Who are these tax relief companies? Where are they located? What is a tax relief company?
"Tax relief" is essentially a marketing phenomenon. Thru the internet, mailers, TV and radio, tax relief companies try to reach and help people and businesses that hope to "settle" back taxes. In practice, a tax relief company is a staff including accountants and attorneys set up to represent taxpayers before the IRS or State: sometimes they settle your debt, other times they come up with other solutions (payment plans, etc.). From our Survey of 160 Tax Relief Companies, we narrowed the top ten regions for tax relief:
Top ten list of tax relief companies by region
Los Angeles: 36
Colorado: 20
Orange County, CA: 17
Miami (I-95 corridor): 12
Houston: 7
Michigan: 7
San Diego: 6
Bay area, CA: 6
Sacramento, CA: 5
New York State: 5
Why is New York so under-represented? Hard to say, except commercial real estate in NYC is expensive!
Why is Colorado so prevalent? Like L.A., Orange County and Miami below, Colorado is a big player in the tax relief industry because that's where entrepreneurs started the tax lien calling phenomenon. Numerous companies sprouted there due to ex-employees starting their own companies. The same is true for the other regional players on this list.
Southern California really has to be the "tax relief" capital!? Yes it is. Adding in SD and Orange County we have 59 active tax relief companies but on the flip side, So Cal is also a massive graveyard of tax relief companies...an estimated 41 companies have expired in that region. A 2015 blog article explains this in more detail: SO Cal and tax relief a bad mix?
You can also see the Graveyard of Tax Relief right here: Dead Tax Relief Company List.
