United States Tax Relief AgencyUnited States Tax Relief Agency/Richard Hargus This company preys on the poor. They are a rip off company. Take your money and do nothing except false promises and in the meantime, you are assured everything is under control and your tax penalties keep adding up Seal Beach California

Richard Hargus has been removed from practice before the IRS, partially due to the above claims.

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CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

I too fell victim to USTRA, Quinn Fredrickson & Richard Hargus. It is my strong feeling that FRAUD was committed and people should go to jail. At the very least, I'm pleased to see that the IRS has taken some action and put Richard Hargus out of business for the time being. Check out this link:

Your header lists USTRA/Richard Hargus. However, USTRA is the company that you contracted with. Richard Hargus was an employee of that firm, however, Did not recieve any money from clients. He is not an owner or part of USTRA.

As you may or may not be aware, USTRA has filed bankruptcy. They have not paid me to do any additional work or for some of the work that has been completed to date.

Your contract is with Mr. Mike Gill and the United States Tax Relief Agency. I have no contract with you, nor have I received any of your money. In order to obtain a refund, you will need to contact them or file a claim against their assets in the bankruptcy.

I discovered their bankruptcy when I called their office and heard a recording. They have now shut down their offices, their phones, and the USTRA client computer system from which I worked on cases. Therefore, I have no access to client information that was on the Goldmine system.

Richard

I don't believe Michael Gill is a crook or a scam artist. USTRA had honorable intentions but horrible follow through and follow up. Honest full disclosure? NO. USTRA stated they were the largest and most respected organization of tax attorneys, CPA's and E.A.'s in the nation when in reality they were merely a rag tag bunch that drank Jack Daniels at work all day (I mean Michael's apartment where USTRA operated from, the Seal Beach address is a UPS store!) while they farmed out thier cases to Richard Hargus - the one and only Enrolled Agent/Attorney.

The real unfortunate thing is Michael Gill has wrapped himself so tight into a fantasy of lies about the size, structure and importance of USTRA and himself that he believes them as the truth. Furthermore, I don't believe L. Byrd actually worked for the company I never saw that name on anything - ever. (wouldn't surprise me if L. Byrd is a ficticous person of USTRA to save face on Ripoff Report...) USTRA "...an organization of absolute integerity..." is merely a catch phase. How can you be when most of the employees didn't even use thier real names for various reasons? (like getting around non compete clauses)

Melissa -It looks like you have been vindicated by them shutting themselves down.

Okay Buddy, If they are so reputable, why did they close up shop like theifs in the night? Also, why does everyone tell the same story almost to a tee about being ripped off? So I don't have to tell you where to take your comment now do I?? I think your smart enough now to know where it can go...

I was a former employee of the USTRA and more than dismayed to see the writings of Steven on ripoffreport.com today.

I worked directly on the tax liability cases being handled by Steven wherein he basically had a personal melt down.

The USTRA with absolute integrity acted immediately and every client of the tax liability cases that Steven was handling were given a choice of a full refund wherein the USTRA paid over $250,000.00 in full refunds (I have never seen a company act with such integrity) or to have their tax liability cases handled by another Tax Attorney or Enrolled Agent wherein every single tax liability case was settled successfully.

When I worked for the USTRA they had invested over $250,000.00 for IRS software and is the most sophisticated in the nation.

As a mandate the USTRA always maintains a perfect client record. The directive from the Founder Mr. Michael D. Gill from the day I started is that USTRA is an organization of absolute integrity and excellence which is impressed upon every employee every day. The USTRA is an organization of absolute integrity.

I am an Enrolled Agent who ended my relationship with USTRA about a year and a half ago. I was with USTRA from the very beginning, and I am quite familiar with how they work.

First, I will state that USTRA does try to deliver on its promises. That all by itself is better than most Tax Settlement companies I have seen on Ripoffreports.

USTRA's singular problem, and it is the reason I stopped working with them, is that they do not exercise judgment in the cases they take on. Simply put, I had many cases that they took on and assigned to me that simply did not qualify for an Offer in Compromise. Unfortunately, the client paid their money, the salesperson at USTRA made the promise and the client felt it was my responsibility to deliver on that promise, no matter how impossible it might be.

I worked the the owner of USTRA, Michael Gill, from the very beginning to set up a system where the client would be pre-qualified and this would not happen. Michael tried to so oversimplify the prequalification that it became useless. In addition, IRS procedures for Offers have changed significantly in the past two years and the IRS is much less likely to accept an Offer than they were more than two years ago. USTRA has never changed their prequalification processes to take the change in IRS procedures into account, making many clients with no real solution to the problem.

These two problems left me with little to tell a client other than "the rules have changed" or "you should never have been taken on as a client in the first place."

You were only changed $2400? Count your blessings - I have seen clients who were charged several times that - and I could not get an Offer accepted for them either. I have no idea how the fees are calculated, but the amount the actual representative The EA) gets is a flat fee - usually only $250. The rest is retained within USTRA.