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“Settle your tax debt for pennies on the dollar” “We are the country's largest tax relief firm” “We are a publicly traded corporation” Don’t these lines sound familiar? Yes! You are right. These are from advertisement you see and here everyday. Today, unfortunately, the Tax Relief Industry has been falling prey to the threat of IRS action and you can do nothing to stop their selfish desires. But, you can always arm yourself with the tools necessary to defend against their self-serving actions. Why not start with informing yourself about some of the common tax relief scams. Read along for tips on how to protect you from such scams. Scam 1: Non-Refundable Upfront Payments Without Any Guarantees One of the most commonly advocated scam by these companies is that they charge money upfront by promising a kind of result that is almost impossible and unpredictable to achieve at any cost. These companies generally ask you to commit to a large sum of money upfront much before the investigation or before the IRS side of the story are pulled. These companies are responsible for the ill promotion in the industry as they focus more on driving upfront revenue than actually helping their clients. Scam 2: Misrepresenting Potential Outcomes The second scam accounts to the aggressive sales people who try to reel in clients by faking stories about compromise settlements when in real only a handful of taxpayers qualify for an offer in compromise (about 25% to 33% of applicants). These scam companies never tell you the truth. Instead they string you along and make you think you are being taken care of. Finally one fine day you get to know that you did not qualify for the offer in compromise. They will put the blame on the IRS and proof themselves to be clean and innocent. Understand that there are a multiple factors that IRS takes into consideration in the process of approving an Offer in Compromise application such as the taxpayer's ability to pay, income, expenses and asset equity. So, the next time when you have to deal with a new tax relief company, first of all, ask yourself questions like does the company make a thorough assessment of the factors above? Do they emphasize the importance of these qualifications? Do they make it clear that an Offer in Compromise is difficult to obtain? If you get a negative reply to all these questions, do not approach them at all. Scam 3 - Marketing Companies Posing as Service Providers You must have come across a lot of Companies that advertise tax relief services. But in reality they do nothing and rather sell the customer's information to other service providers. These companies are skilled enough to make the consumers belief that they work directly with the company that handles marketing. But what they actually do is that they sell your information to other service providers or outsourced independent contractors. The companies doing the marketing have no control over the quality of the product or the service levels given. The worst scenario is that they sign up a consumer, with no intention of servicing the client at all. Scam 4: The Outright Fraudsters These are also certain firms who have outright cheated and stole from their clients. Be careful, as these firms are being targeted and shut down by the Attorney Generals. And if it happens, the unscrupulous companies will enroll many clients into a program and collect their money without providing adequate services. When the company senses too many complaints or upset consumers, they change their name and start the preying process all over again. For an elaborate understanding in these fraudulent practices, visit www.Club4Ca.com.
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Tax Scams for 2013, IRS Debt Relief Scams, Indian Tax Relief Scams, Tax Relief Fraud,
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