Beware of Tax Assistance Fraud

Submitted by georgiana on Tue, 08/24/2010 - 03:23.

I received an interesting email today, which pointed me to the following link. http://ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/release.php?id=1978 The link leads to a press release from the California Dept. of Justice - Office of the Attorney General and is regarding a multimillion dollar suit against a woman who runs ads on television offering to assist taxpayers in reducing their amount owed to the IRS.

The release states "SACRAMENTO - Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. today filed a $34 million lawsuit against television's "Tax Lady Roni Deutch" for orchestrating a "heartless scheme" that swindled thousands of people facing serious and expensive tax collection problems with the IRS.

"Tax Lady Roni Deutch is engaged in a heartless scheme that swindled people with tax problems," Brown said. "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.""

The press release says that Ms. Deutch's ads features false testimonials that state her clients have saved significant amounts of money while in reality these clients have saved no money and have had to pay Ms. Deutch's fees, in addition to the IRS fees and penalties added while the clients waited for resolution.

If you or anyone you know were thinking about using this woman's services I strongly suggest you read the press release. I found it very disturbing.