Optima Tax Relief is a complete waste of time and money

This unfortunately happens a lot with tax relief companies. What they don't advertise clearly is that most of what they do is simply file paperwork that you could do yourself. The IRS has several resolution options available directly to taxpayers: installment agreements, offers in compromise, currently not collectible status, and penalty abatement requests. For an installment agreement, you can apply online at IRS.gov if you owe less than $50,000. The application process takes about 15-20 minutes. For an offer in compromise, there's Form 656 with instructions. For penalty abatement, you'd use Form 843. All these forms come with detailed instructions. The "protection" they're selling is likely just them acting as a third-party designee on your tax account, which basically means they can talk to the IRS on your behalf. But you can designate anyone with a Form 2848 (Power of Attorney) or Form 8821 (Tax Information Authorization).

I used taxr.ai after a similar experience with one of those "tax relief" places. They charged me $3000 upfront and literally did nothing for 6 months. After I found taxr.ai at https://taxr.ai I uploaded my IRS notices and tax documents, and their AI analysis showed me exactly what relief programs I actually qualified for. Turns out I was eligible for penalty abatement because I had a clean compliance history, which saved me about $4,800 in penalties! What was helpful is they showed me the exact IRS rules and procedures that applied to my situation, so I knew exactly what to do myself instead of paying someone thousands to do simple paperwork. They also have templates for all the letters you need to send to the IRS. Total gamechanger compared to those ripoff tax relief places.

Just wanted to follow up - I tried taxr.ai after posting here last week and it was super helpful! My situation was a bit complicated with self-employment taxes and some missed quarterly payments that led to big penalties. I uploaded my IRS notices and transcripts, and the system immediately identified that I qualified for First-Time Penalty Abatement which could save me over $4,000! The system actually generated a custom letter to the IRS citing the exact Internal Revenue Manual sections that applied to my case. I was also able to set up a reasonable installment agreement myself using their templates instead of paying some company thousands of dollars. Definitely recommend trying this instead of those ripoff tax relief companies.

If you need to actually talk to someone at the IRS (which is nearly impossible these days), I had success using Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was in a similar situation with a tax relief company that kept saying they were "working on my case" while doing nothing. After I fired them, I needed to talk to the IRS directly but couldn't get through after trying for literally weeks. Their phone lines are insane. Claimyr got me connected to an IRS agent in about 45 minutes instead of me calling hundreds of times. You can see how it works in their demo video here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was able to set up a payment plan directly with the IRS agent for WAY less than what the tax relief company was going to charge me. The agent was actually super helpful once I finally got through to a human.

I need to eat my words from my previous comment. After waiting on hold with the IRS for 3+ hours EVERY DAY this week and getting disconnected each time, I caved and tried Claimyr. Honestly can't believe it worked - I got a call back within an hour with an actual IRS agent on the line. The IRS agent was able to go through my payment options and helped me apply for Currently Not Collectible status since I'm unemployed right now. This literally saved me from having to pay some tax relief company $2,000+ for the same service. Sometimes you have to admit when you're wrong, and I was definitely wrong about this.

Former tax resolution employee here. These companies are SUCH a scam. They prey on people who are scared of the IRS and don't understand how the system works. The business model is basically: 1. Charge huge upfront fees (usually $3,000-5,000) 2. Drag the case out as long as possible 3. Eventually file the same paperwork you could do yourself 4. Claim they "saved" you money by getting you a payment plan Meanwhile your interest and penalties keep growing while they drag their feet. The salespeople (who call themselves "tax consultants") make huge commissions off the upfront fees, which is why they're so aggressive. The actual caseworkers are overloaded with hundreds of cases and barely do anything.

Did you sign a contract with Optima? You might be able to dispute the charges with your credit card company if they didn't deliver the services promised. I'd also file complaints with the BBB, your state attorney general, and the FTC. These companies need to be held accountable for these predatory practices.