Fun and scary things we heard on the street during our busy "tax week":
$24000 in fees wasn't enough to pursue a penalty abatement - When a paid customer ($24000 in fees) asked if their representative would pursue a penalty abatement, a tax relief company in Colorado indicated they "didn't qualify" for penalty abatement so wouldn't do it. Can you say lazy? If penalty abatement is your only option for reducing a tax debt, you owe it to your customer to at least try.
"You could go to jail." A representative of a tax relief company in Florida tried to scare a non-filer of five years that he could go to jail if he didn't act. The person who inquired had not received any correspondence from IRS. Chances of going to jail? Infinitesimal. The telemarketer wanted payment immediately. Way too much pressure for a non-filer with no IRS collection issues. Somebody was desperate and that person wasn't the potential client.
Quoted a $30000 fee for services we provided for $1500 - another company in Florida offered a fee of $30000 to a owner operator who owed IRS $300,000 and had a wage levy issued by a Revenue Officer. So the average owner operator makes $60000 annually after business expenses add to that a wage levy confiscating all of his income - do you really think he could afford this?
Too many f-bombs - a local guy decided he'd hire us over an attorney even though we were $250 more expensive. Why? The attorney cursed too much! :)
