Tax Relief Lawyers in Atascadero

"Tax relief" in Atascadero, California can refer to a wide range of subjects. However, it almost exclusively refers to lowering the tax liability, either of an individual, or a group of individuals.

When a government official or politician talks about "tax relief," they are usually talking about a tax cut, which is a reduction in a specific tax rate.

Increasingly, however, the general public is being inundated with advertisements on the Internet, the radio, and in print, from companies offering "tax relief" to consumers who owe back taxes in amounts that will be difficult or impossible to pay back. These companies claim to have some secret technique that can get California residents out of paying their taxes, or at least negotiate their final tax bill down to a smaller amount. Some of these companies are legitimate, but many of them are total frauds.

Tax Relief Scams in Atascadero, California

Some con-artists in Atascadero, California say that they have some secret technique that allows you to reduce the amount of taxes you're legally required to pay, or that they can erase any tax debt that you have incurred.

In the majority of cases, however, tax relief scammers in Atascadero, California have no actual capacity to reduce your legal liability to pay your taxes. However, these scams also have various common factors which tend to be dead giveaways of their fraudulent nature, making them fairly easy to avoid if you are extremely vigilant.

There is one warning sign that virtually guarantees that the tax relief company you're dealing with intends to defraud you: if they make an explicit guarantee that they can lower your tax bill. While there are some legal ways to try and reduce your tax requirement, including negotiating with the IRS, there is no guarantee that they will prevail. And although the IRS does have programs to assist people who are truly unable to pay for their taxes, they are only available to very small subset of the population, and most Atascadero, California taxpayers aren't eligible to participate in them.

Furthermore, you should be wary of anyone promising tax relief, but demands payment immediately, before they actually do anything. Many scammers in Atascadero will convince their victims to pay them upfront, and then simply take the money and run. They may even make additional, unlawful, charges to your credit card or bank account.

How Can a Tax Relief Attorney in Atascadero, California Help?

If you find that you are unable to pay your taxes, through no fault of your own, you may be tempted to answer an advertisement for a "tax relief" company. Before that, you should talk with an Atascadero, California tax lawyer.

A competent and reputable tax attorney in Atascadero, California will give you objective legal advice on how to handle a tax law issue. A reputable tax attorney delivering honest advice, however, will tell you the truth, which may not necessarily be what you want to hear. The upside, of course, is that the information they're giving you is actually useful, as opposed to the "advice" given to you by a tax relief scammer, which, if followed, would put you in a worse position than you were before. Plus, you will have a good deal of legal recourse against a tax attorney, in the unlikely event that a licensed attorney defrauds you.