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Many tax relief companies brag about their staff chock full of former IRS agents. At first glance, the concept seems good. Let’s examine the reasons people assume former IRS agents would be helpful and then determine if they carry any real value for a person with tax debt problems.
How an IRS agent becomes a eligible to represent you. If you simply work for the IRS for five years you can become an Enrolled Agent – that’s it. Well it's not quite that easy, they also must fill out a form and have it approved by management. Further, they must not have done anything grievious enough to have gotten them fired. Theoretically the approval process require s several steps and competency is judged by your boss, etc. I'm guessing your boss does not want to spend the next five years answering a union board complaint as to your incompetency so the approvals come pretty easy. Further, I have never met nor heard of an IRS Agent flunking the process. After this simple process you are granted the "Enrolled Agent" status. This is a nice perk for former IRS agents. I think most would agree that’s its far easier to be a paid employee of the federal government for five years than complete the six years of college and post graduate work required for lawyers or a CPA. Also you avoid the inconvenience of passing the incredibly hard competency test to become a bar member or Certified Public Accountant. Maybe you can learn a lot about taxes running the copier. Former IRS Agents have an “inside connection” The implication of “knowing someone inside” is a hoax. The IRS has over 150,000 employees, no one has an “inside connection” with 150,000 people. If you call the IRS 10 times, you’ll get 10 different people in 10 different States. If someone did have an “inside connection” the IRS has a built in checking system to stop all special deals. The only folks with inside deals are the friends of President Obama. Former IRS Agents have “special knowledge” or “know the system” Everyday our lawyers tell IRS agents how their own system works. Everyday we make them look in their own books to follow the laws Congress has laid before them. Everyday IRS agents make up the rules as they go, until we catch them and force them to follow the real rules. This happens everyday. Retiring from the IRS doesn’t suddenly wake up agents up to the law. Recently, an agent told us she does not accept faxes. Well we’ve been sending faxes for ten years, much to her dismay. Finally, we got her boss to help her “find” the fax machine. She had only been working there for 17 years, how could she be expected to know where the fax was or to walk the 12 steps to it. The scary news; this lazy, incompetent IRS agent can promote herself as the taxpayers good buddy in three years while receiving full retirement from the IRS for 20 years of public "service." Former IRS Agents are going to be sensitive to your problem I can assure you that after working for the IRS they have become insensitive to you not only as a member of the productive public but also as a human being. The IRS taught them to refer to you as “the taxpayer” or a “taxpaying entity”. IRS employees are taught to hold delinquent taxpayers in contempt while working with the IRS, that doesn’t change when they leave the IRS and the Enrolled Agent sign goes up. When was the last time you spoke to a bureaucrat who cared? Do you really think a sensitive person could seize your paycheck, your life savings and then auction your home after leaving you penniless? The Story of One Former IRS Agent Company: The JK Harris website states that they are the “Nation’s largest tax representation firm, comprised of veteran ex-IRS agents.” The following excerpts from a June 2008 article by the Boston Globe are quite enlightening: “A Charleston firm that claimed to offer people help settling their tax debt has agreed to pay $1.5 million in restitution under a settlement with attorneys general in 18 states, officials announced Thursday. Attorney General Martha Coakley of Massachusetts and 17 other state attorneys general entered into a consent judgment with JK Harris." Attorney General Coakley stated: "This company took advantage of people who paid for tax assistance and, in some instances, profited by taking their money and not giving them any help at all," “Taking their money and not giving them any help at all” - that sounds like a typical government bureaucrat to me and if you worked as an IRS employee, that sounds like another day at the office. Your chances of making a great deal for yourself using my Tax Relief eBook are much better than your chances with a former IRS agent. Would you hire a former Nazi to help you with a Be Kind to Jews League? Then I suggest you keep away from former IRS agents. |