Knowing whom to trust when choosing to work with a Tax Firm…

Are they a good fit for YOU and your situation?

Because working with a Tax Firm is engaging in a relationship, like with any relationship, it’s up to you to determine what is or is not acceptable from the other “party.” Navigating human relationships successfully is one of the hardest tasks that anyone can undertake.

Fortunately, when knowing what to look for, finding the right fit with a Tax Firm is easier than with another human being. The right Tax Firm needs to align with your goals, thus here are the 3 Fit Markers one should always discover before hiring a Tax Firm:

Fit Marker 1)       Experience/Process

Fit Marker 2)       Service

Fit Marker 3)       Fees

If you’ve been following this series, remember, finding the proper fit should never take PRECEDENCE OVER discovering if they have integrity. Also they should…

Follow through with their words and actions. And don’t make a bunch of promises they can’t back up.

If you can answer yes to all of the above, then you’ve found good people and that’s truly the hard part, simply because it’s so rare. Yet being good people isn’t enough. This is where the Fit Markers can be very helpful. Cultivated from my almost 20 years of practicing law, here is the map to help save you time and energy finding the right fit.

FIT MARKER 1: EXPERIENCE/PROCESS

I group experience and process together because experience, though an absolute necessity, can be a little misleading, as I’ll explain later (experience must always be coupled with Process). And really, it should be called the RIGHT experience.

Again, when dealing with the IRS, Tax Resolution is a very specific area of law within Tax Law. I’ve talked to Tax Attorney’s who claim to practice Tax Resolution with decades of experience who don’t know anything about Tax Resolution, and I’ve talked to people who owe tax debt, many of them very intelligent, and most who have been dealing with the IRS for years, who know a lot about Tax Resolution, but mostly just enough to be dangerous to themselves.

If your goal is to gather as much information as you can to try and fix your tax problem yourself, please be honest and let us know. Not only will I give you as much information and guidance as I can, we also have many useful packets and brochures available. But if you are looking for professional help, like 95% of the people I talk to, then you need to know if they have the RIGHT experience.

RIGHT experience comes down to those who specialize and focus their practice solely in the field of Tax Resolution. By specialize, I mean that is their primary focus. Any other work they might do (tax prep, book keeping, monitoring) is ONLY for their Tax Resolution clients – rather than doing tax prep, accounting, book keeping, and also taking Tax Resolution clients, or practicing in bankruptcy law, or even Tax law, and taking Tax Resolution clients.

See the difference? It’s a BIG difference.

Also, with any larger company that only has people “selling” to you, where you only talk to those people in the company (licensed or not) ONLY when money is involved, does not meet the RIGHT experience criteria.

Of course, at a minimum, anyone you trust your tax case too should be someone with several years of working cases with the IRS and have a solid track record of results. But I’d much rather work with someone who specializes in Tax Resolution and only has a few years of experience, than anyone who doesn’t specialize in Tax Resolution and has many years of so called experience. WHY?

The simple answer is: in our years of experience, we’ve discovered a lot of dealing with the IRS is more Art than Trade. Like art, it is a disposable skill and needs constant honing to keep sharp. Part of the reason why this is the case is that even though one is dealing with a giant collections machinery that is the IRS, one still has to deal with their collections agents, representatives and employees on a human to human basis.

For example, a single conversation we have with the IRS has many moving parts that has been practiced, mapped out and strategized for possible outcomes. Since we’ve been dealing with the IRS for so long, we often speak to the same agents and keep a running list with notes. To the untrained ear, many levels of strategy occurring in the conversation would go undetected. So all that to say, if your tax representative doesn’t deal with the IRS all the time every day, you’re not giving yourself the best chance to have the best possible outcome.

It’s NOT good enough if a CPA does Tax Resolution on top of their tax prep/book keeping and/or other accounting practice.

It’s NOT good enough if an Attorney does Tax Resolution as another area of practice on top of other varied areas of practice.

Are they a good fit for YOU and your situation?

TO BE CONTINUED……………