The market for tax relief services has been around really since the income tax was created: A Short History of the Offer in Compromise Program. In the 80's, accountants and tax attorneys like Washington Tax Services started to target tax relief clients more specifically. One of the ways we marketed ourselves was by:

MAILING LETTERS TO PEOPLE WITH TAX LIENS. Washington Tax sent straightforward letters to tax lien folks from 1989 to 2011. We tried not to mislead and stopped the mailings five years ago. Tax lien letters still flourish - see here - BUT are often useless as the tax lien victim has already resolved their case as Currently Not collectible and doesn't needs help.

CALLING PEOPLE WITH TAX LIENS. A few decades back, a couple of companies in Colorado started the bold practice of contacting people with tax liens...by phone!? This is now an established practice by the now numerous tax relief companies in that state (and elsewhere). There are questions about it's legality (if you aren't a licensed tax professional) HERE. If you are a business who has a tax lien for 941 taxes, you will almost assuredly have heard from these folks. The big bone to pick besides the legality is when they overstate urgency for people to act. No need to scare people into hiring you!

ADVERTISING ON RADIO AND TV. Optima Tax Relief in Orange County, California seems to be the clear leader in the spending of the marketing dollar on TV and radio. They are everywhere. Alan Thicke was their celebrity spokesman. With high volume tax relief outfits - the question is always: does the customer service quality remain with higher volumes of customers? So far Optima seems to be handling their big volume, but keep a close eye.

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