Optima Tax Relief LLC

I was at a dilemma with the IRS. My worst fears were haunting me, and I had no where to turn. I stumbled upon Optima Tax Relief by a stroke of luck. I was driving, going about my day, when I heard a commercial for Optima Tax Relief. I had been scammed by one of these so-called tax mediators in the past. I was taken for over $4K!! So I was a little hesitant, a little in disbelief, but something sparked my faith. So I made the call to the 1-800 number and took the first step.
I spoke to very nice representative named [redacted], Senior Tax Consultant. She was very receptive of my call, very professional, extremely informative. Her demeanor raised my confidence that Optima Tax Relief was an organization that could help me with my tax problem. After making arrangements to proceed with the application process, we marched forward which relieved me of my stress and worries.
I am so pleased at the outcome of my case. All of the people, especially [redacted], Case Manager, were very professional and extremely proactive in working my case. I am a true testament to the legitimacy of what Optima Tax Relief can do for individuals who are in the situation that I was. I would highly recommend Optima Tax Relief to anyone in need of help.
Stephen C.

SUMMARY -
Optima...

Tax's management contacted the client to address his
concerns and we’ve come to a mutual resolution.   
 
RESPONSE
-
Optima Tax’s management has made contact with the client to
address his concerns as outlined in the complaint. Optima Tax services are
broken down into two phases. Phase One is the initial Investigation performed
by Optima Tax to fully assess the client’s current tax situation and Phase Two
is the Resolution Phase whereby Optima Tax provides services to the client to
help address his identified tax issues. Upon the client’s enrollment into our
Investigation Phase he was thoroughly informed that there will be a secondary fee
for the Resolution Phase and that fee is based off the complexity of his case.
This is fully disclosed in our Client Services Agreement and additionally
confirmed through our voice recorded Verification Call with the client. Both
the agreement and voice recorded call can be provided upon request.
 
Although
the client did not agree with the presented fees associated with the Resolution
Phase, we were able to educate the client on the severity of his case based on
the result of Optima Tax’s Investigation. More notably, the client was under
the impression that his liability with the IRS was less than what we had
discovered. After providing the client a thorough breakdown of our findings he
had the option of moving forward or discontinuing our services. Ultimately, the
client decided not to move forward with Optima Tax. Even though Optima Tax
conducted a thorough Investigation and fulfilled its contractual obligations,
we understand that not every client will agree with the terms of our services.
In this particular instance, we came into an agreement with the client that
will allow us to part ways mutually and amicably. 
 
At Optima Tax we strive to uphold the philosophy that
"clients come first" and all of our representatives go through rigorous training to assure we abide by that
philosophy. We take all complaints very seriously, and we do our best to turn
them around when possible. Optima Tax
believes it has addressed the client's concerns appropriately and considers the
matter closed. Please do not hesitate to contact Optima Tax with any questions.
Thank you.

Please be advised that we are still in constant communication with the client until we come to a final resolve regarding her concerns. We are pleased that the client remains in communication as it only helps us come to a final conclusion.   Although Optima Tax explores every avenue it can to help reduce our client’s overall tax liability, the IRS has the right to approve or deny such requests. Given the client’s filing history, the IRS would not accept any type of request to remove any penalties the client accrued.   In order to address the client’s assertion that Optima’s actions prevented a tax refund, Optima will provide some important information. Thus, the IRS requires that any return, which requests a refund of money paid, be submitted to the IRS within three years of the original due date for the return. In this case, the client is claiming a refund for tax year 2008, but the client first requested this refund when they filed an amended return in 2012. Therefore, because the request for refund was made more than three years after the original return was required to be filed, the IRS will not issue a refund to the taxpayer.    To claim that Optima Tax did nothing for the fees associated with her case is an inaccurate statement. Not only did Optima Tax resolve her case as outlined in the Client Services and Resolution Addendum, the plan we successfully negotiated also protects the client from any enforcement action that can be taken by the IRS to satisfy the outstanding balance.

Contrary to the client’s belief, on February 19,
2016 the client’s Tax Associate presented the end result of our Investigation
and our strategy to help resolve the client’s outstanding liability. To ensure
that this call took place, we reviewed the call that took place on the 19th
of February and we can confirm with the utmost certainty that the client had
been presented with a full summary of our findings and with the end result of
our Investigation. Additionally, during that call the client had informed his
Tax Associate that he completely understood the end result of our Investigation
and went as far as asking for the Resolution Addendum which outlines our
resolution services proposed for the client.

SUMMARY - Optima Tax's management has previously communicated with the client in an attempt to address her claims prior to receiving the complaint. However, upon receiving the complaint, Optima Tax has made multiple attempts to contact the client but she has been unresponsive.   RESPONSE -...

Optima Tax’s management has reached out to the client to formally address the claims outlined in their complaint. However, the client has failed to respond to our attempts at communication. In contrast to the client’s claims, Optima Tax Relief was not engaged to prepare her 2010 and 2012 tax returns. However, Optima Tax was preparing the client’s 2011 tax return, which it completed and instructed the client to sign the return and mail it back to us so that it could be sent to the IRS. However, the client never returned the signed tax return in order for Optima Tax to file. In addition, Optima Tax also electronically filed the client’s 2015 tax return and has provided her with confirmation. In regards to the client’s claim about filing her State of New York tax return, Optima also prepared that return and provided the client with the final return with instruction that she must mail it to the taxing authority. Therefore, despite the client’s claim that Optima Tax did not perform a service, it has diligently performed it obligations as specified in the Client Service Agreement.   Finally, as the client stated, she has failed to perform her payment obligations under the Client Service Agreement. As a result, the client has hindered Optima Tax’s ability to continue servicing her file because she went on payment hold. However, Optima Tax has attempted to address the client’s concerns, but the client has refused to return any of Optima’s attempts at communication.   At Optima Tax we strive to uphold the philosophy that "clients come first" and all of our representatives go through rigorous training to assure we abide by that philosophy. Optima Tax believes it has addressed the client's concerns appropriately and considers the matter closed. Please do not hesitate to contact Optima Tax with any questions. Thank you.

SUMMARY - Optima Tax's management is attempting to make contact with the client to address their concerns as outlined in the complaint.   RESPONSE - Optima Tax’s management will be in contact with the client so we may address his allegations outlined in the complaint. As the client stated,...

Optima Tax resolved his case about a year ago. When presenting the client with the end result of the resolution we successfully negotiated, we informed him that the agreement established will help pay off a portion of the balance while saving him money over time. The agreement in place did not require any documentation and it was explained to the client that as long as the client continued to pay the amount we negotiated without any future outstanding balances, he stood to save a considerable amount of money.   As we reviewed the closing call from August 2015, the client was extremely grateful for the resolution we achieved. He had a clear understanding to our strategy and after we closed his case he did not make any attempts to contact Optima Tax to address his concerns. It’s unfortunate that he did not take the time to contact us however; we are confident that we will come to a mutual resolve.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
Please see my letter of response to the business response. I feel I have been taken advantage of when I first spoke the representative on my situation. I explained what steps I have taken and my conerns of my findings were not enough. Here is what I found on my own which I explained to the business’s representative:• Tax return years showing money owed• Amount of dollars owed per year• Not qualified for compromised amount• Worked out a payment plan on my own with IRSI called the business and spoke to them if there was more they can help me on after informing them the steps I have already taken. They told me they can but the cost is $995.00 to get started. I told the representative my concern is that I pay your business this cost and I end up having to pay the full amount owed plus their fee. I was given the impression the business would find more than what I have done on my own.June 7: After the payment of $955.00 was paid, I emailed the representative to ask their status 2 weeks after they sent the docs received email. The representative replied a day after stating they are in the investigation phase. I explained that I received an IRS letter stating I am late on my payment. The representative said they should have results in two weeks.I received a missed call from the assistant due to work reason on June 30th 2016 and an email stating they were wanting to schedule a phone appointment to go over results. I could not return the call but emailed the assistant if this is something I can write down or call as soos as I am off work. I called, twcice I believe, but there was no answer and I left a message.I called the next day to speak to the assistant and in a rude tone, she tells me since I did not speak to her the the day I received the call, the day had to change. Originally the day was for July 5th 2016. But, since I did not speak to her, July 6th was available so I agreed to July 6th 2016 at 12:00 noon to speak with my representative to go over the results.On July 6th 2016 at 12:00pm, I waited for the call. I called the business in 12:10pm to speak to my representative based on our appointment. I left a message for a call back immediately as I took the time off work as scheduled. I did not receive a return call so I called the assistant who booked the appointment with me. She did not understand why the representative was not calling me so she proceeded to call tge representative herself. She comes back to me and informs me the representative is off today and will be back tomorrow with no reasond or no regards to the schedule or my time. I insisted I speak to someone due to the fact I have taken the time to go over the results that I have paid for and was promised the day and and time from the assistant and this business.I finally received a message from the representative that a call would call be on the following day. The representative did not apologize or give any reasons why this obligation was not fulfilled as promised and disregarded my time and reasons why.At this time, I wished to cancel the services with business seeing how they treated me and my case. I hired them to help me with my issues with the thoughts of their professionalism, experience and what they told me they could do. I feel when I spoke to the representative, the representative was very deligthful and willing to take my case which made feel comfortable after our discussion. After the payment was made I felt I was forgotten a burden and almost put in line with the rest of the herd. I feel I have been taken advantage of. I explained my concern of the charge if it was the same investigation as I have done and the representative assurred me it is not. The representative lied to me after fiding out it was the same exact information that I found online. The reason I hired them as I expained to the representative was with the thought “they could do more.” Apparently, they do not.I conclusion, I believe this business is a scam that preys on people’s vulnerbility with the having debt to the IRS. They are not upfront with the investigation process of how it done. All the information you can get online with a social security number. They do not do anymore than what a person can who do. Please contact me to discuss further if you like.
Regards,
[redacted]

SUMMARY -
Optima...

Tax's management has been in contact with the client and
we are working towards a mutual resolve.
RESPONSE
-
Optima Tax’s management has been in communication with the
client to address their concerns as outlined in the complaint. Optima Tax makes
it a point to educate our clients of the process of dealing with their tax
liability and we take every step to ensure that our clients fully understand
that ultimately the IRS makes the final decision regarding their outstanding
tax liability owed.  For this reason, we
do not make any specific guarantees to any specific outcome. In regards to
possibly obtaining a reduction for the client, at this point the client has yet
to allow us to explore all potential options available for them, which includes
a potential reduction.
Considering
the fact that the client’s case was at the highest level of collections with
the IRS prior to the client contacting Optima Tax, there was a very high
likelihood the client would endure penalties from the IRS.. This does not mean the
impending penalties cannot be removed or reduced once a resolution is in place.
Although the client could not provide certain necessary financial documents in
the two years they have been with Optima Tax we were still able to work with
the assigned IRS agent and present the client with three options to resolve
their case. Additionally, the communication issue had been addressed and
resolved as of last year.
At Optima Tax we strive to uphold the philosophy that
"clients come first" and all of our representatives go through rigorous training to assure we abide by that
philosophy. We take all complaints very seriously, and we do our best to turn
them around when possible. Optima Tax
believes it has addressed the client's concerns appropriately and will continue
to reach out to the client until we come to a final mutual resolve. Please do
not hesitate to contact Optima Tax with any questions. Thank you.

We have been diligently trying to work with the client to address their concerns and more importantly, resolve their case. However, there are a few issues that are preventing Optima Tax Relief from finalizing their case. Therefore, Optima Tax is awaiting the client’s response to the actions that we have presented in order to move forward with their case.     Unfortunately, the co-client and the client have separated which has created additional issues with resolving their case. Additionally, we were just informed that the client’s financial circumstances have significantly changed. Thus, if they have the ability to provide substantiation of this change in financial situation, we have other options we can attempt to pursue and resolve their IRS liability. Those options have been presented to the client and we are waiting to hear if they want to take advantage of those options.

Optima Tax Relief, has been an amazing yet very fulfilling experience. When I could have lost everything to the IRS, I decided to give Optima a try. Not knowing that I could trust any company that wasn't within distance from me. Every department at this company fully satisfied our every need. I would highly recommend Optima to anyone dealing with IRS issues.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
I'm attaching 16 emails exchanged between myself and Optima Tax Relief regarding the fact that my 2014 Tax Return had not been filed yet.  The dates of these emails range from 8/1/15 thru 1/22/16. You will see from these emails that I had difficulty with the E-Signature process in signing the IRS Tax Return Document. The password Optima was giving me did not work.  I finally got it to work one day and completed the process, but did not receive any kind of confirmation.  I sent an email on 8/11 after the last attempt appeared to go through asking if they had received everything they need from me at that point.  The same date 8/11/15 I received an email saying "no I don't believe we need anything else from you at this time'.  At that point I felt that everything was fine with my 2014 Tax Return.  I found out in December 2015 that the return had not been filed yet.  The dead line for filing extensions was in October.  No on from Optima ever contacted me to say there was anything wrong with my signature.  I signed the return manually in December 2015, because that is first time I was aware there had been an issue. I'm going to run out of time on here, so I'm just going to attach all the relevant emails.  I should be very easy to see that Optima dropped the ball on me and twisting the facts around to try and blame me.  
Regards,
[redacted]

SUMMARY - Optima Tax's management has looked into this consumer's complaint and fully resolved all issues raised by the consumer. RESPONSE - As the consumer stated, he did unsubscribe from receiving email marketing pieces from Optima Tax offering services to the consumer. The consumer recently...

unsubscribed on April 27, 2016 and since then we have confirmed that they are taken off emailing lists and will no longer receive any further emails. It typically takes ten (10) days for the unsubscribe request to sync with the mailing databases to remove the email address and ensure the requesting party does not receive any further emails. We apologize for any inconvenience this situation may have caused the consumer and we are glad to have fully addressed their concerns and rectify the situation.

I called several different tax companies before I finally found Optima Tax. First impressions was when the customer service picked up the phone. Very personable and ready to help. It went up hill from there. They always check to make sure you did not have any questions, always answered promptly and customer service would call during the process to let you know where you were in the process. It was a great experience and the outcome was definitely worth my time.

Optima Tax's management has made multiple and sincere attempts
to contact the client to discuss their concerns as outlined in the complaint.
However, it is regrettable that after the client submitted their rebuttal to
our initial response, we unfortunately have not received any further response
from the client, despite our attempts to discuss a mutual resolution. We
understand that the client has made certain accusations in their rebuttal to
our initial response, and although we respectfully do not agree with the
claims, our priority is making sure that clients are satisfied with our service.
Therefore, we remain willing to discuss the client’s claims in detail in order
to have a better understanding of their position and provide a mutually
acceptable resolution. We hope to hear from the client for further discussion
in an effort to remedy any dissatisfaction they may have had with our service.   
At Optima Tax we strive to uphold the philosophy that
"clients come first" and all of our representatives go through rigorous training to assure we abide by that
philosophy. We take all complaints very seriously, and we do our best to turn
them around when possible. Optima Tax
will continue its efforts in resolving this unfortunate dispute until a
resolution is met. However, we would appreciate some feedback or response from
the clients in order to resolve this dispute. We are confident and hopeful that
if the client responds to our attempts to contact them that we will be able to
come to a mutual resolution. Thank you.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
[i attempted to call and emailed Mr [redacted] Friday Oct 16th around 3pm and am awaiting his return call and/or email. I had been corresponding with [redacted] about the matter when he last said he was going to his "board" and would get back to me, from which I didn't get a response from anyone until after my Revdex.com complaint. When we had come to an agreement to return 250$ of my 1000$ paid it was never mentioned to me that I must sign a contract prohibiting me from portraying my opinion of Optima in a negative light. I feel if I am going to have to pay for services that I didn't need and gave me no return value for my money, even when I was very explicit what I my main intent was in commisioning their services, then I want to inform other potential clients what may occur if they find themselves in a similar situation. 
Regards,
[redacted]

I *. *. was very satisfied with the service that Optima Tax relief provided and would recomend to all friends and family to use there help .

I had a very enjoyable experience with the personnel at Optimum Tax Relief. They kept me informed during the entire process. I received phone calls notifying me of the expectations and paperwork submitted about once a week.

Optima Tax has been in contact with the consumer to gather further information in order to best address their concerns. We are pleased to report that all issues have been identified and resolved and the consumer's concerns have been fully addressed.  Optima Tax's management has been in...

contact with the client to address their concerns as outlined in their initial complaint.  Upon learning about the consumer's issue, we immediately updated our e-mailing list to ensure the consumer would not receive any further emails from Optima Tax. Furthermore, we looked into all claims made and feel as though any potential problem areas were corrected in a timely fashion.  It is regrettable the consumer was faced with such issues and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience experienced by the consumer. At Optima tax we strive to uphold the philosophy that "clients come first" and all of our representatives go through rigorous training to assure we abide by that philosophy. We take all complaints very seriously and we do our best to turn them around when possible. Optima Tax believes it has addressed the client's concerns appropriately. Please do not hesitate to contact Optima Tax with any questions. Thank you.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint...

resolved.
 I have resolved my concerns with Optima and my complaint can be closed.Thank you [redacted]    Regards,
[redacted]

SUMMARY -
Optima Tax is attempting to make contact with the client to
discuss their concerns and...

further clarify any misunderstanding that may have
occurred as outlined in the complaint
 
RESPONSE
-
Optima Tax’s management has reviewed the case and we feel that
there may be a misunderstanding to the end result of our investigation of the
client’s tax liability. Although the IRS may have yet to assess an ending
balance of the client’s tax liability, based off what was reported to the IRS
it appears that there may have been errors in the client’s tax reporting which
would subsequently delay the IRS’ reporting of the client’s ending balance.
Thus, when proper reporting is completed we are confident a true and correct
balance will be reflected. As the client stated, this cannot be determined
until his 2014 tax year is filed along with any scheduled write offs. Taking
all things into consideration we feel that we have done a fair assessment with
the information given to us by both the IRS as well as the client and we are
confident that we may continue to assist the client.
 
Although
there may have been initial issues with communication attempts with the IRS,
Optima Tax nonetheless obtained all the necessary information from the IRS
agent on March 10, 2016. As we previously offered to the client we are more
than happy to provide the client with the details pertaining to the exact IRS
agent we communicated with along with additional information to solidify our
efforts made on behalf of the client. Furthermore, we have also attempted and
will continue to attempt to provide the client with further details outlining
our formulated strategy that was presented to the client in an effort to
resolve their liability. Solutions were presented to the client to solve any
initial communication issues that may have arisen with the IRS and we are
confident that these issues will be fully resolved, if they have not already
been resolved.
 
As the
client mentioned in their complaint, their tax balances have yet to be assessed,
and this is a direct result as to why he has yet to receive a payoff amount
letter. However, as explained to the client, once his complete and correct
information is received by the IRS he will receive multiple letters from the
IRS until the balance is paid in full.
 
At Optima Tax we strive to uphold the philosophy that
"clients come first" and all of our representatives go through rigorous training to assure we abide by that
philosophy. We take all complaints very seriously, and we do our best to turn
them around when possible. It’s unfortunate that the client did not express his
concerns with Optima Tax management before filing a complaint but we are
confident that we will come to a mutual resolve. Thank you.