Discussion:Innovative Tax Solutions/Strategies...Scammers?
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Discussion Forum Index --> Tax Questions --> Innovative Tax Solutions/Strategies...Scammers?
Donniecastleman (talk|edits) said: | 16 October 2007 |
| Hello everyone,
Suddenly I have 3 clients on my list that all enlisted the help of ITS to do an offer in compromise, and they all have the same horror stories, that they gave ITS 3-4 thousand dollars and then they never heard from ITS again, comments? Are there ANY tax solution places (Roni Deutch, JK Harris, etc) or are they all a bunch of scams orchestrating their commercials just to get money out of people in need? So far I think all of these places should be investigated and shut down for unethical business practices. | |
| 16 October 2007 | |
| I get my share of their disgruntled clients. I honestly don't know how they justify the fees they charge. A lot of it goes to advertising I guess but still - their fees are two to three times what is reasonable to do an offer. To make matters worse - a great number of those clients are not really candidates for offers. | |
| 16 October 2007 | |
| They play into the client's greed and fear.
Then they say, "well, from the info you provided, we prepared a 433-A and a 656. These show you have the ability to pay off your taxes in 3 years. Go ahead and sign and submit them." And of course, they were never OIC candidates in the first place -- as IRSfixer just wrote. I just had a tax client call me to ask what I'd charge to help her do an OIC - I quoted her $2,500 minimum, she said she will do it herself. I told her 'good luck'. | |
| 16 October 2007 | |
| It comes down to this. If a customer goes into a piant store, the salesman is not going to recommend siding. So if all you sell is offers, there are no alternatives worth mentioning. | |
Donniecastleman (talk|edits) said: | 16 October 2007 |
| I guess a good question is, is there ANYONE that has gone to these bozos that came out happy? I doubt it. | |
| 16 October 2007 | |
| Donnie, if they were happy, why would they come to us? We don't get the happy ones, we get the disgruntled ones. The happy ones go back to wherever they came from. | |
| 16 October 2007 | |
| Nine out of ten, the public will go with the firms that can afford the national exposure. Of course, they are treated as a "number", or merely gouged. If you are running an ad campaign like this, you can't afford to turn clients away who have unrealistic expectations. The debt "counselors" and consolidation businesses were guilty of the same excesses. It gives us all a black eye, and slows down the grant of good offers by clogging the system. | |
Taxstudent (talk|edits) said: | 17 October 2007 |
| Crow,
Is the problem commodization of unbundled tax services? Personally I think the problem is insufficient incentives for appropriate behavior. For example, federalizing contract/tort recoveries against tax service providers or creating a qui tam action under the IRC would do more to stop the problems than the new Circular 230 monetary penalties against firms will. | |
| 17 October 2007 | |
| Taxstudent, would the question of tort revolve around whether the service provider provided the service based on the information the taxpayer provided, vs providing the service based on what results the taxpayer expected?
Without sufficient info you can't guess whether someone will be eligible for an I/A, OIC, or anything else. | |
Donniecastleman (talk|edits) said: | 17 October 2007 |
| My only comment is that the first thing the company does is swindles 3 grand out of someone BEFORE even doing any work, they're not in the business of doing work, they're in the business of screwing over the public, they're the Check Cashing places and pawn shops of the tax industry. | |
| 17 October 2007 | |
| The innovative solution is that the taxpayer is innocent until proven bankrupt. They also make what appear to be promises that your offer will be accepted but have enough weasel words to protect them when it isn't. Leaving the client without communication is inexcusable under any scenario. I specialize in doing these and dealing with other collection problems (as does at least one other regular poster to this forum) so feel free to send them my way and I'll put them with other clients that have been stiffed by the majors! For what your client is being charged $3-4,000, I will do for $1,000-$1,500 from my low overhead operation that lacks commercials on cable TV. | |
| 17 October 2007 | |
| Try going to www.ripoffreport.com and enter Roni Deutch and JK Harris. | |
| 18 October 2007 | |
| No question that it's commodization, or so called "rationalizing the business." The operators carve off a portion of a complex business that they can roll out nationally. Frankly, this is what was done with bookkeeping programs; internet incorporation services (hey, I don't blame Intuit, the play on this is to buy shares in Intuit); and you can bundle this OIC idea, smaller areas of tax you can get your hands around. Some would argue that these services were once only available to the rich and near rich; and what we're seeing is something put forward for the "middle" middle class and lower. But, it's hard to make a commodity of things potentially this complex, and we all end up painted with the same brush for the bad actors. The true bad actors could care less about ethics, the Service needs to refer them for prosecution, but I'm not holding my breath. | |
| 18 October 2007 | |
| TaxStudent: A lot of the federal consumer rights laws(for which there were high hopes when passed(FDCPA, FCRA)), have not done that well in the hands of consumers, unless a class action is attempted. Ironically, I note that now qui tam actions are being "marketed" on the web. Go figure. | |
Donniecastleman (talk|edits) said: | 18 October 2007 |
| I'd like to cut off Roni Deutch's thumbs so she can't do that stupid annoying "death star" thing with her hands like Dr. Evil does in the Austin Powers movies, sick aren't I? No wait, someone said I'm "whacked", haha. | |
| 18 October 2007 | |
| I can honestly say that I haven't received complaints about them myself.
However, their website is full of deceitful lies. As I clearly state on my site, stay away from firms that make statements such as "New laws in Congress now make it easier to qualify for enormous tax savings. We are are finding that many people who previously did not qualify can now take advantage of this relief and settle for much less". As far as I'm concerned, that's the kind of stuff OPR and TIGTA should be dealing with, but you know that won't happen.
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