We contacted JK Harris after receiving a letter stating my husband's December paycheck would be held and sent to the IRS in its entirety, as well as all future paychecks. Of course, we freaked out to say the least. Not only did we need the paycheck for bills, but Christmas gifts for our three children as well. My husband worked as a contractor for four years and we had some issues with our back tax returns.
We contacted JK Harris immediately. They have fabulous commercials on Immediate assistance with the IRS giving you peace of mind, settling back tax debt, penalties and interest, and so on. Their former clients rave on JK Harris's web site on how their taxes, penalties, and interest were reduced by the help of JK Harris.
Now, being the consumer reports junkie I am, I should have investigated them a little further then their own web site. However, the IRS has a reputation of being difficult to deal with and we were severely intimidated. We heard, The IRS does not care about your problems, they just want their money and they will take everything. That may be true for some people. If we were no longer going to receive any paychecks we would have definitely been homeless. Had I made a simple phone call to speak with our IRS tax representative, I would have received peace of mind immediately.
There was an error, the IRS still had my husband listed as a contractor, and by that, the IRS could hold his entire paycheck. Even the IRS makes mistakes, because we have been paying them for a year through his new employer.
JK Harris told us on December 17 the IRS gave us a deadline to get all paperwork into them by December 27, 2010. With them knowing the deadline since December 10. Now, we are talking about the Christmas Holidays. Not everyone was willing to work overtime to get it all together. Our CPA's wife was having surgery. The deadline was completely unreasonable. JK Harris was obligated to inform us of the deadline immediately. We told them it was impossible and do what we paid them to do. We have yet to receive a response back from them.
Anyhow, after we did all the legwork and ended up having to overnight paperwork to the IRS ourselves. (Mind you, to the wrong address, provided by JK Harris) We re-sent the paperwork to the correct people locally and made our own phone calls to our IRS agent assigned to our case. After the first phone call we made to the IRS agent, we understood more of what they needed to have and the stress level went down. Our deadline for our final paperwork is now on January 30, 2011. The IRS agent told us herself and I quote, JK Harris is a big problem.This is after letting her know JK Harris no longer was representing us.
JK Harris could not wipe away any penalties, interests, or stop the hold on our paycheck as they assured us many times. They did draft three separate payments from our bank account for $1,200.00. Which brings us to another issue; they drafted the money out of the bank before the due dates on the contract. We felt they had already voided our contract numerous times by not doing what they promised. It is a lot of money to pay to someone who never even looks or prepares your taxes.
We drew up our own notice of revocation of power of attorney, had it notarized, and sent it to JK Harris telling them we no longer needed their services. We also stopped payment on all future drafts to JK Harris with our bank. We are writing a letter to the BBB and our Attorney General, which we found out already has a lawsuit against them for Texas consumers who have used JK Harris.
Do not be scared or intimidated; call your IRS agent yourself. JK Harris cannot do anything that you are not able to do yourself. The relationship with the IRS agent will improve once you get rid of JK Harris representing you |