Anthem Tax Services
complaints

I paid Anthem Tax Services a fee to resolve my tax concerns with the IRS and the California State Franchise Tax Board in June. As March 11th my paycheck from my employer reflected my wages were garnished from the CA FTB. Because of the circumstance I contacted the IRS to learn that they were never contaced until today when I notified the representatives on my case of the garnishment that occurred. I am completely disappointed at the service provided by this organization. I would like the company to refund me for the services that were not performed. Because of their negligence and unwillingness to resolve my issue in a timely manner, my livelihood has adversely been affected. I have contacted Anthem Tax Services multiple times requesting updates and to here they were never contacted prior to today is incredible. It has been 21 months since I've signed up with Anthem Tax Service on no progress has been made.

After reading an internet ad, I contacted Anthem Tax Service in January to get assistance with 2017 past IRS debt. I spoke with Mr. D ***a. I signed a contract to have Anthem represent me before the IRS and provided all the documentation that they requested. After months of delays and refusal of anyone to respond to my calls or emails, I was told that Mr. C was no longer employed by Anthem (even though I received an email with his email address at the Anthem just 3 days ago asking for more money). I was put in contact with Mr. C *** around December. I was told that I had not submitted the documents that I had sent back in January. Again there have been delays after delays and promises of phone calls that never come. On April 20th I contacted the IRS directly online. It appears as if the IRS has never been contacted by anyone from Anthem Tax Service about my past debt. I will call the IRS directly tomorrow to verify.

I hired this company to resolve my back tax debt over 3 years ago (for the tax years 2016 and 2017) The last time I had any communication with anyone from this company was before Christmas in 2020, in which I was told my file was still being looked over (AFTER being told the IRS dropped the ball and didn't process my agreement to pay and have been sending me threatening letters with demand to pay). After the holidays I called repeatedly and emailed the person in charge of my case- E ***, and received no response from him or the attorney in charge of my file. I am still receiving letters from the IRS and it is now July and no resolution of my case has been communicated and I have no idea where I stand with the IRS. To make matters worse- the company required me to take out a loan to pay them for their services, which I have now paid more then 50 percent of the balance, and STILL no resolution to my case. I have now paid 3k to this company and they stole my funds.

Anthem Tax Service charged me $2,500 to address my request for penalty abatement on a tax resolution issue from 2016. I paid for their assistance in January in 2019 asking if they could help me resolve a $7,000 penalty for back tax payment. To date, I have paid an additional $6,000 in interest alone. They offer a "100% moneyback guarantee if not satisfied". In the two years since I contracted with them I have had to make every contact with them, never have they reached out to me to provide me with the status of my request. Last week I asked them to return my initial $2,500 as part of their money back guarantee. I received a call back from Anthem Client Relations, Jeremy, after angrily telling me that there was nothing he could do until the IRS address my request he blamed this all on COVID, even though my contract for Anthem services began 14 months prior to this pandemic, he even told me he was to busy to address my case and he was tired of my "***", I want my deposit back.

since 9/24 I have been waiting for a refund from Anthem since they closed my account and didn't provide the services I hired them for. B *** said they are the only company that offers 100% refund when I tried to cancel it the same day so I took his word and went on with the paperwork. I attached a copy of that email I hired them to get tax relief - I owed the irs 15k and they said i would qualify for the fresh start program after my bankruptcy and they did not get me any tax relief service instead they just got me a payment plan for a 15k debt with the irs - I mean, I could of done that myself it that was the case. Now i'm even more in debt because i charged it all to my credit card and I have to pay my credit card back $2,715.66 - I have mailed numerous letters asking for refund The irs sent me a letter stating that I now have a payment plan that I can't afford. I paid anthem a $1k deposit on my credit card and then every month they kept charging my credit card for $209

They lied. ATS delivered an official tax resolution, titled PPIA Acknowledgment on 06/12, as quoted; "Anthem Tax Services would like to thank you for allowing us to service your tax needs. Please allow this letter to serve as notice that Anthem Tax Services ("ATS") has successfully removed your account from FTB collections and placed your applicable tax years in to a Partial-Pay Installment Agreement ("PPIA'') per our negotiations with the State of California Franchise Tax Board. This agreement will allow you to payoff a fraction of your b***ce during the remaining collections statute of limitation period as set forth by the State of California Franchise Tax Board." This letter and statement is a fraud and they knew it. This is unlawful, negligent, and wanton and willful misconduct. An official response from the FTB has confirmed the fraud and documented as "misinformed" as of their official findings of 05/22. THERE IS NO PPIA PROGRAM WITH THE FTB as represented. Further, according to the IRS.gov on 04/17 Jake Shulman is NOT an Enrolled Agent. ATS has yet to confirm, on 3+ separate occasions, they wrote the PPIA. The FTB has acknowledge payments, however will not reduce the obligations as purportedly acknowledged by ATB. There was no mistake. The representation was a fraud and negligence. Not only was there a purported resolution as 'Acknowledged', there is an additional penalty of $1,983.50 assessed after 06/12. Official FTB document is available as evidence of the fraud and misconduct. Also, ATS charged for IRS resolved and did not process the necessary documents as represented.

I enrolled in Anthem Tax Service in Jan 2019. While they did not guarantee results they promised to be responsive and lay out all the scenarios so I could make an informed decision of how I could move forward with my debt. I was a little apprehensive but I applied for the loan and became a member. I was immediately put in contact with my case manager and attorney who supposed to handle my case. I filled out all the documentation and a POA so they could act as a proxy for IRS to make the best decision for me in my situation. They also assured me that they would have some type of resolution before I filed my 2018 taxes fro the previous year. Tax day comes and goes and I had to file my taxes for 2018 and the IRS garnished my refund to pay for the taxes I owed. And still no word from Anthem. I then took it upon myself to reach out to customer service and after trying for approximately 3 weeks someone finally got back to me, only to tell me that both my attorney and case manager no longer worked for the company. If I hadn't reached out then NOONE would've even told me. They promptly told me that they would reissue my case to another case manager and attorney and they promised to expedite my case. I received a communication from the case manager and she proceeds to tell me that I had to fill out all the paperwork again. I was a little hesitant as I previously filled out the documentation and I was curious where all my personal information went. Fast forward another 2 months, Nov 2019, and no contact was made. I immediately reached out to customer service and asked for a full refund as no one did anything for the 11 months I have been a part of the program. Customer service explained that they would suspend all activity and render a decision. I was asked to contact customer service if no one did not get back to me within a week and I did so and I was able to connect with Jessica Atkins and in short, she dodged my calls, promised me a half refund, and still have not heard from Anthem.

In October I hired Anthem Tax Solutions to help me resolve an issue in New Mexico with my gross receipts tax. I gave them power of attorney to negotiate on my behalf. I provided a financial survey of our business, things then got busy during the holidays and the person managing our account apologized for the delay in January . I was told it might take a bit of time to have a response from the state. In March I found out that my New Mexico was holding us in default and when I asked the Tax and Revenue department if any progress had been made on my account by Anthem, they could not see that any action had taken place. That whole time I had assumed that at least Anthem had notified the state we were trying to negotiate. I was not even trying to get out of the taxes, just receive some forgiveness on the interest and penalties after showing that the unpaid taxes had been due to an honest mistake. I had been told by Anthem that during the negotiation period interest and penalties would not continue to accrue. This turns out to be false. I am paying 18% interest plus penalties on my outstanding taxes. Since the day I got my letter from NM about being in default, I have called and emailed Anthem. I was assigned different account managers because apparently the one I was originally assigned was gone. My new managers will not have a conversation over the phone with me despite multiple requests. I had to send a new financial survey which I did long ago and there has been no response in my follow up attempts. I've called their superior who told me 3 weeks ago he would follow up with them. I never heard back and now he won't return my calls. If I had known this was how things would be handled I could have at least paid the full amount of my outstanding taxes, penalties, and fines using a line of credit. Instead I've racked up another 6 months interest and penlties plus paid thousands of dollars to Anthem to do nothing other than jget me into more trouble with the NM Tax and Revenue Department. All this when our business is shut down due to COVID 19.

So I received a very large IRS bill for an oversight from my tax accountant and reached out to Anthem. Greg was very convincing and assured that Anthem Tax Service (ATS) would be able to help my situation, and to feel confident that if they were not able to help then they would refund my money. So in July I started the process, gave them countless forms and documents, and waited. In Sept after emails and phone calls I received an email back from Laura Hill saying that I needed to basically have some patience and that they were working to resolve the issue. In October, again after calls and emails, I receive another email from Laura concerning the State taxes and she said she set up a payment agreement for the balance due! OK, so this is something I could have done and they did not save me a dime. But I thought maybe the federal would turn out better. In November, again after many calls and emails, I find out my account was moved from Laura to Whitney Franze. Her email states that she needs another power of attorney? I sent this 3 months ago, but send again and asked for a return call which I never received. I finally got a response in March asking for yet another power of attorney and apparently my case was now transferred yet again to Chantel! I emailed several times after this asking for any updates as the IRS letter indicated that my time was coming to an end for any disputes to be settled. In April I finally received an email back from ATS and a Rebecca Albachten who my account was transferred to, making this the 4th person to work on my account. After months of waiting, I get an email from the IRS in November stating that I owed the entire amount, nothing had been negotiated. I called Rebecca in a panic of sorts asking what was going on and she tells me that my case was closed! WHAT? So after 16 months ATS has done absolutely NOTHING to resolve my tax situation, in which Greg said the could absolutely help with. This is an absolute scam and I demand a full refund. I have also emailed every person at ATS telling them I request my refund as well and have not heard back from anyone.

I contacted Anthem Tax Services apx 09 to help with my debt with the IRS. I told them I had a current payment with the IRS of $200 a month that I had negotiated but was looking for "light at the end of the tunnel". I currently owe apx 20k but was hoping to negotiate it down to 10-15k. I knew I would still owe, but wanted to be able to negotiate a set agreed amount that I could pay back to the IRS & stop the additional annual penalties and fees from accruing. At the time I was dealing with C *** (Case Manager) who said that it was realistic request and that if they could not get me into a better deal that I would be refunded. I agreed to use Anthem Tax Services and filled out all of the documentation. I wasn't able to pay the full amount of $2430.00 so they referred me to Lending Tree in which I obtained a loan. I filled out all of the necessary paperwork and turned it in. C also advised me to stop making payments to the IRS, which I did starting 10. I received an email on 12/12 that my file was pending with the IRS and I should hear something mid-January. Instead of getting something from the IRS, on 1/3 I had to fill out another statement (433-A) which is statement of my expenditures and income (AGAIN). I filled it out and returned it. I reached out again in March and couldn't get a hold of C...after several attempts (calling Anthem Tax Services0 I finally got a hold of someone and they informed me that C was no longer with the company. I received an email response from J ***, and he informed me, due to COVID the IRS was shut down. After states starting opening up, around September ...I started making calls to Anthem again (by now they had to be open) I was assigned to M *** (Attorney) who said they would be working on my case. I filled out another 433-A and submitted it. Thankfully he responded to me quickly with a possible resolution...it was to negotiate a payment with the IRS which would be MUCH higher than what I had negotiated and been paying on in 2019. I immediately said NO...I explained that when I signed up with Anthem Tax Services that my intent was to negotiate my debt down so I could get this paid off in a reasonable time without the penalties and fees racking up every year. M told me that wasn't doable and my best option was monthly payments on the amount I owed. Why would I pay a company $2430.00 to negotiate a higher monthly payment? I now have to figure out how to negotiate with the IRS myself. I told M that I want a full refund...he told me that someone from Anthem Tax Services would be calling me to get my refund processed within a week, which was apx 2 weeks ago today is 12/7. This company is horrible! They tell you whatever you want to hear to get your business and cannot provide a resolution that is better than what I was previously in.