I worked at omni financial while finishing school. They were flexible and it seemed like a good way to make side money during my last semester. I quit after 3 months because I got sick of how dishonest, ruthless, and unprofessional they are, while providing almost NO VALUE to their clients.
Their actions are not necessarily illegal or a scam, but in my opinion, they provide very, very minimal value to clients. Consider the following:
1. A "Senior Associate" (likely someone with a bachelor's degree in something unrelated to taxation) WILL CHARGE YOU $200 PER HOUR TO GO TO www.irs. Gov, print a standard boiler-plate form, and mail it to you to fill out! All the while you could have printed it at home and filled it out yourself FOR FREE! Example: the "Power of Attorney" form 2848. You're paying $50-60 because they printed it off on the IRS website and mailed it to you. You could have printed it off at home for free. To add insult to injury (Yes, they're insulting your intelligence by doing this) they bill 30-60 minutes worth of "work". Would it take you 45 minutes to click on www.IRS. Gov, find a form, and then click "print"? To put this into perspective, well-respected Attorneys in Denver, (practicing ACTUAL legal or Tax work) charge starting at $170—$225 per hour.
2. Take a VERY CLOSE LOOK at your bill. They bill up to 60 minutes of "work" for things that arent work. Example: they bill 30-40 minutes of "work" when they print a standard "welcome letter" to send you. They all use the same letter, probably written like 7 yrs ago... All they did was add your name at the top, print it and mail it to you... And charge you $75 for it off your retainer! On top of that... Notice how your associate tries to chit-chat with you on the phone for like 20 minutes before "talking shop"? That's right, you're getting billed for it. Do you call that work? They also chit-chat with the IRS revenue officers and call it "work". They'll add another $80-$100 to your bill because they asked the revenue officer how his weekend was.
3. Omni DOES NOT PRACTICE LAW! The attorneys they hire (my sympathy goes out to them) are salesmen while they are at omni... NOT attorneys. Their only job is to sell you an installment agreement or an offer-in-compromise (forms you can download at www.irs. Gov for free). If the IRS or a state makes a mistake on your returns (the IRS makes many mistakes) omni cannot help you. So they dont even examine this possibility. They cannot litigate, they cannot amend your returns, they cannot do much more than call the IRS and beg for you (to say they negotiate is laughable)
4. Omni does VERY LITTLE NEGOTIATING! I know people are busy. But look at publications the IRS puts on their website. Type "installment agreement" or "offer-in-compromise" in the search box... They'll pop up. You'll see that their rules for reducing tax debts or getting into payment agreements are straight-forward, based on financial disclosures you have to make. Omni has very little barganing power (Yes, the commercials saying "We settled a $100,000 debt for $5,000!" are VERY MISLEADING EXAGGERATIONS. They happen in very rare circumstances
5. As a final note, I urge you to discuss your situation with your tax authority before problems get out of hand. THE IRS WILL WORK WITH YOU, as long as you dont blow them off. Most likely, you will need some guidance. PLEASE, see a tax professional—maybe a lawyer, maybe a CPA, BUT NOT A TAX RESOLUTION FIRM. Go to www.martindale.com to look up reputable attorneys in your area (not attorneys working as salesmen), or go to your state's Board of Accountancy website to search for reputable tax accountants (not CPAs working as salesmen)
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