A few years ago, while serving as the Commissioner of the Small Business/Self-Employed (“SBSE”) Division (“Collection”), I took a call from a tax attorney whose client was unable to renew his passport. The client found himself in this predicament because of an unresolved, large balance due to the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), one that had remained unpaid for many years. The taxpayer needed to travel to Europe in just under a week for his daughter’s wedding, and the attorney asked how the IRS could expedite the process so he could be there. Sensing the urgency in the request was not difficult.