Staying Protected from Scam Tax Relief Specialists

Last updated on December 27, 2021

Many American taxpayers have benefitted from hiring the services of tax relief specialists. Legitimate tax relief services assist taxpayers in resolving their tax problems in the best possible way, but hiding behind the façade of genuineness, there are fraudulent tax services that cheat taxpayers off their money and leave them with more problems than they had before.

 Legitimate Tax Relief Specialists

Before paying upfront fee, taxpayers need to ensure that the tax relief service they are hiring is legitimate. If taxpayers get to know the truth about a company after they have hired its services, they would already have lost money they paid in upfront fee. Therefore, it is in the best interest of taxpayers to research and inquire about a tax company, both online and offline, and get facts about:

  • Qualifications of its staff including tax lawyers.
  • Background of the company and years in operation.
  • Consumer complaints against the company.
  • Their success rate in resolving tax problems.

Taxpayers may call the company before hiring them and inquire about the company’s services, background, staff etc. It is important to double-check the information to guarantee the genuineness of a company.

Spotting Fraudulent Tax Relief Specialists

While researching various tax relief specialists, taxpayers can pick up signs that can expose the intentions of fraudulent tax relief specialists.

Any tax company that asks large upfront fee is only after money. All tax relief companies charge a reasonable upfront fee, but fraudulent tax services charge unreasonably high upfront fee. Taxpayers pay the bloated fee because the scam tax companies make false promises that they can reduce their tax debt substantially, even to zero.

A tax service that makes promises and guarantees results without knowing the particulars of a case cannot be trusted. If the advertising of a tax service is flouting rules, it cannot be trusted to provide taxpayers with honest services.

All fraudulent tax relief specialists discourage inquiries about the quality of their staff, their business practices, fee structure etc. If a tax service does not allow taxpayers satisfactory answers to their inquiries, they must not be trusted. Honest companies do not need to hide details about their operations, policies or staff from their clients. Taxpayers must become suspicious of so called specialists of tax relief.

Those taxpayers who were victims of scam tax relief specialists shared their stories, informing other taxpayers that fraudulent tax services charged hidden fee, sometimes without their knowledge, and made little to no effort to resolve the tax problem.

Though enforcement agencies work to bust scam tax services, taxpayers can protect themselves from tax frauds by keeping themselves informed and alert about the various ways scam tax relief specialists use to dupe.