Burns my bacon.......

OK, so I'm watching TV and one of those ads comes on for some attorney or law firm promising IRS debt relief. Several satisfied clients proudly claim that the service helped them reduce their IRS debt to pennies on the dollar....$40,000 settled for $500....or some such nonsense. For some reason, that ad just sent me through the roof. Never mind that I think the claims are about as legitimate as all the "satisfied clients" using male enhancement products. It's the fact that someone thinks it's OK to encourage people to seek out a service that effectively screws the honest citizens paying our share of taxes every day.

Maybe it's because tax season is looming, maybe it's my background in collection systems, maybe I'm cranky about not getting enough sleep...but this ad really pissed me off. Now I'm no fan of the IRS, nor do I wish to see insult added to injury with interest and penalties piling on to the point that a person can't see how to dig out from their burden. But cry me a river if you owe several thousand in honest to goodness taxes because you "forgot" to file a return for the past 5 years. Seriously, these jerks are offering to help negotiate your debt to practically nothing. Do you think the lawyers and services really care why you have that unpaid debt? Guess what...if Joe Blow isn't paying his fair share who do you think is picking up the tab? That's right...all us honest folk.

Thankfully there's more of us than them, but the sheer boldness of these ads just burned my bacon. Such ads are likely casually dismissed by most of us as harmless. Nobody stops to think about what's being promised and who is likely to take them up on that promise. What if they were advertising to help you settle some nasty old alimony or child support debt? Wouldn't people have some sense of outrage? How dare they take money from those poor children or spouses! Yet promise some schmuck to help stick it to the IRS, and well we all just collectively ignore it (some may even applaud it) while unconsciously bending over to grab our ankles. It's not the IRS they're sticking it to.

Now before you pile on about extenuating circumstances, I'm not heartless. Lost your job, home wiped out in a national disaster, nearly bankrupt from trying to pay for medical care for an extended illness or injury....sure, I'll gladly grant you time to pay off the tax debt. First things first. If I had the choice between paying taxes or paying for my child's cancer treatment, of course I'd pay the doctors first. But I would also pay my taxes as soon as I could...it's how I was raised. I can't imagine how an honest person would agree to having a substantial portion of ANY legitimate debt wiped out. (Let's ignore for the moment whether Federal Income Tax is legitimate, legal or constitutional...another time, another blog.) Now, if someone or some group offers charity to help pay that tax debt for you...fine, no problem. Someone agreed to pay more than their share for you. God bless 'em for their selfless choice. However, I won't trust an attorney or law firm to be so scrupulous when choosing to represent a client in their quest to alleviate tax debt...or rather, pass that debt on to the rest of us.