Do those tax assistance commercials bother you?

[hrh_disney_queen]

I don't know if you have these in your neck of the woods, but here there is a commercial for people that owe taxes, and the company helps them pay a "fraction" of what they owe. Not an accounting or tax service that helps file your return to SAVE you money, they specifically say "I owed the IRS $30,000 and only paid $3000". My "favorite" is the last one where a very wealthy looking couple stands in front of a mansion and they say "We owed the IRS $3 million dollars and only paid $1 million" while holding up signs with those numbers on them.

My DH and I both looked at each other when we saw this and said, "Well, who's paying the rest of that $3 Million? Oh, I guess WE are!"

This commercial just starts my blood pressure to rise for some reason.

 

[LuvOrlando]

They bother me too. In my case what gets to me is some present themselves as a formal organization which seems related to the Government to get people to trust them. I called one once just to ask if they were actually a part of the US Government and only then did they say they were private, but they tried hard to avoid the answer. This is preying on the weak and I generally despise bottom feeders.

 

[AKL_Megs]

DH and I get our blood boiling when we see them too!

How the heck do you get to the point where you OWE $3,000,000? Who lets that happen?

 

[Nette]

DH and I get our blood boiling when we see them too!

How the heck do you get to the point where you OWE $3,000,000? Who lets that happen?

Forget that... if you can afford to pay $1 million, then what are the odds that you can't afford the entire bill? I'm thinking slim to none.

 

[bumbershoot]

It could bother me, except I wish my MIL had contacted one of them. After FIL died, I was the person who got to find out, in a phone call to the IRS, that he hadn't filed taxes in 6 years. He was an independent contractor so had no taxes taken from his check (though SS was). He received his union pension, and b/c he had the contract position he had them take nothing from it. He was making quarterly payments to the IRS, but he wasn't *filing*. PROBLEM.

So we found out that MIL owed around 50K, when she thought he'd been filing all these years. She didn't know b/c 7 years before, he had filed with TurboTax. As anyone knows, who uses those services, the *first* year you send in your sig, and subsequent years you don't send it in. They just assume everyone knows. So MIL wasn't being asked for more signatures, nor would she have been, and their relationship was such that while she was the boss in some things, there were other things where questions were NOT allowed.

She tends to hire people based solely on their ability to speak her native language, and the accountant she got has some questionable skills, IMO. And she's paying the full amount, in drips and drops from her widow's SS payment and what she gets of his pension, on a debt she never knew was out there until I had that talk with the IRS.

Wish she could pay pennies on the dollar of it...sigh.

 

[tukogirl]

These really bother me as well. Some friends of ours haven't paid their taxex since 2000. They make a very good living, but figured not having that pesky tax taken out of their income would make living even better! Now they owe about $100,000 and are trying to get it reduced to about 40k. In their case, and in the cases of people with a similar issue, this makes me sick. We live on a small income and don't get anywhere near as much spending money as they do - in part because we actually pay our taxes. To me, getting that much taken off just reinforces them to not pay taxes. And its everyone elses taxes that will go up because of it.

In the case of the above poster, where it was out of her control, these services may be valuable. But getting large chunks of money taken off because you decided not to pay your tax bill is not ok. I hope these commercials don't encourage anyone to not pay their taxes knowing they could possibly get much of that bill taken away. In this economy, it might!

 

[Pakey]

Yes, they bother me. I do the executive payroll for my company and I'm constantly shocked and appalled at the finances of high salaried inviduals who have tax garnishments and have negotiated for much lower sums. At one point, over half of the executives I pay had tax garnishments.

 

[mtdevine615]

They do bother me, but I think most of it the law firm getting the IRS to waive the interest and penalties. From what I have seen of the IRS they very seldom waive the actual tax bill itself.

 

[bumbershoot]

They do bother me, but I think most of it the law firm getting the IRS to waive the interest and penalties. From what I have seen of the IRS they very seldom waive the actual tax bill itself.

That sounds possible. The 50K total my MIL is dealing with is not 50/50 tax vs fees, but it's not 90/10, either...quite a lot of fees and interest on those fees!

 

[LuvOrlando]

These really bother me as well. Some friends of ours haven't paid their taxex since 2000. They make a very good living, but figured not having that pesky tax taken out of their income would make living even better! Now they owe about $100,000 and are trying to get it reduced to about 40k. In their case, and in the cases of people with a similar issue, this makes me sick. We live on a small income and don't get anywhere near as much spending money as they do - in part because we actually pay our taxes. To me, getting that much taken off just reinforces them to not pay taxes. And its everyone elses taxes that will go up because of it.

In the case of the above poster, where it was out of her control, these services may be valuable. But getting large chunks of money taken off because you decided not to pay your tax bill is not ok. I hope these commercials don't encourage anyone to not pay their taxes knowing they could possibly get much of that bill taken away. In this economy, it might!

I can't believe people actually intentionally do this. Who in their right mind risks going to jail for a Federal offense to get nicer stuff? Wow, and here we are putting more in monthly because I would rather get money back (sans interest) than risk the assault to our reputations and fees. I have a CPA to keep me from doing stupid things unknowingly, I can't imagine committing a crime like this fully aware... it just blows my mind.

Don't get me wrong, I have sympathy for people who have to choose between taxes and feeding their kids or going homeless... that's understandable, I don't know how the law sees it but from my perspective it's forgivable. But, in a case of those who do this out of sheer arrogance I think they should be carted off with their pictures front & center in the paper.

 

[Tink888]

It bothers me too. It's like they're basically saying "hey, we know you didn't play by the rules like everyone else, now let us help you avoid the punishment for it".

I know there are lots of people with special circumstances like Bumbershoot's MIL but I also think there are a lot of people who intentionally try and cheat the system because they know they can get away with it.

 

[CowboyCO]

It bothers me too. It's like they're basically saying "hey, we know you didn't play by the rules like everyone else, now let us help you avoid the punishment for it".

I know there are lots of people with special circumstances like Bumbershoot's MIL but I also think there are a lot of people who intentionally try and cheat the system because they know they can get away with it.

The fees and penalties when you have a tax problem are outrageous. The problem is, if you don't know you made a mistake on your taxes, then you get audited, or you file a correction, you still get tagged with the same penalties and fees. The IRS is as bad as the credit card companies -- except with them the penalties, fees and interest are retroactive.

 

[C.Ann]

I always wonder who has the NERVE to mess around with the IRS and not pay their taxes!!

 

[FireDancer]

I hate them. If you owe the taxes pay them. When you don't it is the rest of us who have to pick up the slack because we all know the government isn't going to not spend your money.

Don't get me wrong, the tax rate in this country is ridiculous and unsustainable and I would be the first in line to fix it. Until it is though (and don't hold your breathe) you need to pay what you are owed.

If you can't do your taxes correctly hire someone who can.

 

[bumbershoot]

I know there are lots of people with special circumstances like Bumbershoot's MIL but I also think there are a lot of people who intentionally try and cheat the system because they know they can get away with it.

Sadly, it was FIL doing it on purpose.

I always wonder who has the NERVE to mess around with the IRS and not pay their taxes!!

I wish we'd known while FIL was still alive! Would have had some words with that man. Because he knew he was doing it. He also stole about 20K from MIL's life insurance policy; we found the papers where he practiced her signature, and he got my BIL's then (and now again) partner to "witness" it officially. (I also got to find out about that, and find out that her cash value on the policy was about 300 bucks and she had to pay that loan back, and we coudln't get them to take any responsibility for making sure that the person writing them for a loan was actually the owner of the policy)

To quote or paraphrase Love Actually...not a nice guy, after all.


So there ya go. It's "not nice guys" (and women) doing it. One simply hopes that THEY are the ones who get to pay the piper, rather than leaving it for their widows/widowers to clean up.

 

[Disneycrazymom]

I am sorry this happened to your MIL.

Not only do I not like these commercials but also the ones that say if you have over $10000 in credit card debt they can help you not pay/pay less. I always think people will just go out and add to the debt they have until it gets over $10000 and then call for help. Just isn't right imho to almost encourage people to have up to an amount of debt. So many things seem "not right" about it.

 

[Bearvet]

Friends of ours are in trouble with the IRS - I don't know any details other than my friend's wages have been garnished. Her DH signed up with one of these companies - and they had to pay for their services upfront! Doesn't sound good to me......