RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HIRING THE RIGHT TAX RESOLUTION FIRM
- Confirm that the company has a local representative in your area in case you experience problems. It is important to retain a company that can provide you the convenience of coming into the office and/or completing tasks for you in your local area, if needed.
- Confirm that the owner of the company is a licensed Attorney or a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Attorneys and CPAs are each required to have college educations and must pass stringent testing procedures to become licensed. They are also required to take continuing education courses to maintain their licenses.
- Confirm that the Attorney or CPA owner of the company is involved in the day to day management of the business so that ultimately that person will be accountable to you for the completion of your casework. Don't be fooled by "false promises" from a commissioned salesperson that has no accountability to you down the road.
- Confirm that the owner of the company and the licensed case manager(s) do not have tax liens or tax problems of their own. You don't want somebody trying to take care of resolving your problems that doesn't even take care of their own.
- Confirm that the Attorney or CPA owner of the company has been involved in tax resolution work for many years and hasn't just recently begun doing this type of work. You don't want to hire someone without a substantial amount of experience in this type of work.
- Ask if the company has ever used a "contingent" or "value-added" fee structure, as this is a way that many companies try to make lots of extra revenues for the same amount of work and can be a warning sign about the nature of the company or its owner.
- Beware of companies that offer once price for fixing all your tax problems, regardless of what they are. Many companies will try to use an "offer-in-compromise" to fix every type of problem, but the truth is that some cases may be able to be solved through more affordable and effective options.
- Confirm that the primary focus of the firm you hire is in tax resolution and that this isn't just one of many other types of work the company performs. Your objective is to acquire help from a company that focuses on this type of work full-time and is on the cutting edge of the latest procedural changes.
- Confirm that the Attorney or CPA owner of the company are in good standing with the State Bar or with the Board of Public Accountancy where licensed. It usually takes a material violation to get into trouble with the State licensing boards and you may not want to take a chance of hiring a shady character.
- Contact the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to confirm the business is registered with the BBB and has an A (or very high) rating with little or no unresolved complaints. The BBB generally gives a business every chance to resolve a complaint to the satisfaction of a client, so a low rating or a long history of unresolved issues could be a red flag.
- Contact the Attorney General in your state to find out if the company has any unresolved complaints filed against it by other customers. A State Attorney General taking action against a company speaks for itself.
- Visit www.ripoffreport.com and confirm that the business does not have a large number of complaints filed against it from other customers.
- Do you a general Google or Yahoo search about the business because if it has major negative headlines issued against it from customers, you may want to look elsewhere.
- Confirm that the name used in the advertisement you respond to is the same name of the company that offers to provide you services. Don't be fooled by a "referral" to another company. A company with a bad reputation could try to use a "fictitious name registration" to place advertisements and appear reputable, but may try to refer you to a different, related company with a bad reputation to provide all services.
- Beware of companies that try to secure a substantial initial payment of several thousand dollars from you and don't offer you a convenient way to pay as you go in the form of monthly payments.
