“$5,000 Later, I Found Out I Didn’t Qualify for Tax Relief”
$5,000 Paid for “Tax Relief” — and I Ended Up Worse Off I decided to contact Optima Tax Relief because I genuinely needed help with my tax debt. From the very beginning, I made one thing very clear: if they could not significantly reduce what I owed, I would rather take the money I had and put it directly toward my IRS debt. The initial representative I spoke with assured me that, in his 16 years of experience, they had always been able to help people reduce their tax debt. Based largely on that assurance, I trusted the process and ultimately paid Optima $5,000. After paying $5,000, I was then told that I did not qualify for the tax relief I was expecting and that there were no refunds. That is my biggest problem with this entire experience: Why did it take $5,000 to determine that I didn’t qualify? If my financial situation didn’t meet the qualifications for meaningful tax relief, I believe that should have been identified much earlier—before collecting thousands of dollars from me. After everything was said and done, Optima refunded me approximately $1,300, meaning I was still out roughly $3,700. The “resolution” presented to me was a 10-year IRS installment plan at approximately $317 per month. When I calculated the total payments over those 10 years, I would end up paying the IRS approximately $14,000 more than the amount I originally owed. I contacted Optima because I was looking for tax relief. Instead, I paid thousands of dollars in fees only to be placed on a long-term payment plan that would ultimately have me paying substantially more. Had I known this would be the outcome, I would have done exactly what I said at the beginning: taken that $5,000 and paid it directly toward my tax debt. Based on my experience, I do not consider what I received to be tax relief. I feel like I paid thousands of dollars to find out I didn’t qualify for the very relief I was seeking. I strongly encourage anyone considering Optima Tax Relief to ask very specific questions before paying substantial fees: What happens if you don’t qualify? How much of your money is refundable? And exactly what result can they realistically provide based on your financial situation? For me, this experience was extremely disappointing, and I would not recommend their services.