We have been in the tax resolution
business for years and to this day we have always prided ourselves on being
the best and going above and beyond what our clients expect. We do engagement letters right up front to
prevent any misunderstanding and problems.
We even
have our lead Tax Attorney discuss the engagement letter the
same day if possible to keep from having problems. There are many times we end up going above
and beyond what we agreed to do to help our clients. This is one of those cases where we went above and beyond. As they say,
no good deed goes unpunished
We are very
dismayed by the fact that the *** would even complain after the amount of
time and effort we spent to resolve what was supposed to be a payment plan, and
for only $in state taxes and under $10,for the federal. Our Tax Consultant told *** right up front
after a financial analysis that we would not be able to negotiate the
debt due to their situation and the amounts due. They would only qualify for a payment
plan on federal, and then the same for state when she threw that in as well.
The *** engaged
us “ONLY” for a payment plan with the IRS and the State however they are now
insisting that we negotiate a settlement of their taxes. They never engaged us for a settlement or
lowering their tax debt. It was very
clear in their engagement letter right in the very first line in bold. This was all discussed by our tax consultant
and then, as a follow up, by our lead Tax Attorney and on our recorded line
Here is the excerpt from that engagement letter:
“This letter is to confirm our understanding of the terms of our
engagement and the nature and limitations of the services we will provide based
on our conversation 10/21/(Payment plan for Federal and State of
Indiana)”
The $as
she noted was included in the agreement to do a pay plan only for the state. We were not made aware of the advanced stages
of collection they were inThey also
told our tax consultant and Enrolled Agent they only owed $to Indiana and
they actually owed $
The ***
were also aware of the terms of payment as it is well laid out in the
engagement letter:
“Our
fee for these services S with a
down payment of S to get startedYou will have a payment of $on 10/24/till Paid in fullAll retainers
for services are earned when parefundsAll requests for additional
retainers and invoices are due upon receipt and are not refundableFailure to
pay either retainer request or invoices shall cause our firm to immediately
stop providing services without further noticeAll fees must be paid in full
prior to pursuing a tax solutionShould you not provide documentation in a
timely manner or it becomes
necessary for our firm to do additional negotiations on your behalf during the course of handling your case, our fee
will increase according to our fee schedule for additional work.”
The Client made their down
payment and then missed the second payment, and said they couldn’t make the
payment as agreedTherefore we offered to end their agreement and return any
unused funds at that point or put them on hold until they could pay. We never put them on hold or stopped pursuing
Indiana as they were in a later stage of collection than we were told. They did finally make their payment a few
days later
State
Case information
The client sent back the
agreement late on October 21, 2014, we started processing on the 22nd
when she received a call from the lead Tax Attorney who discussed what we were
doing for them, to confirm that we both understood that this was a payment plan
only for both federal and state and then a call from an Enrolled Agent who
originally was going to handle only the federal, as another Enrolled agent was
assigned the task of immediate calls to the state due to a warrant. Our calls to the state started immediately
and we found out that the state of Indiana was beyond warrant stage and had been placed into outside advanced
collections and needed more attentionWe then assigned it to one Enrolled Agent
We notified the *** that this is much harder due to the advanced stage they
let this get to and the amount was greater than they told us as well, but we never
asked to increase fee. We were trying to
help them even though we knew at that point this would be much more work than a
few calls and financials to set up a pay plan which is what they were paying for. Instead of just dealing with the Indiana
Department of Revenue and Sherriffs office we had to deal with an outside
collection agency which adds much more time and expense to any payment plan
with Indiana
We spent weeks and months trying
to work with both *** & *** *** as well as the collection agency on
their State issue, we had several plans for them that they refused
Here
are some of those plans
11/17/Contact the Indiana
Department of Revenue (IDOR)IDOR lowest IA pmt is $198/mo for months with
a down pmt of $Informed client of this, and he said that the most he can
afford is probably closer to $100/mo
11/19/Called state and
attempted to see if they would accept any type of payment plan outside of the
24mo or accept a Current not CollectableThe IDOR would notThe IDOR wants
$and then $for mo's
11/19/
Discussed with client the Installment agreement that was setup for his
confirmation and by making his down payment We had the pay
plan in the amount of $set up all we needed was *** to call and confirm
the plan with the collection agency as they require the tax payer to confirm
11/We discussed with
*** again that they would need the down payment as confirmation of the
agreement and informed him to call the collection agency after the payment is
made to have the garnishment released. We
ask him to call us back once he finished the call and confirmed
It took us about a
month to get *** to call the agency as the *** were not happy about making
the call which was required
12/29/called client for update on where he was at, he confirmed that they
were able to get the money for the down payment on the IA and that he was able
to set it up earlier in the month and get the wage garnishment released with
the information I provided him
Unfortunately I guess they didn’t
talk to one another about this being done.
However she was well aware of this being complete as she emailed on
December 28th asking since the State is done where we stand with the
Federal
For
the Federal liability:
Again we started work right away
Our goal was to clear this up quickly
for them and usHowever the state took more time than we budgeted or expected
due to the size and status of the account.
In December we were made aware by the IRS that the tax return was not
filed even though the client said it was and it was clearly noted on the
engagement letter that all returns were filed and she did not want us doing any
returns. We had to wait on the client to
send us a copy of the return. Once we
actually received a copy of the return, client sent a return that had not been
signed and had to request they send a signed return. This took Mrs*** about a month to
completeOnce we received it, we made sure that it was filed with the IRS ourselves
Again this was outside our engagement for them
On
2-3-once the IRS agent accepted the return we were able to set up a payment plan
of only $per month for them. We
placed several phone calls on 2/3, 2/4, 2/6, 2/and several e-mails to client
trying to reach them to discuss the payment planWe received no returned calls
Then the next month we received this email from Mrs***
Sent: Sunday, March 1,
4:PM
Subject: Message
From *** ***
I got your phone message
but I have a new phone and its showing up as unknown with no return numberCan
you follow this up with the number please?
Our enrolled agent then followed
up to discuss the pay plan we had pending for 2007, and debt. We confirmed the payment plan with the
*** 3/9/as well as dates of payments.
We also confirmed that the IRS is still processing the return even
though they accepted the return as filed but have not processed. She agreed to the pay plan, and as policy, we
followed up with the IRS to accept this planWe had to call the IRS and get
this plan in place again due to their delay. The IRS sent the acceptance of the payment
plan on 3-21. We have provided her with
details of the plan the IRS provided and reminded them that the IRS was still
processing the return which is out of our control and following up on that
return is not included in our engagement.
We have not only completed our
work we agreed upon but have gone above and beyond the scope of our
arrangements for them. She has asked for
detail of the plan and both the IRS and our staff have sent her details of the
pay planWe even confirmed receipt from her that she received the IRS letter
for the pay plan. There is no
amortization schedule provided by the IRS so the term and length of their
commitment to pay will depend on them as well as interest. We have provided her with the estimate of
outstanding debt after applying credits the IRS will be processing in the
future, again that is outside of our agreement
What Mrs*** thinks was done
in one phone call took over hours of staff time to work with them, the state
and the IRS. We agreed to the engagement
based on facts they gave our staff up front which were different than the truth
of the matter. However because we are a reputable
company, we did not come back to them for more moneyWe tried to accomplish
the goal of payment plans for both IRS and state. Which we did- it just took longer than anyone
expected and more work as the Client did not disclose the full nature of the state
work or that the tax returns were not filed. We spent over hours working this case that
should have been no more than hours based on the information the client
provided upfront which was misleading
We went above and beyond as we often do for our
clients
This is one of those cases we were
trying to help a client in that were in farther than then would tell us, we
went the extra mile for and, as they say no good deed goes unpunished
We wish them the best for the
future and hope that since we have them on the right path that they can stay
current with their tax obligations.
We have been in the tax resolution
business for years and to this day we have always prided ourselves on being
the best and going above and beyond what our clients expect. We do engagement letters right up front to
prevent any misunderstanding and problems.
We even
have our lead Tax Attorney discuss the engagement letter the
same day if possible to keep from having problems. There are many times we end up going above
and beyond what we agreed to do to help our clients. This is one of those cases where we went above and beyond. As they say,
no good deed goes unpunished
We are very
dismayed by the fact that the *** would even complain after the amount of
time and effort we spent to resolve what was supposed to be a payment plan, and
for only $in state taxes and under $10,for the federal. Our Tax Consultant told *** right up front
after a financial analysis that we would not be able to negotiate the
debt due to their situation and the amounts due. They would only qualify for a payment
plan on federal, and then the same for state when she threw that in as well.
The *** engaged
us “ONLY” for a payment plan with the IRS and the State however they are now
insisting that we negotiate a settlement of their taxes. They never engaged us for a settlement or
lowering their tax debt. It was very
clear in their engagement letter right in the very first line in bold. This was all discussed by our tax consultant
and then, as a follow up, by our lead Tax Attorney and on our recorded line
Here is the excerpt from that engagement letter:
“This letter is to confirm our understanding of the terms of our
engagement and the nature and limitations of the services we will provide based
on our conversation 10/21/(Payment plan for Federal and State of
Indiana)”
The $as
she noted was included in the agreement to do a pay plan only for the state. We were not made aware of the advanced stages
of collection they were inThey also
told our tax consultant and Enrolled Agent they only owed $to Indiana and
they actually owed $
The ***
were also aware of the terms of payment as it is well laid out in the
engagement letter:
“Our
fee for these services S with a
down payment of S to get startedYou will have a payment of $on 10/24/till Paid in fullAll retainers
for services are earned when parefundsAll requests for additional
retainers and invoices are due upon receipt and are not refundableFailure to
pay either retainer request or invoices shall cause our firm to immediately
stop providing services without further noticeAll fees must be paid in full
prior to pursuing a tax solutionShould you not provide documentation in a
timely manner or it becomes
necessary for our firm to do additional negotiations on your behalf during the course of handling your case, our fee
will increase according to our fee schedule for additional work.”
The Client made their down
payment and then missed the second payment, and said they couldn’t make the
payment as agreedTherefore we offered to end their agreement and return any
unused funds at that point or put them on hold until they could pay. We never put them on hold or stopped pursuing
Indiana as they were in a later stage of collection than we were told. They did finally make their payment a few
days later
State
Case information
The client sent back the
agreement late on October 21, 2014, we started processing on the 22nd
when she received a call from the lead Tax Attorney who discussed what we were
doing for them, to confirm that we both understood that this was a payment plan
only for both federal and state and then a call from an Enrolled Agent who
originally was going to handle only the federal, as another Enrolled agent was
assigned the task of immediate calls to the state due to a warrant. Our calls to the state started immediately
and we found out that the state of Indiana was beyond warrant stage and had been placed into outside advanced
collections and needed more attentionWe then assigned it to one Enrolled Agent
We notified the *** that this is much harder due to the advanced stage they
let this get to and the amount was greater than they told us as well, but we never
asked to increase fee. We were trying to
help them even though we knew at that point this would be much more work than a
few calls and financials to set up a pay plan which is what they were paying for. Instead of just dealing with the Indiana
Department of Revenue and Sherriffs office we had to deal with an outside
collection agency which adds much more time and expense to any payment plan
with Indiana
We spent weeks and months trying
to work with both *** & *** *** as well as the collection agency on
their State issue, we had several plans for them that they refused
Here
are some of those plans
11/17/Contact the Indiana
Department of Revenue (IDOR)IDOR lowest IA pmt is $198/mo for months with
a down pmt of $Informed client of this, and he said that the most he can
afford is probably closer to $100/mo
11/19/Called state and
attempted to see if they would accept any type of payment plan outside of the
24mo or accept a Current not CollectableThe IDOR would notThe IDOR wants
$and then $for mo's
11/19/
Discussed with client the Installment agreement that was setup for his
confirmation and by making his down payment We had the pay
plan in the amount of $set up all we needed was *** to call and confirm
the plan with the collection agency as they require the tax payer to confirm
11/We discussed with
*** again that they would need the down payment as confirmation of the
agreement and informed him to call the collection agency after the payment is
made to have the garnishment released. We
ask him to call us back once he finished the call and confirmed
It took us about a
month to get *** to call the agency as the *** were not happy about making
the call which was required
12/29/called client for update on where he was at, he confirmed that they
were able to get the money for the down payment on the IA and that he was able
to set it up earlier in the month and get the wage garnishment released with
the information I provided him
Unfortunately I guess they didn’t
talk to one another about this being done.
However she was well aware of this being complete as she emailed on
December 28th asking since the State is done where we stand with the
Federal
For
the Federal liability:
Again we started work right away
Our goal was to clear this up quickly
for them and usHowever the state took more time than we budgeted or expected
due to the size and status of the account.
In December we were made aware by the IRS that the tax return was not
filed even though the client said it was and it was clearly noted on the
engagement letter that all returns were filed and she did not want us doing any
returns. We had to wait on the client to
send us a copy of the return. Once we
actually received a copy of the return, client sent a return that had not been
signed and had to request they send a signed return. This took Mrs*** about a month to
completeOnce we received it, we made sure that it was filed with the IRS ourselves
Again this was outside our engagement for them
On
2-3-once the IRS agent accepted the return we were able to set up a payment plan
of only $per month for them. We
placed several phone calls on 2/3, 2/4, 2/6, 2/and several e-mails to client
trying to reach them to discuss the payment planWe received no returned calls
Then the next month we received this email from Mrs***
Sent: Sunday, March 1,
4:PM
Subject: Message
From *** ***
I got your phone message
but I have a new phone and its showing up as unknown with no return numberCan
you follow this up with the number please?
Our enrolled agent then followed
up to discuss the pay plan we had pending for 2007, and debt. We confirmed the payment plan with the
*** 3/9/as well as dates of payments.
We also confirmed that the IRS is still processing the return even
though they accepted the return as filed but have not processed. She agreed to the pay plan, and as policy, we
followed up with the IRS to accept this planWe had to call the IRS and get
this plan in place again due to their delay. The IRS sent the acceptance of the payment
plan on 3-21. We have provided her with
details of the plan the IRS provided and reminded them that the IRS was still
processing the return which is out of our control and following up on that
return is not included in our engagement.
We have not only completed our
work we agreed upon but have gone above and beyond the scope of our
arrangements for them. She has asked for
detail of the plan and both the IRS and our staff have sent her details of the
pay planWe even confirmed receipt from her that she received the IRS letter
for the pay plan. There is no
amortization schedule provided by the IRS so the term and length of their
commitment to pay will depend on them as well as interest. We have provided her with the estimate of
outstanding debt after applying credits the IRS will be processing in the
future, again that is outside of our agreement
What Mrs*** thinks was done
in one phone call took over hours of staff time to work with them, the state
and the IRS. We agreed to the engagement
based on facts they gave our staff up front which were different than the truth
of the matter. However because we are a reputable
company, we did not come back to them for more moneyWe tried to accomplish
the goal of payment plans for both IRS and state. Which we did- it just took longer than anyone
expected and more work as the Client did not disclose the full nature of the state
work or that the tax returns were not filed. We spent over hours working this case that
should have been no more than hours based on the information the client
provided upfront which was misleading
We went above and beyond as we often do for our
clients
This is one of those cases we were
trying to help a client in that were in farther than then would tell us, we
went the extra mile for and, as they say no good deed goes unpunished
We wish them the best for the
future and hope that since we have them on the right path that they can stay
current with their tax obligations.