Complaint Review: Tax Incorporated - Tax Inc - Tax Alleviation Experts - Los Angeles California
- Tax Incorporated - Tax Inc - Tax Alleviation Experts 8075 Third Street, Suite #407 Los Angeles, California U.S.A.
- Phone: 800-817-6682
- Web:
- Category: Internal Revenue Service
Tax Incorporated - Tax Inc - Tax Alleviation Experts I am a former empolyee and they are in the business if scamming people with tax problems! Los Angeles California
*Consumer Comment: why do you keep our money then?
*UPDATE Employee: Mkaing things right
*Consumer Comment: Thanx You - Were all not crazy
*Consumer Comment: lies
* : Letter from the CEO
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I was trying to see if I could locate any information online about a company that I worked for from February 2006 to mid-March 2006. That company, one I'm sure \ you are well aware of, is Tax Inc. aka Tax Incorporated aka Tax Alleviation Experts.
My job there as a "case manager" was to handle and screen incoming calls from "clients" who had signed up for tax relief. The calls came from a wide range of people. There were those who had just recently signed up for the "services" Tax Inc. provided and wanted to get an update on their case; people who had signed up more than six months ago and were still awaiting the tax resolution that Tax Inc. promised them; people who were furious that their wages were garnished or their homes were levied when Tax Inc. promised them that it would be prevented; people still waiting on Tax Inc. to contact them about their OIC.
It was my job to essentially try to buy as much time for the company while it did as little as possible and made as many sales as possible. The "tax strategists" that customers speak to are truly nothing more than salespeople who know enough about tax lingo to make themselves appear like knowledgeable tax consultants. While on the phone with prospectives, the salespeople recorded all sorts of financial information down about the client, their social security numbers, their bank account numbers, how much they had in their savings accounts, even how much their homes were worth!
Based on the amount owed to the IRS, they would assess a "fee". The more you owed the IRS, the more money you actually had in your bank account (which you were asked) or the more credit you had, the higher the fees would be. I even overheard one salesperson tell a client to liquidate his stocks to pay for the tax fees because "it would be better than going to jail for taxes you owe." But generally speaking, the "fees" were assessed by how much the salespeople felt like they wanted to make that month.
If you didn't have enough money to pay the fees, you would be set up on a payment plan to pay in monthly or bi-weekly installments either by credit card, or most often the case, by electronic fund transfer. Once an initial payment was made, clients were sent a Power of Attorney form. The salespeople made the POA sound like it was going to be the magic bullet that would solve all their tax problems. Clients were often told that once the POA was sent back to Tax Inc., that Tax Inc. could begin negotiating with the IRS to settle on their behalf. The truth of the matter was that once a POA was received, a file was created for that client, the POA was placed in it, and nothing more was done until the client called again to inquire.
At which point, clients would be asked if they filled out their "questionnaires" and had sent them back to Tax Inc. These questionnaires were nothing more than numerous pages of financial paperwork to be filled out - over 16 pages of paperwork, if I recall correctly. They could be either personal or business financial information. Along with the questionnaires, clients were told to provide the company with all pertinent receipts, bills, bank statements, etc.
Most often, these questionnaires were so overwhelming in the amount of information clients were asked to fill out, that it would take them months to send back all the information. My job as a "client manager" was often to tell clients that Tax Inc. was not able to proceed with their case until all their questionnaires had been received. Or if we did actually receive their questionnaires, that we still needed some type of receipt, or we still required their tax returns, (Oh, you didn't file your taxes? Well that will put a delay on your case.)
And in that situation, the salespeople would try to "upsell" their clients for more money for more services rendered. And clients would have to then turn in all sorts of expenses and receipts for their tax returns.
Can you see begin to see the process of how Tax Inc. would scam clients? They would make promises of quick and easy tax resolution, get paid upfront for services that they are well aware they are unable or do not provide, overwhelm a client with the burden of providing financial paperwork, and the client is often lost in the endless paperwork shuffle. Sometimes the IRS was contacted on their behalf. Most often, they were not until the client called back to check up on their case.
There were actually only 3 people people working with the IRS on behalf of clients at the time I was employed. 3 people who handled over 2,000 clients. Of the three, one was a former IRS agent, one was an accountant who had not yet taken his CPA exam, and another whose specialty was in preparing tax returns. And these were the people that Tax Inc. claimed were "tax attorneys". None of those employees were ever tax attorneys. You can only imagine the stacks and stacks of files that sat on their desks. They were well aware of what the situation with Tax Inc. was. One, the former IRS agent, worked closely with the top salesperson and received kickbacks.
Speaking of the top salesperson there at the time - he was nothing more than a white-collar crook. Because of standing lawsuits against him from clients of Tax Inc., he had his name changed legally so he could continue working under an alias and not have to take calls from clients who had sued him. I watched him once hide out in the office I worked in so he would not be served papers. He is mentioned several times in the following posts from ripoffreport.com:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/results.asp?q1=ALL&q5=tax+inc&submit2=Search%21&q4=&q6=&q3=&q2=&q7=&searchtype=0
Joe Caico aka Paul Valentine.
The name of one of founders of the company, David Urbas, is also an alias. The name he went by in the office is Justin Urbais. Light Silver was another owner - an aspiring film guy who used this scam to finance his Hollywood lifestyle. They do not care about the people calling in with tax issues. They tell their staff that "these people calling in are bad people anyway and most of them are crooks, so WE'RE the ones helping THEM." Crazy, isn't it? The owners paid lots of money to have their business advertised on CNN, MSNBC, and ESPN.
If you look at their website, notice that there is no physical address stated on it, no names of actual founders, no legitimate factual information about the company, its owners, its history - nothing but made-up claims.
The people working there TRULY DO NOT CARE about their "clients". They used to laugh hysterically at irate people who called in repeatedly. They erased voice messages left for them, they would hang up, or they would transfer the calls back to the "case workers" like Julie Chung whose specialty in the office was to be as nasty, rude, and condescending as possible.
I quit after 6 weeks of working there, as I could not stomach being involved with scam artists. Ironically, it took them 2 months to send me my final check.
Former employee
Reseda, California
U.S.A.
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 08/20/2008 05:02 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/tax-incorporated-tax-inc-tax-alleviation-experts/los-angeles-california-90048/tax-incorporated-tax-inc-tax-alleviation-experts-i-am-a-former-empolyee-and-they-are-i-365101. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content
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#5 Consumer Comment
why do you keep our money then?
AUTHOR: jimmy l - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, January 25, 2011
If you are an honest ceo of tax inc.Then why do you keep peoples money if your so called reason for complaints are because client error or time sensitive information or the other reasons you give here.Why don't you give partial refunds and just tell clients didn't abide by your rules and you can no longer help them. If you can't help them,then you also can't follow though with the total process we pay you for. I believe you should be paid for work you have done,but if the whole process has been interrupted for some reason,then be honest and only charge for the work you've completed and send your clients a detailed report on charges. Not rocket science but informative business practice.People have a right to know what they paid you for and what you did. Right? This comes from a client who trusted you with 7500.00 and all you did was 4 tax returns.That's 1875.00 per return. Nothing else was done. Can you explain your theory?Because a lot of us would like to know how you sleep at night...
#4 UPDATE Employee
Mkaing things right
AUTHOR: j.silver@taxincorporated.com - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, August 24, 2010
If you feel you have had a poor experience with our firm, and are a legitimate former client, we have protocols in place to properly service you. The claims of phone calls being terminated for no reason are unfounded. If rude language is used by a client, our personnel are advised to put the caller on hold and get a supervisor. Regardless, if you submitted all of your paperwork on time and fulfilled your obligations, there is no reason why our firm would not service you, and service you well. Please call us at 1-800-410-8738. We will review your file, and see if an oversight was made. If there was something missed on our end, we will do everything we can to remedy the matter. Understand that there are cases where, regardless of what we do for clients, they remain dissatisfied with the outcome. Some people just don't like paying taxes, regardless of the amount, or miss deadlines for paperwork and the IRS pursues collections. We have had instances where we have saved clients hundreds of thousands of dollars, yet still they were unhappy with the settlement. In the end, we sincerely hope to bring resolution to all of our clients, and it is unfortunate that these misunderstandings arise.
Sincerely,
Tax Inc.
#3 Consumer Comment
Thanx You - Were all not crazy
AUTHOR: Kim - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Monday, July 19, 2010
Thank you to the former employee who wrote in. This report is Spot On. Exactly how I was treated after I sent them 9500.00 cash in 2005 to represent me. Exactly how it is outlined in this persons report, step by step is how I was treated. I am very persistent and handed in the mounds of paperwork on time which they asked for a 2nd time stating they couldnt locate it and after pushing on was finally given Mr. Grossman (the supposed Tax CPA/Attorney) who did absolutely nothing.
#2 Consumer Comment
lies
AUTHOR: vwmeggs - (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Thursday, April 29, 2010
the CEO is full of crap.
i was preyed upon, taken for a ride & dumped after HARD EARNED MONEY was spent to relieve a tax debt.
now time has passed & the wound has been reopened & the tax debt has gained more interest!
Thanks a bundle you sob's.
#1
Letter from the CEO
AUTHOR: j.silver@taxincorporated.com - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Friday, August 14, 2009
To all of our valued clients, and to those considering;
Hiring a tax relief firm to settle your tax debt is one of the most
important financial considerations of peoples lives. You need to be
assured that the firm you hire will live up to your expectations and
provide reliable support and outstanding results. The Ripoff Report
(ROR) has been a popular, reflexive research tool for many consumers as
it promises to bring clarity to the sometimes foggy hiring process by
illuminating both bad service and poor results. The ROR has the
potential to be a terrific, impartial forum to base decisions off of.
Its shortcomings, however, are very important to consider.
In the nine years Tax Inc. has been in business, we have received
roughly 30 anonymous statements on the RORs website. Some of these
statements I'm sure are valid, while others seem to be less so. The
problem is, the complaints are all anonymous. There is no verification
process from the ROR to validate the source of the complaint and no
feasible way for our firm to mediate the issue. The ROR is simply an
open forum allowing anyone to post derogatory statements on our company
with complete uncertainty that those statements are accurate or
truthful. This contradicts the RORs ultimate agenda: to help consumers
make impartial, informed hiring decisions. If the statements were
verified, and mediation sought, it would better highlight the steps our
company has taken to successfully manage complaints and allow for
stronger decision making. It does not.
Though we strive to avoid complaints altogether, the unfortunate
reality is that, as in any healthy company, complaints will invariably
arise. This can be for a variety of reasons, and as we enter our tenth
year of doing business and our 20,000th client, we've tried to isolate
the causes and repair any inconsistencies within our organization that
may have been a contributing factor. The complaints generally fall into
one of several categories:
Not returning phone calls promptly
Poor handling of account
Errors on paperwork
Unhappy with outcome of the case
Admittedly there have been valid instances where we have not serviced
the client to the standards we expect, and where appropriate have made
every attempt to reconcile the mistake or oversight. But failures,
fortunately, do have their importance. They allow us to better
understand the service process within our firm and tighten the screws,
thereby strengthening our approach to customer service.
On a final note, I have provided a few of the standout accomplishments
this firm has achieved in the nine years since we first opened our
doors. Im hopeful one day the ROR will provide a section for this
alongside the disputes:
To date, our approval rating is greater than 99%. Thats better than GM, Apple
or H&R Block, combined.
The odds of having a poor experience with our firm are less than 1%.
We generate 30% of our business through referral. Happy clients happily promote.
We pioneered a proprietary information management system to expedite form
drafting and increase resolution response by 80%. We know of no other company to
provide this type of cutting-edge technology, and have been approached to license
the software numerous times.
We provide pro-bono work for the elderly and economically hardshipped.
We get letters from satisfied clients every month, and proudly post
them in the office and list them as success stories on our website for
inspiration. We hope to someday count yours among them.
Sincerely,
Josh Silver, CEO
Tax Inc.
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