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1994. Several attorneys who had been referring investment clients to us were present at our creditor’s meeting. As one might expect, those attorneys quit referring clients to us. Because the financial planning business failed, in 1996, I took a job as a tax resolution attorney for Washington Tax Advisors, the second-largest tax resolution firm in the U.S., where I represented hundreds of taxpayers before the IRS.

My office was in the same building as Washington Tax. While working with Washington Tax Advisors, my law office was in the same building. When the IRS decided to raid Washington Tax Advisors, my law office was subjected to an illegal raid by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (CID). They burst into my office, in SWAT suits, hands on the butts of their guns, shouting, “Hands up, Federal Agents, don’t move!” The CID officer in charge seized my bankruptcy client files. He had a warrant for Washington Tax Advisors, but not for Don Bell Law. When I protested, he stated, “I came here to take every piece of paper in this building and I am going to do it,” and he did. Not a good day. Three years later, CID called and said, “We are dropping this investigation. You can come get your files.” That was still not a particularly good day—really galling—but better than the day of the raid!

In 1999, my spouse took a job in Colorado, necessitating a move from Washington. We made the move, then she lost her job, and we did not file or pay for 2001 and 2002. In 2004, the IRS Office of Professional Responsibility removed me from my work as a representative due to my failure to file and pay. I should have been notified they were considering revoking my right to be a Power of Attorney. There was no such advance notice. I simply received a notice that I was no longer allowed to be a representative. With no income, we filed our second bankruptcy, and I took a job as a truck driver.

After driving a truck for two years, in 2006, I founded TOPS (The Oilfield People’s Services). By the end of 2007, we were running six trucks and brought in over a quarter of a million in the last three months of the year. Then came 2008. Out of business…

From 2009 through 2012, I was driving a truck again. I had to set up a “Partial Pay” installment agreement for myself. “Partial Pay” means that based on the amount I could afford to pay, the statute of limitations (SOL) would end before the full amount owed would be paid. At the same time, I worked on getting reinstated at the IRS. After accomplishing that, I went back to doing tax resolution for folks who had gotten in trouble with the IRS and bankruptcy for folks with regular debt they could not afford.

After my spouse died in 2017 following a long illness, I needed to do my third bankruptcy. I understand dealing with business loss and the death of a loved one causing financial difficulty. I know what it feels like to be a repeat filer. I do not want people to follow my path and do multiple bankruptcies. Now, I do what I can to help every individual that becomes a client. Each new client is given a recommendation to use the daily meditation book “Letting Go of Debt” and a copy of the CFPB book “Your Financial Empowerment Toolkit.”

For me, the old phrase “Been there, done that” applies to just about every situation of any tax or bankruptcy client that comes to me. I know the shame of having messed up and failing to file and pay my taxes. I know the pain of multiple filings. I know the frustrations of having gone broke in business—three times. I know the fear the IRS can instill. I also know it is possible to recover from all that and move on. In October of 2023, for the first time in forty years, I put money into savings. But I did it, and I want to help you do it, too. I can help only if you call or email! Blessings to all, and stay well!

Don Bell