J.K. Harris is out of business leaving clients scrambling for solid tax representation. They sold advertising and not tax resolution.
A couple of months ago J.K. Harris filed for bankruptcy because of the minions of lawsuits filed against the company. J.K Harris was ordered to back $4 million and settle various claims by Attorney Generals.
J.K. Harris is gone and should have been thrown out of town a long time ago. The Attorney Generals and the Bankruptcy Court did thousands of clients a favor by putting J.K. Harris out of business. The unfortunate and a sad part to this story is that J.K. Harris left thousands of their clients out in the streets without tax representation, without money and IRS pillaging their way through the bank accounts and wage levies of their former clients all cause of greed.
The big three J.K. Harris, Roni Deutch and Tax Masters are either out of business or have Attorney General problems.
As we all know the Tax Lady Roni Deutch was closed down and now faces criminal charges for a multitude of consumer violations, Tax Masters in 2010 received over 1000 complaints by the Texas Attorney General and J.K Harris forced into bankruptcy and have now liquidated.
The big three all face the similar problems: deceptive advertising, deceptive business practices, failed to disclose refund policies, claimed they would immediately contact the IRS, and lied to there client about the results accomplished without knowing the facts about their cases. These are just a few of the major complaints.
As far as J.K. Harris, in their official bankruptcy filings the company revealed that they owe their 20 largest unsecured creditors a total of $10.9 million (including the lawsuit and settlement numbers listed above). The filing also shows that much of the money owed is in relation to internet and TV advertising along with landlord judgments.
We at Fresh Start Tax LLC have been receiving many former clients of J.K. Harris and Ron the ” Tax Lady ” because they did not deliver what they promised. When J.K. Harris went out of business the calls came flocking in and the stories are disheartening. J.K Harris was charging fees of a New York tax firm and doing absolutely no work. There television adds brought them so much business Harris could not keep up with the demand.
J.K Harris in particular advertised that they has some 2350 offices nationwide when in reality that had sales people signing up clients charging extraordinary rates have absolutely no tax background. They purely misrepresented the truth.
All 3 of these companies have one thing in common, they all advertised on television with huge budgets. The companies could not keep up with the demand. The most bothersome part of all of this are the false promises made to clients who had fallen for the sales pitches of false promises.
Most of the advertising rested on the slogan settling for “pennies on a dollar” the creed of J.K. Harris.
I am a Former IRS Agent and Teaching Instructor with the IRS for 10 years. I also have 28 years of private practice under my belt. I have moderated forums with the IRS and the professional tax community on tax resolution. I also taught the Offer in Compromise Program at the Regional Training Center of the IRS.
Both myself and many at our firm are true IRS tax experts. When we hear the pennies on a dollar claim we think of advertising genius. Even though pennies on a dollar are true in some cases the reality of tax settlements are rare. The IRS receives some 60,000 Offers in Compromise each year and settle about 20%. of the time. Most of those settlements come about because competent tax professional submitted those cases. Taxpayers who send these settlement on their own have little success.
J.K. Harris was the major abuser of these claims for “pennies on a dollar”. They signed up thousands of clients based on this false advertising hope. As a general rule the old adage is true, if it does not make sense it is not real. That sums up J.K Harris. On the many clients that we reviewed that came our way through J.K. Harris, what Harris told the client was purely fraudulent.
When looking for a solid tax professional company keep these things in mind.
- Check out the BBB rating,
- Ask to speak directly to the professional working your case,
- Watch out for promises that do not make sense.
- Ask the professional how many cases they have settled,
- If you are still not sure call Fresh Start Tax LLC for a free consultation.
At the end of the day the Big Three were not tax resolution companies they were marketing firms.
