IRS PROBLEMS
HOW TO SELECT A TAX REPRESENTATIVE
By Joe Mastriano, CPA 8323 S.W. Freeway # 470 Houston, Texas 77074
Call 713-774-4467 or Email: support@taxproblem.org
( continued from
previous page)
Another common approach is to make you think that if a representative has many titles and licenses, they are highly qualified, and therefore you should hire their company. I know at least one popular well educated ex IRS agent, who spends most of her time teaching classes and doing research. What good is someone's credentials, experience, etc. if they will not be in the office every day personally working on their cases ? Can they respond immediately to the IRS's and your phone calls? Are you willing to suffer the consequences of missed calls and deadlines. I wouldn't. That's usually when the levies and seizures happen!
Or if their web site have three approval stickers on it, or BBB stickers, then they want you to trust them. The Better Business Bureau only supports their own members. So if one of their members rips you off, and you the consumer ( non member ) complain, then your complaint will not be listed anywhere, and no one will ever know about it. So when you call the BBB to see if there are any complaints, you may be told that there are none, when in fact there have been 50 non member complaints! Many people find this out the hard way.
One pitfall not to get trapped in, is to judge a company based on how good the web site looks. Some of the top sites will list many helpful pages explaining a lot of IRS rules. They give you links to forms and solutions after playing with your emotions by first scaring you because of your IRS problem, and then providing the solution. First of all scare tactics are unprofessional and in bad taste. Second, all the extra stuff on the web page, including the links, are necessary for them to rank high up on the search engine. It's NOT because they are a very knowledgeable IRS representation firm. The look of the web site usually has nothing to do about whether on not they will do a good job for you. Look through many listings to find the ones that look like the representative will meet the criteria outlined here. Please stay away from the big National firms that claimed to have helped thousands of people across the U.S. Don't take my word for it, your own internet search should yield the complaints that exist.
Your judgment of character after meeting or speaking at length with the potential representative is of great value.
4. Assess their Experience
Ask your potential representative how many collection cases, tax returns, or offers have they done recently. Ask them to recall ones that went their way, and cases that went the IRS's way, etc. They can discuss all of this if they don't break confidentiality by not giving you the client's names. The purpose of asking these questions is not to establish their track record, but to see if they do this often. There should be no hesitation to recall from yesterday, last week, today, various calls, meetings etc. they had with the IRS. If they can't speak freely of the extensiveness of their casework, they probably don't do very much of this type of work. Without the experience, you will fall prey to the collection officer forcing you to settle on their terms not yours.
Please hire an individual who has the knowledge, the experience, the credentials, and the dedication to still be there for you 8 months later when the IRS still has questions!
« Previous Page
Want more tax problem help ? Click on....