American Tax Relief, A Consumers Story

In October of 2008 I received notice from the IRS that a tax audit was being done on my 2006 tax year filing. After you get a notice like this from the IRS you then set up an appointment to see the tax examiner who will be handling your case. My appointment was scheduled for November at the Deerfield Beach IRS office in Florida and I was told which documents to bring for the auditor to look at. I had not reported my entire income on the Form 1040 and that is what had triggered the examination. I would not have had to face this situation if I had not totally relied on TurboTax without checking things adequately. If you have to face an ordeal like this, remember that the IRS wants your money, not your excuses.

The IRS sent my adjusted tax return in January of 2009 and told me that I owed more than $20,000 dollars in unpaid taxes. That did not even include the 8 percent interest on top of a $3,200 dollar penalty. When I read that I began to feel very desperate.

I had been seeing these TV commercials for a company called American Tax Relief which had very well known people selling the idea that this company could help you reduce any tax liability you might have. I called the number on the screen and spoke with one of their slick sales people whose name was Bill. I told him my story and he confidently assured me that his company could greatly reduce my tax liabilities. What a relief! In order to get their service started, and also get the IRS off of me, they faxed me a power of attorney that I was supposed to sign and return to them. I gave them my bank account number and all the necessary information to handle the one-time 3,900 dollar fee. I told them to go ahead and fax me the paperwork and I agreed to the service.

Even though I had already agreed to hire them, I began to have second thoughts and went online to see if there were any complaints against American Tax Relief. I was really surprised to find hundreds of complaints against them. You can visit www.ConsumerComplaints.com to see it for yourself. The Better Business Bureau has given them an “F” rating in Southern California. After I read the complaints I put an immediate stop payment on the telephone check that I had given to American Tax Relief. Then I got a call from Bill who wanted to know why my fax of the power of attorney had not reached them. I let him know that I no longer wanted their service and that put an end to that situation.

American Tax Relief, A Consumers Story by
No votes yet.
Please wait...

2 thoughts on “American Tax Relief, A Consumers Story”

  1. “… they faxed me a power of attorney that I was supposed to sign and return to them”
    Yikes. That sounds pretty scary. I see commercials for this company’s “service” whenever I can’t sleep at night, claiming to reduce your payment amount into a fraction of what you owe.

    No votes yet.
    Please wait...
  2. You had an EXTREMELY lucky escape with American Tax Relief. Thank God they didn’t get their hands on your money.

    When I was reading through your post, the alarm bells were already ringing for me. Glad your instincts kicked in.

    Good luck with your back taxes. Hope things get sorted.

    Take care…

    No votes yet.
    Please wait...

Comments are closed.