Fortress Financial Services

First, my understanding is that Mrs [redacted] was not refused a refund Rather, during her last conversation with John A [redacted] , she hung up the phone before any discussion regarding a refund could be had Since that conversation on November 10th, our staff has made several attempts to reach Mror Mrs [redacted] , including a voice message on November 10th, an email requesting that Mr [redacted] contact us sent on November 10th, and another email that was sent to Mrand Mrs [redacted] on November 17th requesting that Mror Mrs [redacted] contact the president of Fortress for the purpose of discussing their concerns and trying to reach an amicable resolution Neither Mrnor Mrs [redacted] has responded to any of these emails or left messages Steve G [redacted] , the president of Fortress, remains ready and willing to speak with either Mror Mrs [redacted] for the purpose of addressing their concerns Based on a review of this case as well as what Mrs [redacted] wrote in her Revdex.com complaint, my understanding is that she is unhappy with our services because of the following: She believes that it took too long to resolve her case; She got the IRS to approve an Installment Agreement on her own; and The IRS told her that Fortress communicated with the IRS only once and that documents requested were never received What troubles me the most is that the IRS Revenue Officer told Mrs [redacted] that Fortress communicated with the IRS only once and that we did not provide documents This is false, and we can prove it In this regard, I have attached a PDF file which includes both confirmation of a page fax from our office to IRS Revenue Officer, MrH [redacted] on August 19th, and a Statement of Professional Services Rendered (SPSR) The SPSR shows the dates, activities, and amount of time spent by our staff on this case In addition to the above, I will summarize important highlights with regard to our representation of [redacted] along with explanations as to why we handled this case the way that we did During Mrs [redacted] 's initial telephone consultation with John A [redacted] on June 28th, 2016, she indicated, among other things, that her company was behind with tax deposits During this conversation, John explained the importance of making all tax deposits in full and on time, and explained that [redacted] would not be eligible for an installment agreement until it was in compliance with its tax deposit obligations There was a delay in communicating with Mrs [redacted] of approximately two weeks shortly after we commenced representation because she was out ill (email from Mrs [redacted] to Katy S [redacted] dated July 18th “Hello Katy, I have been out ill for the last two weeks”) In this email, she also indicated that she would not be able to make her July 15th tax deposit Also note that, at the beginning of representation, Mrs [redacted] did not provide us with contact information for the Revenue Officer assigned to her case (we provided her with a New Client Information Sheet and she left the RO contact information section blank) Accordingly, we communicated with the IRS Automated Collection Service (ACS) for exchanging information and for determining the contact information for her Revenue Officer during the early phase of representation Our records reflect that we communicated with ACS via phone calls and faxes times between June 29th and July 20th On July 26th, Mrs [redacted] communicated to John that the IRS had levied her bank account, and that the levy would prevent her from paying her employees The levy was issued because of [redacted] 's non-compliance with its tax depositing requirements Whereas getting the levy released was of paramount importance, John and Katy worked furiously on [redacted] 's behalf on July 26th and 27th In fact, between the two of them, they put in about hours worth of work valued at approximately $on those two days alone They succeeded in obtaining a partial release of the levy and this enabled [redacted] o pay its employees Note that releasing a levy was not something that was contemplated when we accepted this case, and was not a service that was included in the Service Agreement signed by TimWe released the levy at no extra charge Our records demonstrate that John was diligent in attempting to determine the name and contact information for [redacted] 's RO well before the time when the levy was issued Since John had no contact info for the RO, he obtained the general office number to the field office where [redacted] 's case had been assigned from ACS He then called that number and left a message requesting that our office be contacted and that the name and contact info be provided The IRS did not return this call Ultimately, our office finally learned of the Revenue Officer’s name and contact information from the Notice of Levy that Mrs [redacted] faxed to our office After John and Katy had made it abundantly clear that [redacted] absolutely must make federal tax deposits to be eligible for an installment agreement and to avoid future levies, Mrs [redacted] then made a tax deposit We received proof of this on July 28th Whereas deposit compliance is a prerequisite for being eligible to enter into an installment agreement, we were now in a position to be able to submit a valid proposal for an installment agreement (the IRS will not consider an installment proposal for taxpayers who are out of compliance, and submitting a proposal for a taxpayer who is not in compliance will not prevent the IRS from issuing levies) John submitted an installment agreement proposal for $400/mo on [redacted] 's behalf just two business days later, on Monday, August 1st Submitting this proposal had the effect of protecting [redacted] from further levy action, as the IRS will not take enforcement while a valid, written installment agreement proposal is pending for a taxpayer who is in compliance On August 2nd, Mrs [redacted] notified John that she had established an installment agreement with the state, whereby [redacted] would pay $1,per month for the next months In earlier communications with our office, Mrs [redacted] had indicated that setting up a monthly payment agreement with the IRS for $1,000/mo would be a stretch for her, as she was already struggling just to make current tax deposits Thus, John felt that it was in [redacted] 's best interest for us to try to postpone the commencement of the IRS installment agreement He was concerned that [redacted] would be unable to stay current with its deposit requirements while paying the state $1,000/mo and also having to make an installment payment to the IRS With this in mind, John emailed Mrs [redacted] on August 2nd and stated that, given the $1,000/mo that she was now obligated to pay to the state, he would see what he could “do to push the IRS installment agreement out for a few months.” Mrs [redacted] neither objected to this nor indicated any desire to get her IRS installment agreement set up quickly John left a message for the RO on August 3rd, explaining that [redacted] was in deposit compliance, that he submitted an installment agreement proposal, and that he would provide proof of the next tax deposit shortly (RO contact #1) The RO returned John’s August 3rd phone call days later, on August 9th, and confirmed receipt of the installment agreement proposal He also requested financial information at this time (RO contact #2) The RO also sent us a Form 9297, Summary of Contact, on August 9th, which set a deadline of August 19th for us to submit documents (RO contact #3) On August 19th (the deadline), we met this deadline and faxed pages of documents to your RO, proof of which is attached (RO contact #4) John then received a voice message from the RO on August 22nd, indicating that he thought that the financial information showed that [redacted] could pay more than the $400/mo that we proposed (RO contact #5) The RO was vague in this voice message as to why he felt that [redacted] could pay more than the $400/mo that was proposed Moreover, the RO did not request any specific additional information John returned the RO’s phone call on September 14th (RO contact #6), and left a message requesting that the RO return John’s call John wanted to discuss the reasoning behind the RO’s findings that [redacted] could afford more than $400/mo This would enable John to determine what additional financial information might be needed in order to rebut the RO’s findings One might wonder why it took John about weeks to return the message left by the RO on August 22nd Recall that John was concerned about [redacted] 's ability to shoulder the burden of staying current while paying the state $1,000/mo and making monthly installments to the IRS Recall also that [redacted] was protected from further enforcement by way of the fact that a valid installment agreement proposal was filed on August 1st Accordingly, trying to push approval of the installment agreement through quickly had the disadvantage of potentially overloading [redacted] with monthly financial obligations, while providing them with no advantage—they were already protected from enforcement because of the valid, pending proposal To this date, the RO has never returned John’s phone call from September 14th Note that John left another message for the RO on November 10th The RO has also failed to return this phone call Our plan was to not rush the installment agreement along in the hopes that we could get it approved close to or after the time that [redacted] would have the state paid off Furthermore, we were (and still are) waiting for the RO to return John’s phone call so that we could understand why he felt that [redacted] could afford more than $400/mo This would have provided us with guidance as to specifically what additional fiancial information would be needed to convince him to approve $400/mo or at least something lower than the $1,000/mo to which Mrs [redacted] ultimately agreed Thus, we truly did have [redacted] 's best interests at heart The attached Statement of Professional Services Rendered reflects that our staff performed hours worth of work on [redacted] 's behalf, and the value of the work was $4, This includes about $worth of work for getting a partial release on the levy—work that was beyond the scope of our contract with [redacted] Whereas we were paid a total of $3,and provided $4,worth of work, we have already provided $1,worth of services above and beyond that for which we were paid We expect only to be compensated for the $3,which was agreed upon at the outset During these hours worth of staff time, the following was accomplished: We assisted [redacted] in getting into filing and deposit compliance and proved both to the IRS This made [redacted] eligible to enter into an installment agreement We obtained a partial release of levy, allowing [redacted] to pay its employees We submitted a formal installment agreement proposal This prevented the IRS from issuing further levies against against [redacted] from the date we submitted it, August 1st, through the present We helped Mrs [redacted] gather the supporting documents needed for the IRS to approve an installment agreement We analyzed those documents We chose the documents that would, we felt, give us the best chance of getting [redacted] approved for an affordable installment agreement We submitted those documents We laid the entire foundation for an installment agreement to be approved on on [redacted] 's behalf Finally, at no time did Mrs [redacted] ever express that she wanted the approval of her installment agreement to be expedited She neither called nor emailed our staff to notify us of this desire Rather, she unilaterally and without our knowledge contacted the RO and had the RO approve an installment agreement for $1,000/mo Based on her prior communications with us, we were led to believe that she wanted a lower monthly payment with the IRS Had she told us that she wanted the approval of the installment agreement expedited and that she was willing to agree to monthly payments of $1,000, I have little doubt that we could have easily accomplished this Fortress did approximately 99% of the work necessary for an installment agreement in the amount of $1,to be approved, and was prepared to do additional work with the objective of securing a lower monthly paymentFortress was prevented from finalizing the approval of the installment agreement by Mrs [redacted] 's unilateral decision to contact the RO without our knowledgeI would note also that Mrs [redacted] 's act of contacting the RO without our knowledge is a breach of our contract term which provided that the client would "(r)efrain from negotiating with the taxing authorities and from interfering with Fortress efforts to accomplish the objectives set forth" in our contract Under these circumstances, Fortress does not feel that a refund is justified However, our president, Steve G [redacted] , will be happy to discuss this over the telephone with Mror Mrs [redacted] If they can demonstrate that there was a material defect in our workmanship, Fortress may be willing to agree to a partial refund