Posted 8/14/2014 10:45 (#4018019) Subject: Another "tax reduction" company bites the dust.....be careful who you hire!
Oskaloosa, Iowa 52577
Ads by outfits saying they can get your assessed taxes reduced to pennies on the dollar appear on tv all the time. "American Tax Relief" is/was one of them.....and IRS/courts have now forced ATR to the ground.
As reported in "Accounting Today" on the net......American Tax Relief has agreed to pay 16million due to bilked taxpayers.
Recall that quite a while ago "Taxmasters" was put down and out.
You can read the entire story at Accounting Today website.
The following is a comment by a reader from that site which I copied to here. Note that it appears to be by a retired IRS appeals officer..........and note what he says about how these outfits operated.
"POA" means "power of attorney"------- allows a third party to function on behalf of taxpayer before the IRS. Not a big deal.......we get them routinely so that we can make sure to be copied on any correspondence from IRS, and can talk directly to the IRS without taxpayer's presence.
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Look what greed leads to... "A number of other tax relief companies have also run afoul of regulators and state attorney generals in recent years after advertising their IRS tax resolution services to consumers and been forced to shut down, including TaxMasters, JK Harris and "Tax Lady" Roni Deutch (see TaxMasters Goes Bankrupt, JK Harris Goes Out of Business and 'Tax Lady' Roni Deutch Pleads Guilty)." When I worked in IRS Appeals,(just retired Nov. 2013) I had cases in which the taxpayers hired Roni Deutch and JK Harris as their POA's. These firms would prepare a very simple Appeals protest, or Offer in Compromise application, or Innocent Spouse Relief Request form, etc. and then disappear. I would contact the named POA to discuss the case and they would say they were no longer representing the taxpayer, their engagement only included the preparation of the application, etc.!!! The taxpayers would tell me they paid from $3,000 - $5,000 for this minimal service. I elevated my concerns through the chain of command, and the next thing we knew, the firms were forced out of business...they had been under investigation already, for many months. The damage done to individuals who were completely conned by these scheisters is incredible!!! Greed...look what it does to people!
Another "tax reduction" company bites the dust.....be careful who you hire!
