Website Upgrade at TaxMasters

We’re very excited to roll out our new and improved TaxMasters website this week. The new site will give TaxMasters clients and potential customers more information about the IRS collections process and about tax problems in general. We kept the information on the site that has been most useful to our clients over the years and then added more detail, more resources, and more raw information about the IRS and how the agency collects revenue.

After being in the IRS tax representation and tax resolution business for going on a decade now, we have learned that taxpayers in need of representation make better clients if they know more about what stage of collections they are facing. To that end, we have developed an entirely new section of the website dedicated to defining and discussing IRS problems in detail. We created an IRS Collections Process Chart to help you identify the stage of the collections process you are in and to help you understand what to expect next. This can be vital in not allowing too much time to go by before acting to solve your tax problem. TaxMasters can solve just about any tax problem, but it is so much cheaper and more straightforward to get through the tax resolution process if you engage us sooner rather than later.

We have also added definitions of individual filer notices and business filer notices to help taxpayers understand what the IRS is saying to you when they send you something in the mail. We describe each notice the IRS currently sends and then make note of the most serious ones with explanations of the implied consequences.

We also added a couple of different tax calendars and some handy tax resolution resources for clients and potential clients alike. So come on by the main site and take a look. We’d be glad to know what you think. Be sure to stop by the Success Stories page and the TaxMasters Reviews page. We still have all the in-depth IRS tax relief information we have had in the past to help you with your decision to move forward with IRS audits, tax settlements, filing past-due tax returns, and stopping wage garnishment.

Until you need us,

Patrick Cox TaxMasters

Tony Rivera Wins Debut in SPEED World Challenge GT

It was an exciting weekend for us at Tax Masters. Alex Clamon, our Vice President of Sales, was on hand at Sebring International Raceway to watch Tony Rivera in the #97 TaxMasters Porsche 911 GT3 pass Eric Curran, driving a Chevrolet Corvette, to take the lead and go on to win the first SPEED World Challenge GT race of the season by 2.049 seconds. The victory by Tony is the first for a driver making his World Challenge GT debut since Wolf Hinzler won at Infineon Raceway in 2004.

While we had high hopes for Tony on the season, a win in his debut race was more than any of us expected. Tony, Jeff Stone at Kelly Moss Motorsports, and all the crew at Brass Monkey Racing did an outstanding job working together to achieve victory. This is the kind of synergy we encourage and nurture at Tax Masters, where the team members work together to create better overall solutions than the simple sum of each individual’s contribution. In the world of tax representation and IRS tax relief, we are accustomed to achieving success because we work together to find solutions that surpass a client’s expectation. My hat’s off to Tony, Jeff, and the guys at Brass Monkey for their outstanding victory at Sebring last Friday.

A Win for Tony is a Win for USA Archery

As we pledged before the SPEED World Challenge GT kicked off this year, we are contributing another $5,000 to USA Archery each time the TaxMasters Porsche finishes in the top three at a World Challenge event. This pledge is in addition to the initial donation we made early this year for use in developing Olympic archer hopefuls.

Everyone at Tax Masters is thrilled that we had the opportunity to donate the additional $5,000 to USA Archery.  We have seen our 2009 contributions pay big dividends already in the results Coach Kisik Lee has achieved in competitions in Poland and Mexico.  The Tax Masters pledge to donate $5,000 to USA Archery every time the #97 TaxMasters Porsche finishes in the top three at a World Challenge event is our way of drawing attention to the tremendously successful program Coach Lee is running to develop Olympic hopefuls.  Just like Tony Rivera and the Brass Monkey Racing team, these young men and women have seen great success, and we are proud to support them on their way to Olympic Gold.  We’re pleased to be a part of that success and excited about the possibility of adding an additional $5,000 every time Tony reaches the podium.

I’ll post updates after each World Challenge GT event here on the blog. The next race in the series takes place in Long Beach, CA on Sunday, April 19 right ater the Indy car race.

If you’re interested in watching the races on television, check out the TV schedule at SPEED.

Until you need us,

Patrick Cox Tax Masters

Tax Masters this Week

As a highly successful tax representation firm offering IRS tax relief to taxpayers across the United States (with some clients outside our borders) we are watching the events of government buy-outs and bonus-blame unfold with particular interest. Like most people, we are uncertain exactly what all the implications of current policy will be. However, what we see in the near term is an increase in IRS activity. Our advice is unwavering. If you have been contacted by the IRS, you have a tax problem. Call us and talk about your options sooner rather than later. We’ll continue to comment here on policy and government programs from the tax representation perspective, as we have done with Madoff, Geithner, and other relevant people and policies, so check back often.

On the lighter side, Tax Masters has made it into the news a couple times over the past week or so. We’re excited to be in a position to contribute funding to help prepare USA Archery Olympic hopefuls in their bid to make the 2012 Olympic Archery team. We have also reached an agreement with Brass Monkey Racing to sponsor a Speed GT Porsche in this year’s SPEED World Challenge. And in typical Tax Masters fashion, we even found a way to link the two sponsorships.

Tax Masters Sponsors Olympic Hopefuls

USA Archery (http://www.usarchery.org) reported last week that we agreed to a one year sponsorship of the Resident Athlete and Jr. Dream Team programs at the Arco Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA.  The Tax Masters sponsorship provides a large base contribution with a $5,000 bonus to be paid every time the Tax Masters / Brass Monkey Racing Porsche #97 finishes in the top three during the 2009 SPEED World Challenge GT race series. 

Sponsorship of Brass Monkey Racing

Brass Monkey Racing announced this week that Tax Masters will be their primary sponsor for the 2009 SPEED World Challenge GT racing series. Brass Monkey Racing will run the full 2009 season with Tony Rivera driving the #97 TaxMasters Porsche.  

AJ Brass, owner of Brass Monkey Racing, enlisted Jeff Stone of Kelly Moss Motorsports, absent from the SPEED World Challenge for 15 years, to form this new team effort and build the TaxMasters Speed GT Porsches for the season. If Stone sees success like he did 15 years ago in the 1994 World Challenge season, we will have many victories to report.

Success Builds on Success

Though interested in racing from afar, this year marks the first time Tax Masters has been directly involved with a racing team. If we were going to commit to a sponsorship, we wanted to make it worthwhile and exciting. When the USA Archery opportunity happened, we saw that the two contributions meshed nicely.

Tax Masters has already contributed over $25,000 to developing Olympic hopefuls for USA Archery. We have committed an additional $5,000 each time the TaxMasters #97 Porsche finishes in the top three at a SPEED World Challenge event. With 10 races on the season, that’s a potential $50,000 more dollars to go to Olympic hopefuls. If Rivera takes the podium in all ten races, that means Tax Masters will have donated a total of $75,000 this year for USA Archery to use to develop their hopefuls.

The fact that Rivera took the podium 13 of 14 times last year in the IMSA Challenge Gold Cup has everyone excited about this SPEED World Challenge season. We’re certainly rooting for wins at Tax Masters, and now USA Archery is behind him as well. We are especially proud to include the USA Archery logo on the car for the season.

The first race takes place this weekend at storied Sebring International Raceway. I hope to have good news for you about the results next week.

Until you need us,

Patrick Cox Tax Masters

Internet Complaints

You can find Internet complaints against Tax Masters on several sites out there. We have even seen claims that we are perpetrating a conspiratorial Tax Masters scam, defrauding people out of their hard-earned money and even helping people cheat on their taxes. There’s no two ways about it, we are incredibly successful at what we do and that puts a rather large target on our back. While we do charge for the services we are hired to perform, let me categorically state that Tax Masters is not a scam. We are not a fraud. We do not cheat people. We never help anyone cheat the IRS. If you know what you are doing, it is not necessary to lie or cheat. We know how to solve tax problems without having to resort to fraud, scam, or cheating anyone.

Client Service is Our Focus 

At Tax Masters, we are dedicated to providing quality, consistent tax representation services designed to bring clients back into compliance with the IRS, fight the IRS audit or appeal audit findings, assure that you are treated fairly, and, when appropriate, to allow us to negotiate with the IRS the best possible payment options for those we represent.

Tax Masters Client Satisfaction–97% Approval Rating

It might surprise you to know that Tax Masters has a 97% customer satisfaction rating. That means 97 out of every 100 clients we work for are happy with our services. If you work at Tax Masters, you are not surprised by this statistic. But if all you see of this company is what is written about us on complaints boards and ripoff reports, then I can see how this information might not jive with your perception of who we are. While even three unsatisfied clients out of 100 are too many, we are proud of our 97% satisfaction level.

Quality Assurance–A Dedicated Team

At Tax Masters, we have a Quality Assurance team dedicated to make sure we treat our clients fairly and provide quality, consistent services. This team works with and monitors our tax consultants and tax professionals to ensure that clients are properly qualified and that all services purchased are completed efficiently and in a timely manner.

If You Have a Complaint, We Want to Help

Our goal is 100% client satisfaction. If you are an existing client and you have a legitimate Tax Masters complaint, please contact  your Case Coordinator. If this does not resolve the problem, please ask to speak with a representative of our Quality Assurance team. They are in place to be sure we help our customers properly. As a matter of fact, we encourage you to contact us with concerns and  complaints because we use them to stay sharp and to improve our services as we grow.

Why We Don’t Respond To Anonymous Internet Complaints

We do not respond to anonymous Internet posts at Tax Masters. This is for several reasons. One is that we are bound by federal privacy laws as an IRS tax representative and we are bound by our even higher standard of confidentiality of client records.  We hold this trust sacred.  By law, we are not allowed to discuss any particulars of a client’s case with anyone except the client unless the client gives us permission. In other words, since all we are comfortable doing is making general statements, no rebuttal we supply will be worth much to the complainer or the reader. Another reason we don’t respond to Internet posts is that we’ve discovered that many of the posters are in fact competitors planting false and erroneous information and are not in fact clients at all. Yet another reason we don’t respond is that any response we provide lends weight to the post, accurate or not, and serves as chum for the inevitable feeding frenzy to follow.

If you choose to post on the Internet, that is your decision. However, posting out there instead of contacting us directly doesn’t get you any assistance with your complaint, and more importantly, it doesn’t help you out of the tax trouble you are in. I know it is easier at times to lash out than to confront your tax problems head on, but this sort of activity does not help your situation.

A Final Word on Tax Masters Complaints

I founded this company because I saw a need for our services. I like the service industry because we get to help people out of tough situations. Our clients come from all walks of life, from doctors and lawyers to mechanics, truck drivers, soldiers, school teachers, and retired persons. We have served politicians, medical professionals, school board presidents, oil executives, mail carriers, and preachers. Tax troubles don’t follow one particular segment of the population. The IRS can go after anyone.

In Tax Masters, I created a company that provides equal protection and representation to every one of our clients. If we fail you, we go out of business. I don’t want to be out of business. Quite the opposite, even in this time of economic strain, we are still serving new people everyday. The reason is because we do what we say we will and we win favorable resolutions for our clients with the IRS. If you have tax problems, you need our help. Don’t let fear control you. Contact us and let us help you through this. Tax representation is what we do for a living, all day everyday. Let us share this burden with you. We know the way to the other side and we can guide you. 

Until you need us,

Patrick Cox Tax Masters 

Why We Solve Tax Problems—Patrick Cox, TaxMasters

I’ve been asked by a friend to go back to the beginning and explain a bit about how TaxMasters got its start. I guess you could say it started way before I even thought about it, back in 1998. Honestly, I didn’t set out to create a business that helps people solve tax problems and fight tax penalties. When I graduated from Texas A&M University in 1986, having already passed the CPA exam, I was just hungry to find a decent job and get my life started. I worked at a couple of different accounting firms in Houston, Texas over the next years and then got hired on with Kemper in the early 90s. I worked for Kemper Insurance Companies in various US locations and advanced through their ranks over the next decade, finally winding up in a role as Vice President of Finance. When my division was relocated to Florida, I decided to bow out and go see if I could make a go of it on my own. I moved back to Houston and opened a CPA firm shortly thereafter.

I started out just trying to help people prepare good tax returns, and I was pretty good at that. Like everyone in my line of work, I had watched closely as the IRS hearings of the mid ‘90s unfolded. And like most other CPAs, I had plenty of anecdotal evidence of IRS abuses. Then came RRA ’98.

RRA ‘98

In direct response to congressional hearings where IRS abuses were revealed through testimony, congress and President Clinton enacted the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (RRA ‘98). RRA ‘98 changed the way the IRS is allowed by law to treat taxpayers. Considering all I knew about the IRS, I remember thinking that this new law, while full of good intentions, would never be enough to truly protect taxpayers.

Solving a Single Tax Problem Opened the Door

After reviewing RRA ’98 and going through the next few tax cycles, it became abundantly clear to me that the IRS was not holding up their end of the new bargain. No surprise there. Old habits die hard. IRS agents were still harassing, still assessing unwarranted tax penalties, and still using many of their same old tactics to collect revenue. Only after I fought for and earned a sizeable reduction in taxes owed for a dear friend and client, did I realize that RRA ’98 might just give us the leverage we would need to help others successfully fight the IRS. I was still skeptical, but as we took on more cases—and won more favorable outcomes—we quickly learned how to use the IRS’ rules to combat an ever-increasing list of specific tax problems. By the end of 2003, we knew there was no tax problem or tax penalty too great to take on.

TaxMasters—A Way to Help People in Trouble with the IRS

Thus began TaxMasters, a new entity unrelated to the old firm, which I sold off shortly thereafter. Since our meager start, TaxMasters has grown from being a local small business into a nationally recognized tax representation firm. We have grown tremendously in just a few short years. We hire the best tax consultants we can find and back them up with ex-IRS agents, tax attorneys, and incredibly sharp tax preparers and case coordinators to get as fair a deal as we can for our valued customers. TaxMasters will employ over 200 people in the Houston area by the end of this year, all of whom are dedicated to assisting the hundreds of taxpayers who contact us monthly in their effort to fight unfair tactics used by the IRS.

Call TaxMasters if You Think You Might Have a Tax Problem

As always, if the IRS has contacted you, even by correspondence, call us immediately. The tax professionals at TaxMasters are here to help. Call us at (866) 694-4018 or go to www.txmstr.com.

Until you need us,

Pat Cox