Optima Tax Relief

Optima Tax Relief provides its services in 49 states (all except Colorado) and the District of Columbia.  It helps consumers with all tax related matters, including:

tax preparation, tax consultation, tax resolution, tax settlement and ID theft.

The Good

• Quickly growing company
• CPAs on staff
• Clearly explained services

Long track record of success – Optima Tax is growing

Optima Tax Relief was founded in 2010, and they were one of the pioneers to the tax relief space.  They were originally a company helping consumers negotiate any sort of debt, and they saw that tax debt to the IRS was a particularly large and growing problem.  They were right.  Today, U.S. citizens owe the IRS over $8 billion.  And while any individual can reach out to the IRS directly to negotiate tax debt or go onto a payment plan, it’s a cumbersome process that has only been made worse by shortfalls in government funding and fewer IRS agents.  The company has been a California success story, growing to over 500 employees at the time of this writing.

Does that mean they are good at what they do?  Not necessarily.  It means they know how to market their services and operate a business. But with that kind of growth, one can infer that they have a pretty high level of competency in actually delivering on what they say they will do.

CPAs on staff

Taxes are complicated.  The government has made efforts in recent years to simplify the tax code, but filing taxes is still an arduous process.  Optima Tax Relief can help in instances where an individual has just not filed at all for one or more years.  But the majority of people file their taxes, and then owe money.  The process for paying this back and calculating exactly what you owe after fees and interest is an additional layer of complications.  Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) are trained to deal with such issues, and Optima Tax Relief employs CPAs to handle cases that become particularly complex.  It may or may not apply to your situation, but the existence of CPAs as well as attorneys on staff means that Optima Tax is positioned to handle even the most complex cases.

Clearly explained services

In speaking with Optima Tax Relief and consumers who have used their services, it is clear that they excel at helping consumers understand the process and what to expect.  Communication is extremely important in this space, as you’re dealing with government processes at a time of high anxiety.

Optima Tax Relief describes their Tax Debt Settlement services as taking two forms.  First, is a formal installment plan.  This is when they work with the IRS on your behalf to establish a payment plan for specific monthly payments.  Second, is an offer in compromise (OIC) where they negotiate a lower amount of debt owed to the IRS.

For your specific case, Optima Tax Relief may be able to employ both of these tactics, just one, or none.  But those two outcomes – as well as your time in having someone else pursue them – are what you’re paying for.

The Bad

• Minimum debt of $10,000
• Unknown costs
• Money back guarantee is just marketing

Minimum debt of $10,000

Like many companies, Optima Tax Relief imposes a minimum level of debt to the IRS before they will take your case.  For Optima Tax Relief, this level is $10,000 which is higher than most.  This may or may not be a problem for you, but if you do have less than $10,000 in tax debt, see our other tax relief companies, some of whom offer lower minimums.

Unknown costs – how much does Optima Tax charge?

The tax relief industry is, unfortunately, extremely opaque when it comes to pricing.  While most companies offer a free consultation, most will also require some sort of upfront fee once you decide to move forward with your case.  Then, there are service fees on top of that which are typically a percentage of the money that is being saved.

When we reached out to a company representative, we were unable to obtain and real information around fees.  They said that cases can start as low as $999, but consumer reviews from around the web indicate that consumers typically pay $4,000 on average.

Money-back guarantee – is Optima Tax guaranteeing its service?

Optima Tax Relief publicizes its money-back guarantee to offer some level of safety for consumers, if dissatisfied with the company’s services.  Consumers can quickly read this and easily think it is a guarantee that the company will refund their money if unsuccessful in reducing their tax debt.  That is not the case.  Optima Tax Relief makes no guarantee that they will be successful in reducing your tax debt (nor does any tax relief company).  The money-back guarantee only applies to the 15 day period after you begin working with them.  If you choose to get your initial deposit back at that point, they will honor it.  However, tax relief can be a long process, and this is a very short period of time for a consumer to evaluate any company’s services.  The guarantee is really only useful for consumers who receive new information within this period – separate of the company’s performance and level of service.

The Summary

Optima Tax Relief is a quickly growing, established tax relief company offering the widest breadth of services and most complete geographic coverage of any company.  They are a viable option for anyone who wants to hire a tax relief company.  However, we would recommend that consumers contacting them ask for clear information of exactly what fees they will be paying and the service the company will be performing.  Because Optima Tax Relief has such a minimal level of pricing information published, it is particularly important to obtain this information upfront, before signing any agreements.