When you have decided to seek professional tax help to battle your debt with the IRS, there are many factors to seriously research and consider before handing over your financial file. I spoke with TJ McCormack last month on LA Talk Radio regarding the important indicators taxpayers need to pay attention to in order to find the best tax attorney available. After all, taxpayers are putting their financial fates in these professionals’ hands.

Visit the Tax Resolution Services web site to listen to highlights from my interview on LA Talk Radio interview with TJ McCormack.

There are currently 35 million taxpayers with IRS problem. And there’s a ton of competition out there to choose from, but not a lot of them credible. So here are a few things people need to do to make sure that they’re getting credible and expert tax representation. To find out more, read my article on how to hire a tax resolution company you can trust.

1) Check out the company’s BBB Report (Better Business Bureau). TRS have been an accredited member for 11 years and we have a B+ rating, which is a very high rating. Most of our competition have F ratings or are not rated.

2) Also ask the people that are representing you how many Offer In Compromise settlements have they successfully settled. What’s their percentage relationship of successful settlements? And how much do they successfully settle on the dollar on offers?

3) Ask if they have any ex-IRS guys on staff? We actually use that as a point of difference, we don’t have any. I won’t hire any. I did and I’m done and here’s why: for years and sometimes decades, the IRS officers are trained to think that everybody a tax cheat. They don’t necessarily realize that bad things happen to good people; that they put the taxes on the back burner because someone died, someone is sick, someone just lost a job, someone had to take money out of their 401K, someone is bipolar…life happens!

So they have a very difficult transition to the other side of the desk. After all those years of being trained to think that “everyone is a tax cheat”, it goes against their grain to help people. Another factor is that they’re civil servants–think about it, if you have an ex-IRS guy who is help you out, where do you think their pension is coming out from? They’re getting money every week from the government, how hard do you think they’re going to advocate for you?

The bottom line is: taxpayers have rights—they are not automatically guilty as soon as the IRS finds them. The worst thing (and the most common) is for the taxpayer to unknowingly self-incriminate by calling the IRS without knowing all the facts and options. It would be better to simply say “I will have my tax representation answer your questions.”

Anyone that’s going up against the IRS themselves, it’s like going to court without a lawyer although most of this is happening in the administrative or civil arena. It is practicing law before the IRS. Most of the things the IRS does to us are in the administrative or civil arena. However, to rectify the situation, you are essentially practicing law before the IRS. And that’s why there are only three people in the world who are allowed to represent clients: a CPA, a tax attorney, or an enrolled agent. In my case I’m also a certified tax resolution specialist, because I’ve been trained and learned through experience, we know the law better than the IRS knows the law. And that’s why we get the tax debt settlements that we get.

** If you have tax debt, our specialized staff of tax attorneys, CPAs, EAs and tax professionals can help. Visit the Tax Resolution Services web site  for a free income tax relief consultation or call us at 866-IRS-PROBLEMS.

More Tax Help, IRS News and Tax Relief Tips:

1. KLOS Tax Tip #28 - Many Americans Who Never Before Qualified for Tax Relief, Now Qualify
2. Options for Business Owners Struggling to Meet the April 15 Tax Deadline
3. Release Your IRS Bank Levy: How a Tax Attorney or Certified Tax Resolution Specialist Can Give You an Advantage
4. Your Unfiled Delinquent Tax Return Checklist: Stop the IRS Now and Avoid Steep Interest and Penalties from Accumulating
5. Retire Your IRS Back Taxes Forever: How Tax Resolution Services Helped Save a Taxpayer $130,000

Tags: amnesty to taxpayers hiding money overseas, better business burea, certified tax resolution specialist, irs problems, LA Talk Radio, Offer in Compromise program, tax attorney, tax debt, tax resolution, tax settlement, TJ McCormack

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 11th, 2009 at 12:18 pm and is filed under Tax news and tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.