The WATAX blog got its start in 2008 mostly as an info depot about tax relief companies. "Tax resolution" or tax relief companies as we call them now were truly ubiquitous back then. They were also pretty heavy in most people's media diet: radio, tv and the internet. However, in the early 10's, government authorities started to crackdown on abuses: the FTC forced American Tax Relief to refund $16 million in customers; TaxMasters was put in bankruptcy (now finished in 2019), and JK Harris, who had a very long run, was forced to close in 2012 (the forerunner of JK, who adopted JK's franchise model is currently facing an AG lawsuit in Virginia).
Eleven years later, WATAX still keeps a BBB record listing of new companies on our site. We try to keep it up to date and also move companies to our dead company list when they go out of business.
What is striking going thru our tax relief company list today?
* Southern California tax relief companies represent 55% of our dead company list (60 out of 108).
* BBB records are heavily weighted towards companies who pay for accreditation. We are surprised how many complaints the BBB allows while keeping a company's rating at A plus or A.! It should be noted that it takes quite an upset person to write a complaint to the BBB. It should be rare! The customer truly must feel that they aren't able to communicate thru the chain of command of a company and forced to go thru a third party to get justice.
