Complaints for Republic Tax Relief in Corona , CA

Complaints	Type of response
0	Making a full refund, as the consumer requested
0	Making a partial refund
0	Agreed to make an adjustment
0	Refusing to make an adjustment
1	Refuse to adjust, relying on terms of agreement
0	Unanswered

Customer Complaint

10/20/2021

I hired them after they reviewed my case with the IRS and tell me that my debt could be reduced significantly. After over a year and having paid for their services their representative Rachel Ybarra contacted me that they were closing my case and that there was nothing they could do for me. The IRS has now added almost another $30,000 in fees and penalties because they stated no one had contacted them regarding my case. I have now reached out to a group of other attorneys to help me with my case which means having to pay for services once again which only adds to my current debt. Republic Tax Relief claims to be a Veteran owned business and me being a service connected disabled veteran they assured me the process would be fairly simple. This company has an A+ rating given by the BBB. However, there performance and certainly delivery leaves much to be desired. Not only did I not receive any assistance on my case but was treated extremely rude by the case manager assigned to me (Rachel Ybarra). Besides hanging up on me on one or two occasions, not returning my calls requesting an update on my case, she also showed zero compassion when I asked her to give me two days to address her request as my mother had passed away that same morning. Resolution Sought Since, I am now facing a greater debt than before hiring their services and forced to incur on another debt to hire additional attorneys to avoid garnishment of my income by the IRS; my request is that they return the money I paid for their horrible service and that the BBB reassess the A+ rating giving to this company as it is very deceiving to the consumer and it presents a high level of skepticism on how this rating is granted.

Company Response

10/22/2021

I have reviewed your case file notes and timeline. Your tax debt is $36K. You have owed the IRS $34K from addition taxes due to not declaring income on your 2019 tax return. You incurred $1000 in penalties and $500 in interest. This has not changed before you engaged the firm nor after. When you came onboard, you did not give us any indication that you had multiple properties that you intended to sell during the resolution part of your case. As we prepared to engage the IRS and finalize your case, your 2020 tax filing indicated you sold a property and received a substantial profit in return. Unfortunately, it was clearly represented in the service agreement executed at the onset of the engagement that you cannot liquidate such assets which would lead to failed pending hardship petition that we were working on. Since these funds were used for unsubstantiated expenses, your CNC status 53 failed. Had you not sold this property, your petition would have been approved with your present credit rating. We make every attempt to communicate the progress of your case and sometimes the reality of having a petition denied by the IRS is not welcome news. I am sorry you feel your case was mishandled but this was not due to the firms actions or circumstances. We did not advise you to sell your home and were not aware until well after the fact that you had. At this stage, we tried to set up a compliant structured agreement with the IRTS to avoid further collections. Hiring any firm will not resolve your problem nor reduce your debt for at least 12 to 18 months. Your only option is to set up a payment arrangement or wait for IRS collections. I understand you refused our attempts to do so. If you would like assistance on this or need to speak to me on options in the next 12 months, kindly let me know. I am here to assist in any way. We value your service to our nation and only have the best intentions in mind. Kind Regards,

Customer Rebuttal

10/26/2021

I did not sell multiple properties. I sold my house for over 20 years on January 6, 2020 because I needed to size down and find a more affordable home after my retirement. AFTER selling my home in January of 2020 (which your company has copies of the closing documentation) I found a smaller home in February 28, 2020 (copies of this transaction were also provided to your company). The profit from selling my home in January went towards me settling on my new home in February of 2020. All of this has been explained to your staff on multiple occasions. The debt I incurred with the IRS occurred after filling my taxes in March of 2020 for the 2019 tax year; which is why and when I hired your company. If I had made such a "substantial profit" in 2020, then I should have been able to pay my debt for 2019 to the IRS and would've had no need to spend the amount of money I did hiring your company. In my 58 years I have NEVER owed money to the IRS that I could not settle at the time I filed the taxes. Reason provided to me for closing my case: "as a federal employee you are held to a higher standard". Being veteran with service-connected disabilities doesn't account for anything?

Company Final Response

11/1/2021

You are correct that you did not sell multiple properties. I meant to say that multiple properties were involved and your profit from the first property did not go towards your tax debt. It went towards paying bills that were not federal taxes. Also, the excess income from 2019 will need thorough substantiation, which as of now, has gone towards expenses not of your own, which the IRS considers against settlement rules. As i have mentioned, we need to wait until such time as the IRS feels you could have spent the excess funds, which are in excess of $230K in retirement liquidation and $118K in employment income. The IRS simply looks at your ability to pay this back and when you are a Government employee, they feel your ability to have taxes withheld during federal retirement withdrawal would have prevented such a liability at the onset. As I have mentioned, we do have options, but we need to wait before resolution due to the excess income from 2019 and house sale in 2020. Once 2021 is filed, we can verify that your income is receding (downward trending) and petition for hardship relief after filing. Please contact me and I can follow-up with you in this regard.

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Republic Tax Relief complaints