RONI DEUTCH SUED BY CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL

I presume that you have seen the Roni Deutch commercial on TV claiming that she can negotiate with the IRS and you will only have to pay pennies on the dollar. These ads always infuriate me because, as a tax professional, I know that she cannot do what she claims and her claims confuse the public. According to the lawsuit, the claims made in the ads are false and the people actually still owe the money. She spends over $3,000,000 per year on advertising.

The thing that upsets me the most is that the people that she is preying on are having financial problems in the first place and working with her just makes their problems worse. Look at the lawsuits. The 45 people working for her are not tax experts, but actually salespeople.

Now she gets what is coming to her. Roni Deutch, the so-called “Tax Lady” has been slapped with a $34 million law suit by California Attorney General, Jerry Brown.

According to the Attorney General’s web site, “Tax Lady Roni Deutch is engaged in a heartless scheme that swindled people with tax problems. She promises to significantly reduce their IRS tax debts, but instead preys on their vulnerability, taking large up-front payments but providing little or no help in lowering their tax bills.”

Brown’s office says that rather than reducing tax bills, Deutch actually increases taxpayer’s debt by putting them “in an endless loop of requests.” Brown claims the reason for the requests are to boost her bottom line at the expense of the taxpayer.

Further, Brown says that Deutch’s TV ads are “misleading” and feature fictional testimonials promising impressive results, despite the fact that Deutch’s success rate is said to be about 10% in tax cases. The claim states that “most clients never obtain a tax debt resolution” from Deutch.

In the complaint, Brown specifically cites an ad called, “It’s Your Turn” which features three clients whom Deutch claims to have “saved” from having to pay thousands of dollars to the IRS. According to Brown, those clients still owe the IRS the full amount of their taxes, plus interest and penalties.

Deutch’s practices inside her firm are called to the carpet in the complaint, as well. Brown’s office claims that Deutch’s law firm is actually a high pressure “boiler room” where she belittles her employees. “She screams at and berates sales agents who are not performing adequately,” according to the complaint. The complaint alleges that Deutch requires her employees to promise callers results that the potential clients are likely to never see.

Brown’s complaint seeks nearly $34 million in restitution for clients, including funds to refund taxpayer retainers which Brown’s office alleges were improperly retained. The complaint also seeks to prevent Deutch from engaging in unfair business practices and false advertising. The State has also asked for a preliminary injunction to force Deutch to cease her “illegal practices” prior to the resolution of the complaint.

Deutch and her office had to see this coming. In March, Brown posted an alert for California taxpayers warning them to avoid “phony tax-relief companies” that charge exorbitant fees, but provide no actual relief. At the time, Brown advised taxpayers, “Every tax season, phony tax-relief companies emerge to exploit cash-strapped Californians who owe back taxes to the IRS. Taxpayers should be on high alert, avoid paying up-front fees to these companies and never ignore notices from the IRS.”

This isn’t Deutch’s first public complaint. In 2006, she agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs for similar complaints about her misleading commercials.

I’ve heard a number of complaints from taxpayers who have worked with so-called tax debt relief companies who promise big results. I’ll just say this… If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There’s a reason that you don’t see most tax attorneys on TV promising you “pennies on the dollar.” I can’t stress enough how important it is to work with a trustworthy tax professional – one that returns phone calls and letters, one that keeps you posted about the status of your matter – to resolve your tax obligations.

Take a look at Deutch's website at: www.ronideutch.com. Listen to the testimonials, and then listen to what the California attorney general is saying about her:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/breaking/california-ag-sues-tax-lady-roni-deutch-for-34-million-accuses-her-of-defrauding-customers-101323199.html.

p.s. She doesn't really look like the picture on her website.

Larry Kopsa CPA

WANT TO SEE HOW THE NEW TAX PROPOSALS WILL IMPACT YOU?

The tax foundation has updated their interactive calculator at www.MyTaxBurden.org to include the Democrats’ plan for the expiring Bush-era tax cuts recently scored by the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Now you can compare you 2011 federal income tax liabilities under four policy scenarios:

(1) All the tax cuts expire completely at the end of this year
(2) All the tax cuts are extended into 2011 or made permanent
(3) President Obama’s budget is adopted, which would allow the tax cuts to expire for families making over $250,000 a year (singles making over $200,000), extend some stimulus measures and impose new limitations on itemized deductions
(4) Congressional Democrats’ recent proposal is adopted, which is similar to the Obama plan but does not extend stimulus measures or include additional limits on itemized deductions.

All you have to do is type in basic information – such as filing status, wage income and number of dependents – along with optional more detailed information – such as capital gains and dividend income, state and local taxes paid and other itemized deductions – and determine what your federal income tax burden would be in 2011.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

Abraham Lincoln

BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU WARNS ABOUT A PHISHING SCAM

The AP reports, "Companies in Nebraska and across the nation are being warned to be on the lookout for bogus e-mails supposedly sent by the Better Business Bureau." According to the story, "the e-mail's subject line includes a nine-digit complaint number," and the text of the message "claims that the recipient didn't respond to a complaint filed by 'Jason Harlow'" or other name. If the link is opened, "malware is downloaded." See the AP story by going to http://www.krvn.com/news/index/7019ed14-95d8-4c5b-97c5-c50df2a63b59>

HOW WOULD THE EXPIRATION OF THE BUSH-ERA TAX CUTS AFFECT AVERAGE MIDDLE-INCOME?

Nationally, the typical middle-income family, which has a median income of $63,366, would see its federal income tax burden increase by $1,540 if the Bush-era tax cuts expire.

A new report by the Tax Foundation shows how the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts would affect the average middle-income family in each state and congressional district. The report looks at the average family in the middle 20 percent of the income spectrum and compares their 2011 federal income tax liability if all the tax cuts expire to their tax bill if all the tax cuts are extended.

BUSH TAX CUTS

If you are interested in the debate on letting the Bush Tax Cuts expire I have harvested some of the pro and con articles. My thinking is that I agree with the first article that increasing taxes in actuality slows down revenue. I can give you examples of clients that did not expand their businesses during the high Carter tax years because the government was going to get up to 80% of any profit that was made. Here is a quote from President Kennedy on taxes that is in the Soak the Rich Catch-22 piece.

"Tax reduction thus sets off a process that can bring gains for everyone, gains won by marshalling resources that would otherwise stand idle—workers without jobs and farm and factory capacity without markets. Yet many taxpayers seemed prepared to deny the nation the fruits of tax reduction because they question the financial soundness of reducing taxes when the federal budget is already in deficit. Let me make clear why, in today's economy, fiscal prudence and responsibility call for tax reduction even if it temporarily enlarged the federal deficit—why reducing taxes is the best way open to us to increase revenues."
—President John F. Kennedy,
Economic Report of the President

The Soak-the-Rich Catch-22

To deal with the deficit, let the tax cuts expire

A tax increase in these uncertain economic times would be devastating.

Pending tax hikes cause Democratic tension

Liberal Tax Revolt Game-Changer

The calamitous effects of Obama's tax hikes

Pence promises full-fledged GOP campaign to keep Bush tax cuts

Tax hikes for the rich: Can the economy afford them?

Battle Looms in Washington Over Expiring Tax Cuts

Geithner says allowing tax cuts for wealthy to expire would be responsible thing to do

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world."
- Bishop Desmond Tutu