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The first thing Jay at WA Tax Services said to me on the phone after I shared my tax problem with him is "Nobody Resolves More Tax Cases than Jay Freeborne!" Two years later, thousands of dollars down the drain,

n o t h i n g he said to me was true. In fact, when talking with the IRS myself over the phone I was warned against using firms such as WA Tax Services to negotiate my case because the money I was paying them could be better served elsewhere, and it costs noting to negotiate my own case.

The fact that he is an enrolled agent is nothing more than a SALES GIMIC.

Two years later, I have been lied to and nothing has been resolved. Had I sent my money to the IRS rather than to Jay at WA Tax, this would have been over long ago.

Location: Seattle, Washington

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Guest

In defense of WATAX as a service provider and Jay's professionalism:

I am currently a client of Jay at WATAX...it's an ongoing scenario at his time.

I have double-checked everything I've been told by the WATAX people and found it all to have been true.

in my experiences so far, I have been given competent advice in a straight-forward, well-explained manner. They have, so far, done everything they said they'd do.

They respond expeditiously when questions are raised.

I currently feel that they are doing the job and that the fees I've paid them have been worth it.

In other words, in this case I am not a pissed consumer.

Guest

We at Washington Tax Services wanted to respond to a new issue on this complaint board (We had responded to the previous issues further below) . Reading this board, there appears to be 1. a RETRACTED complaint that we addressed even though it was RETRACTED, 2. a COMPLIMENTARY posting and 3. finally a new COMPLAINT that we want to address here.

1. The original complaint -- posted by "Annette" in October 2009 was RETRACTED by the complainee. However in spite of my and Annette's efforts, this website would NOT remove this complaint.

2. The second posting was by Mr. Loiseau, an ex-client of ours, who I want to thank for acknowledging that our staff completed an Offer for him. We appreciate you posting that! Congratulations again on getting an Offer accepted on your taxes.

3. The third and newest responder to this thread is Ms. Lisa Latray who hired us in May of this year. I wanted to respond to some of things she shared here. She has been speaking to us on whether we are going to continue to work with her. It is unfortunate that she could not continue to address her concerns directly to us instead of putting them in a public forum here. But so it goes. As our company is dedicated to addressing any public complaint out there against his, here is our attempt to address her posting.

First, when a company or corporation owes a large amount of payroll taxes, we always have a conversation with that company about closing their corporation. Closing a corporation does not constitute "fraud" as Ms. Latray indicates here. If a company cannot go on, they can't go on and have the right to close. Sometimes when a corporation closes, the IRS does NOT assess the taxes against the owners. It is a matter of luck but there are ways to increase the chances that the IRS does not pursue the taxpayer. Doing this is not "fraudulent." When you close your corporation, you are essentially putting the ball in the IRS' court to assess the tax against you personally. If they don't assess you, they don't assess! There is nothing fraudulent about it. It is a matter essentially of bureaucracy and luck of the draw.

Ms. Latray indicated that I told her to close and then reopen and that this constituted fraud. It is fraudulent to open corporations and then close them to avoid paying the IRS - continuously. The IRS calls this "pyramiding" and they do prosecute people that do this. HOWEVER, I try to be careful explaining to any client how this works when discuss closing their entity: They have the right to open a new business after closing the previous one, BUT they need to know #1) they may be potentially liable for the previous company's debt, personally; #2) the new business could be made liable for the old company's debt, and #3) It is paramount that the new company stay current on their new tax obligations.

In summary, we had recommended the closure approach to Ms. Latray but she chose not pursue that route which is clearly her prerogative. She requested that we negotiate an installment agreement or work out a deal with the IRS while the business stays open. We agreed to handle this for her which leads us to the final matter which created disharmony between us and this client.

When a corporation owes more than $10,000 in back payroll taxes, the IRS will only negotiate with you or your representative by assigning the case to someone in the field. In our experience, this is the only way they do it. Taxpayer's who owe less than that can usually negotiate with the collection branch of the IRS using the 1-800#. Our conversations with the IRS on Ms. Latray's case indicated that we needed to wait for a Revenue Officer to be assigned. This can take some time. Our experience is the IRS does NOT LEVY the taxpayer while we wait for the R. Officer to be assigned. However, we do followup with the IRS to make sure the process is going forward. We learned when we called in August 2010 that the main reason for the delay was that Ms. Latray's firm had some missing 941 and 940 forms that needed to be filed. In our last conversation with the IRS and with Ms. Latray, we indicated to her that we or a new representative that she hired to replace our firm needed to call the IRS to fix the return issue.

Ms. Latray was rightfully nervous and impatient about the length of time it took for the IRS to assign a Revenue Officer. To placate her concerns, we agreed to see if we could handle the case thru different channels if she wished. In our last conversation with her, she was considering us doing this for her. She also was looking at replacing our company as her representative and hiring her local accountant for the job.

Bottomline, we have done Ms. Latray's case in good faith. We haven't dropped any balls. We have followed up with the IRS in a timely manner. We have honored her wish to keep her business open. We are still ready to handle and complete her case. However, we are not obligated to refund her any money should she choose to remove us as her representative. Our Engagement letter clearly states our refund policy which is: we will refund 50% of our fee within the first 15 days of being hired as long as substantial work hasn't been completed. We have had her case for almost five months now. Our refund policy is clearly set up so people do NOT treat us as a bank. Furthermore, the policy is there so we can work the client's case in good faith and apply all of our resources to the case from day one without interruption.

Nonetheless, Ms. Latray has been notified that due to her difficult and/or confusing experience with us, we would refund $500 of our fee to her so we can both move on. We have indicated to her that this is outside our refund policy and that we are not legally obligated to do it. She also has been told that we would be happy to continue as her representative and finish the resolution of her matter with the IRS. As of September 29, 2010, we are not sure which direction we are going to go.

Guest

This makes me very nervous, since I have hired WA Tax and Jay to help me and since May nothing has happened and I am supposed to be waiting for an IRS Agent to be assigned to my case. When I first talked with Jay he said it was a good thing and agent was not assigned. Now that I hired him he can't do any thing until one is assigned. I am afraid that if I sit and wait for them to help me I will be owing more tax penalties and be in more trouble with the IRS.

Jay if you are reading this are you a fraud or are you going to help resolve my situation as you said you would when I hired you. Or will you return my money so I can pay the IRS the money I owe them.

Also Jay told me in my phone interview that I could close my business and then reopen it and avoid taxes and penalties. I told him that bordered on fraud and I did not want that as an option, he agreed with me and said there other was to deal with this. I guess i should have known from that information that I was in trouble hiring them. But being scared and believing that Jay really has helped all the people he claims I went ahead and hired them. As soon as I did he gave me the same close and reopen advice even going a s far as sending me instructions on how to do this. I told him no again and he said that the majority of people 70% do it the way i want, so don't worry he will take care of me.

Another day while on a phone call with him he was trying to get a co-worker to calm down a customer who the IRS filed a lien against, he said it was because the customer did not send them all the information he needed to assist her. So i remembered this and asked him last month to look at my case since one of the reasons I contacted them was the IRS said they may levy certain assets to collect the tax. Still he says don't worry we are waiting for an agent to be assigned.

So if you are wanting to use Washington Tax and Jay Freeborn perhaps you will see that I had some reservations, while I cannot with certainty say that they are not going to help me, They have had my money and signed papers since May of 2010 and as of today August 20, 2010 nothing has been done to help me with my situation. If i wanted to wait and see what the IRS would do I could have done this myself and paid more on my back taxes. :?

Guest

javascript:ac_smilie(':cry')So did not want to see that other whiny a**ed comment. Did have jay handle my tax problem one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth and 6 years of tax filings end of the day it was 34k and change INCLUDING washtaxserv's fee.

Thank You Jayyyyyyy!!!!!!

paul & margaret

Guest

This client did RETRACT this complaint - from below:

"Honestly, having vented my anger I now see more clearly that I alone am responsible for the mess I've made of my life. Tax professionals are not magicians, and can not guarantee the actions of the IRS. I would like this rant deleted.

Report

3. Written by annettefl60, on 15-10-2009 11:06

I tried to delete the post almost as quickly as I wrote it, but the website will not allow it. I no longer wish to be a "pissed off consumer" and wish to retract my post. Apologies to all."

However, if you are this client, please call me at 1-86*-***-**** so we can get your issues/concerns resolved. Thank you, Jay, Washington Tax Services.

Guest

Ouch. This one hurts. Even though it was retracted. There is no digestive system on the internet. Nasty slanderous statements and/or complaint linger out her forever.

The fact is: I am an Enrolled Agent, licensed to practice. It is NOT a sales gimmick. I have truly helped over 5,000 taxpayers with their tax problems since 1997. This is a verifiable fact. We have been representing this taxpayer for a year now and the fact that we haven't been able to provide results immediately -- I think tested her patience -- hence this complaint. Our staff is currently working to get penalties/interest abated on her case. We got extensions on the collection process on her for six or so months then finally implemented a $100 installment agreement just to get her out of collections.

This taxpayer paid us a total of $1050.00 for our service -- something also to consider -- considering we've been handling this for nearly one full year.

Jay, Washington Tax Services

Marthe Jlj

Honestly, having vented my anger I now see more clearly that I alone am responsible for the mess I've made of my life. Tax professionals are not magicians, and can not guarantee the actions of the IRS. I would like this rant deleted.

Marthe Jlj

I tried to delete the post almost as quickly as I wrote it, but the website will not allow it. I no longer wish to be a "pissed off consumer" and wish to retract my post. Apologies to all.

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