In the Spring of me and my wife recieved 2 certified letters from the IRS. They were those Intent of Lien type of threats. They claimed that we owed them over $10,000 in back taxes since 2006. They gave us no reason why we owed them that much but to pay now or else! We were of course terrified. We surely do not have that type of money and I just retired.
So in July my wife came across a site on the internet called 411/Tax Relief. They looked professional and it sounded like just what the doctor ordered. My wife called them up and they said that it would cost $300 of the bat and then we would be charged $240.00 every 2 weeks from our Credit Card. It was supposed to be for $2400.00 altogether but it could be more.
My wife gave them our Credit Card number and even though we couldn't afford that we felt sort of relieved that we had somebody working for us and everything would turn out allright. They also requested that we send them our 2006 Tax Forms and later they needed a Pay Stub from my job. We sent them all to 411/Tax Relief.
As the weeks went by, my wife would call them up sometimes to ask on the progress of our case. All they would ever tell her is That They're Working On It. The so called professionals were even annoyed at her because my wife rightfully wanted to know what was going on.
Their charges on our credit card were of course religuosly carried out. The only communication with us was when they would send my wife an EMail telling her when they would charge our Credit Card.
In the meantime we were still getting harrassed by the IRS by mail. Finally I got the courage to call the IRS and to find out what's going on. It seems that we got charged that amount of money because we failed to add the Retirement Income money, that my wife took out early and we didn't add that to our total income. We didn't get any forms from the bank so we completely forgot about it. We don't do our own tax forms.
Anyway, I asked the IRS representative if the 411-Tax Relief people were helping us on our case and what did they do so far. The IRS Rep. Didn't even know what I was talking about. I explained what we did and he suggested to us to change our Credit Card number.
As fate would have it, my credit card expired on 11/09 and I never got a new one in the mail. My Credit Card company told me that they will send me a new one but it would have a different account number.
Because evidently, the 411-Tax Relief weren't helping me I decided that I couldn't afford their non-help and their rudeness. Did not of course tell them the new credit card number. At least now they couldn't charge my card anymore but I was still out $1980.00 and
nothing to show for it.
In April I sent them a Certified Letter asking them to please refund our money and send us back our information that we sent them. (2006 Tax Forms, pay stub) Also sent them copies of the latest IRS threats and copies of the charges they made on our credit card.
Finally after about 2 weeks or so, somebody called from the 411-Tax Relief place. It was a woman but I will not mention names here. I explained to her on how I felt and it was the same thing I wrote the 411 people in the Certified letter to her. All she said was that these things take time (here we go again). She also asked me if I wanted my $1980.00 back. Of course I said yes. Then she told me that I would have to give her my new credit account number to continue the service? And get this — I would have to pay another $300 plus just to be reinstated. I told her no and she just hung up on me. Very professional? Not! Very rude? Yes!
So now we are out $1980.00 but what really worries me is why they are not sending back our documents. Since they're not helping us (themselves) anymore, why do they need our 2006 Tax Forms my pay stub from work. We have all our info there and our 2 kids are on it also.
Anyway—I would like to warn all you good people about this 411/Tax relief place. If you are in trouble from the IRS you don't need to add more worries by contacting them (411/Tax Relief). If you need and must call a Lawyer then find a knowledgable one in you vicinity. Someone that you can reach and talk to face to face. Or, I hate to say this, but talk to your IRS Rep. They will help if you need it and you could probably settle the amount for a lot less.
The 411-Tax Relief is a Scam. They take your money and nothing else. As a citizen I'm doing what I think I should do.
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