>This is a follow up post to the one I wrote recently. Due to the increased hits to my “settlement” post, I decided to hunt through Google for other J.K. Harris complaints. These are copy/pasted from various websites. To keep it short, I only looked back to September, 2008. In my broadcasting days, I tried my best to be fair to all involved parties by allowing each to have THEIR fair say. I spent a few hours at the JK Harris Tax Resolution Blog to see if John Harris (or his ghost writers) are clever enough to make me feel better about our IRS demise.

It mentions that the internet complaints represent “about 1%” of their total client base. They must have a huge happy client base of at least 3 MILLION if my Google math is correct (keep in mind these are just clients that took the trouble to post complaints online… how many just felt helpless and did nothing?):


My first amendment response to that blog: “You have YOUR truth, we have ours”.
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Joel of Elgin SK (12/15/08)I met with consultants from JK Harris in April 0f 2008. (Travis and his Supervisor) I was told that it was 99% chance that he they could reduce my taxes to at least $10,000 from $80,00. I prepared all of the paperwork they asked for and supplied them to the company. My representative’s name is Rene. The first offer she sent us was incorrect. I found an error wherein she had not submitted all of the information. When I told her she said that the figures would change if she entered the corrected information.

Well she reworked the paper work and sent me another offer. This offer was much more than I had been told that it would be. I could not afford this offer. Finally she sent another offer and I submitted it to the IRS. They rejected it. I have tried with no success to speak with her Supervisor. When I e-mail her it always takes several days to get a bogus answer. I would not advise anyone to use this company. I have lost close to $4500 on this scheme.

I am 64 years old and have been trying to get this debt resolved with the IRS for more than 5 years. I keep getting the run around with them so I thought I would if I tried this company I could finally get some results.WRONG! Because of the situation I am in I cannot get credit or get a decent rate on my mortgage. I would love to get some assistance, but at this point I cannot afford to.
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Ken of Albany GA (12/12/08)Two years ago, I was sent information to a Law firm representing a class action case against JK Harris. The Law Firm stated that the case would be decided by mid 2008. I have not hear anything from the that case. I lost over $2500 using JK Harris Company.
JK Harris did not file the necessary documents with the IRS as contracted to do.
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Charie of Wilsonville OR (12/11/08)I needed help with my taxes so i called jk harris in march and went into the office on 3/10/06 i paid 500 up front as the first payment i was told they would help me our payments where 250 a month like 5 mos they did nothing for us we got garnished when i called they said they where working on it they needed more info i faxed more then they where helping they never called irs for us they didn’t fix anything they where suppose to fix or even help us when we said enough was enough they said they wouldn’t return our money we now are 10,000 in dept to the irs for back taxes late fees i lost my job due to stress they are taking more then we make we are struggling and they want to take more the irs does we cant afford this my husband is the only one working right now i don’t see this getting better they should be punished for this i cry i am depressed worried that they will take our stuff what little we have they want our bank account so they can get that to JK harris what a big help you where we could have given the IRS that 1500 dollars
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Jerome of Elyria OH (12/03/08)I went to JK Harris office in Lorain in May 2006. I paid them $1500.00 up front to straighten up a IRS claim. JK Harris. They completed the taxes for me to file. They set up automated deductions to my credit card monthly. I took out a loan to pay the balance so my credit card wouldn’t be effected. I have had nothing but the same run around as everyone else. Refusal to let you speak with someone in upper management.

Countless request to send the same information. Either they didn’t receive it or the information is out dated. I finally contact IRS myself and is working with them to correct. In the meantime, I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau about the way JK Harris is ripping the consumer off.

This has caused continuous loss of sleep. Fear of losing my home.
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Robert of Windermere FL (12/02/08)My wife & I went to JK Harris in Ocala, Fl. The person there told us we will only have to pat a fraction of the amount we owe to the IRS. Since then JKHarris has done very little to keep there agreement to help us with our tax problem. We’ve called several times without a response from them. They keep telling us they will call us back. The IRS & JKHarris keeps asking us for more information about out income & financial payments. As far as my wife & I know JKHarris has not contacted IRS (as per IRS telling us) IRS keeps sending us letters for the information. Since JKHarris has done nothing, we sent the forms to IRS. Since JKHarris has not kept their side of the agreement we stopped paying them.

In Oct IRS sent us a payment plain that is well above our income & payments. IRS states that we will make $194,172,99 this year. And we could afford to pay $1,499.00 each month. I receive SSI of $1,658.00 per month. We called JKHarris about this. JKHarris said to talk to the finance co about reducie our payments in half. The finance co did so. Buy they tell us that we must not be more then 60 days past due. JKHarris said if we just make one payment they will continue helping us again. They say we have to make two payments. When we called JKHarris back, they said Professional Fee was incorrect. One payment is enough.

We are now at an impasse with them. We are just starting to keep up with our financial problems. Since JKHarris & the finance co has agreed to have cut the payments in half the finance co should tell JKHarris to start helping us again. JKHarris tells us one payment is enough but thr finance co says it’s not. Where do we go from here. JK Harris now tells us that we have to pay the IRS $150.00 each mo. That is the same amount we were told by the IRS to pay them a year ago. Is this how JK Harris does business? We pay them, they do not have us pay a fraction or what we owe the IRS, plus we still have to pay the IRS the full amount. Do we need help?

Let alone we have a small income the IRS says we will make (according to our estimated income) 150,000.00+ this year. I receive $1600 from SS plus pay from a part time job. That’s less then 25,000 this year.
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Eric of Milford MA (12/01/08)I hired J.K. Harris in April of 2008 for close to $5,000 to help with a few years of back taxes. On May 31st I found out that my paycheck was garnished by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I quickly called J.K. Harris only to be told that all of my paperwork was not submitted properly. My question to them was why did it take you a month to tell me. They had no answer!

I then asked them if they could contact the Commonwealth of Mass to let them know we are working to get a payment plan to pay this amount back. I called every day for over a week to have an abatement letter created. Again this went unanswered by J.K. Harris! In August 2008 I had a payment agreement with both the IRS and Commonwealth, and my paycheck continued to be garnished till mid September. For three months I asked J.K. Harris for the abatement letter and got NOTHING!!! I received a letter at the end of September 2008 that a new rep was handling the penalties and interest on both the IRS and Commonwealth. I have called more times than I can remember and no update or information can be given by this rep! DO NOT USE J.K. HARRIS!!!!!

Lost $5,000 to hire this bogus company, garnished paychecks for 3 months totaling over $3,800
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Mabel of Minot Afb ND (11/18/08)I went to JK Harris office in San Antonio, Tx for help in October 2007 with an IRS matter. The intake specialist that I spoke with gathered all my information, and he said, that they could help me settle with the IRS for less than $600. He said, that in order for JK Harris to help me I had to agree to pay $500 down payment and $283 a month for 10 months starting November 2007 and supposedly ending in August 2008.

Well, in Juen I received a letter from their loan agency informing me of their finance charges for JK Harris, and I immediately call JK Harris and questioned that. JK Harris specialist informed me that they had a loan department that finance for them and as a client we are responsible for paying the interest rates and therefore, my ten months was no longer ten months I had to make my final payment of $243 in September 2008.

Well, going back to the beginning of the year JK Harris kept sending my husband papers to fill out, which we completed and dropped off at their local office. We then got more letters stating that they never received or documents so I again submitted the documents requested. After all that they sent us my husband tax forms completed for the years he had already paid someone else to file, so again I was on the phone with JK Harris asking why they were filing my husband’s information if I wasn’t married to him at the time that I had the issue with IRS and he had already filed his taxes for those years. I never heard back from them and in June of 2008 I get a letter from the IRS with a final notice to intent to take possession of my properties.

My family had to struggle for over 11 months to pay for JK Harris service. As it stands we will still be struggling because I had to come to agreement with the IRS to settle the matter, before they continued to take possession of what little we owned. My family lives off a tight budget and after paying all the bills we have close to $200 left a month and that is for food, but now we will once again have to struggle because JK Harris failed us. The IRS kept my returns for 2006 & 2007, and all this was due to a company that I did work for and they filed the wrong return.
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Luis of Monsey NY (11/18/08)I filed to resolve my tax problems with J K Harris about 2 1/2 years ago and they agreed to settle by paying me back $3400.00. I have not seen or been contacted by the firm. What should I do? I agreed to not sue if I agreed on repayment.
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Tanya of Wichita KS (11/12/08)I, myself is a victim too. I contacted JK Harris and Company in June to help me with my installment payment and possibly eliminate fees and interests associated with the balance I owed. The Rep that I met with said he could reduce my payment down to half and eliminate fees and interests. So I signed the contract and he transferred my case to a specialist in their head office. I could never reach him after that.

This so claimed specialist contacted me and seemed clueless about my case, I almost had to explain to her what I requested to them every time i spoke with her on the phone. She also told me that interests and fees were not going to be eliminated which is the opposite of what was told me at the initial meeting.

After I found this contradiction I became weary about the company. I started think about getting a refund. So i wrote them a refund letter and it took them longer than the 45 business days they claimed, and the letter basically claimed that they did 80% of what was being agreed to on the contract which means they are going to take 80% of the 1500 dollars that I paid. In reality they had done nothing for me, and what they claimed they could do in the first place, I later found out I can do myself over the phone through an automated phone service.

I paid my fee with a credit card, and I am currently a full time student so it is difficult for me to have to make that payment especially when there was no service done for me in anyway that was beneficial.
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Laurel of Punta Gorda FL (11/08/08)On October 3, 2007, I signed a contract with JK Harris to negotiate a settlement with the IRS. I agreed for JK Harris to withdraw $318.00 per month from my checking account for one year in exchange for their services. I also paid them a down payment of $500.00 the date that I signed the contract. They requested an enormous amount of financial information from me which included copies of all debts and assets for a 3 month period of time. I kept calling them and they told me they were working on the account. In August 2008, I demanded they complete their responsibilities under the contract. Their response was they now needed ALL OF THE SAME FINANCIAL INFORMATION AGAIN AS THE INFORMATION I HAD GIVEN THEM WAS OUTDATED.

I complied and sent this packet of information to them. I again contacted them telling them the IRS was going to place a lien on me as of November 14, 2008 unless payment arrangements were made. On November 7, 2008, I received a return call from a different agent, Michelle Bryant, telling me she had a note saying she needed to contact me or the IRS on November 14, 2008. I asked her where Cynthia was and explained the November 14, 2008 date was the deadline for the IRS lien. She stated Cynthia no longer worked for JK Harris and she did not see any documents in my file.

Later that day she left a voice mail message for me to send once again (this is the third time) ALL OF THE SAME FINANCIAL INFORMATION THAT HAD BEEN SENT TO JK HARRIS TWICE BEFORE. By now, my contract was paid in full to JK Harris and I could not provide her with all of the debt and asset information for the last 3 months in time for her to contact and prevent me from having a lien placed on my account.

I am a Public Defender working for the State of Florida and my annual salary is only $42,000. I went to law school at the age of 50 and now owe student loans over $160,000. I will be 68 years of age this December and all of any extra money I could obtain last year was spent paying JK Harris. If a lien is placed on my account I may lose my job with the State of Florida and could also lose my license to practice law. I informed JK Harris of this and their response was to continue stalling me by asking for the same documents over and over. They refuse to allow me to speak to anyone in authority.

When I send emails to anyone in authority, they respond by having the same entry level person contact me. It has been over a year since I signed a contract with JK Harris for their services and my obligation for payment to them is complete. To date, they have made no effort to fulfill their obligation to me. They are in Breach of Contract by failing to contact and negotiate on my behalf with the IRS. I believe the Federal Government should get involved and investigate the practices of JK Harris; especially since they practice across state lines.
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Larry of Kansas MO (11/05/08)They said they where going to help me with the irs. I’m in a wheel chair and i gave them 1000 and they wanted more and they had a collection people call me saying that i owed more, please help me, get my money back. I had to close out my acc. They kept taking money out.

im limited on funds and getting around. they scared me when the collection people called, they never helped me.
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Bob of Winter Haven FL (11/05/08)I just got a form letter from them offering me $1542.00 settlement which is half of what they owe me ($3100.00) You know as well as I do it is a ploy to buy them more time. I advised the Attny. Gen. in S.C. & Florida and again I demanded they send me my $3100.00. At 70 years old and on soc. sec. only I hope the two attn.gens. put some one in jail. I will keep you posted if you like when & if I hear anything else. Keep up the good work. IRS HAS FILED A TAX LIEN AGAINST ME.
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Eric of Detroit MI (10/25/08)took $5500 from me an never did anything. tax bill was $92k now it is $200k. need my money back plus damages to pursue paying the IRS. Want to sue but don’t know how.
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Barbara of Marietta GA (10/25/08)After I made an appointment with this agency I could not google their address. No problem. I had forgotten the information I had written down so on the way to my I appointment I called 411 and asked for their phone number. They were not listed in my town. Then the operator looked under the toll free listings. They were not listed there either. So here is a big company that advertises on the news channel that has an address that doesn’t come up on google and a phone number that is not listed. What kind of organization is this? I am so grateful I wasn’t able to keep that first appointment.

Fortunately I did not suffer any damages because this company rendered itself invisible to me.
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Ronald of Ft. Worth TX (10/20/08)Paid 680.00 deposit @ 241.00 a month and nothing was ever done. They kept asking for paper work kept sending it in only to find out 6 mos later that they contacted the IRS Garnishment of my wages.
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Brenda of Lancaster OH (10/19/08)We’ve paid this company $2000.00 four years a go and the problem was to help us settle with the IRS. We were in bankruptcy and they told us that they could make us pay while we were in bankruptcy and they would help us when we get out. We did and ask for their help, it’s taken them over four years now and we are still being turned down with the offer in compromise (OIC). We have showing many times that we do not have the things they say we do. J.K.Harris knows this and have all the proof. We do not have the money. We believe in J.K.Harris and nothing is being done for us.

We’ve had three other persons handling our files and the second person really mess us up. Their ads say they can help you, but we are not getting the help. When I call Angle to talk to her, she is always with other clients. I’m one too, I need her help too. I think this has gone on for far too long. Our money we paid them to help was for nothing.

Angel has the letter that we received on Oct.17,2008. I had to Fax it to her again, which cost us money again to send. I’m so afraid of what will be done to us. We just wanted to give the IRS an offer in compromise that we could pay. The Settlement Officer is Renee, Department of the Treasury which was given proof that we do not have the things which we told them were gone. J.K. Harris Company was suppose to help us, what can we do? Please Help us.

This has put a toll on our Health.

Bob of Winter Haven FL (10/16/08)Paid them $1000.00 up front and $303.00 by bank draft($2100 Paid so far and I stopped draft10-15-10 & they say I still owe them $1079.00. They have never done any thing for me at all.

IRS filed tax lien on me 10-7-08.I have no assets, period and my soc.sec. is $1000.00 a month and I will be losing my house.

Anna of Bayonne NJ (10/14/08)Mr Fleury supposed to consolidate my student loans and create one payment. However he convinced me that my current payments were going to the wrong place. He asked me to immediately close my account. When I did that he just disappeared. He never returned my phone calls. He took from me $1000, devastated me with default loans status.

A few months later a guy name Hartwell called me telling me that he is the director of the company and that he knows what happened to me. He asked me to give him a power of attorney over the phone. I asked him to give me my money back, he said he cannot do it. I told him I do not trust his intentions and I do not understand why he wants me to give him a power of attorney. I said do not call me any more if you do not want to return my money.

I was financially and emotionally devastated. I could not fix my loan status for a very long time. I asked my school to help me with making new arrangements.
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Alex of Greenbelt MD (10/07/08)I saw an Ad on TV and as i was looking for representation regarding IRS Audit, i called, met with a representative in my hometown. I signed up, paid $3000 initially, then $550 per month in 2 payments directly from my account for almost 10 months. After all these months and money, nothing was done, NOT EVEN A SINGLE PHONE TO THE IRS on my behalf!!!! As we speak, the IRS has started garnishment proceedings against me. According to the IRS, I owe over $89,000. I have all deductions/transactions from my account and if there is an action lawsuit going on please let me in. We should not let them get away with THIS!!!

I have a family of six and an extended family of thirteen in Uganda (Africa) who rely on me for almost everything from tuition to medical care. My mother is diabetic and was recently diagnosed with some heart problems, I am currently unable to meet their basic needs. Imagine watching your mother getting weaker and weaker everyday and you can’t help, knowing that if someone had done their job you would not be in this predicament! In my culture, its shameful if a man is unable to take care of his elderly as well as his family. My neices and nephews look up to me as they have lost both parents due to HIV, they dont have anyone but me to care for them, now i cant do that as close to 55% of my income is about to be garnished! I need help! Thank you for this site!!!

L. of Frederick MD (10/07/08)It has been two years now and cannot get anyone to help from their office. they had taken a deposit, and will not respond to any questions, written or verbal. Do not what to do at this point. They should be put out of business.

Still have pending tax problems, now out more monies trying to retain, J.K.Harris & Company
Genette of Barstow CA (10/03/08)I’ve been trying for several years to clear my account with the IRS. I kept seeing tv ads for jk harris & decided to contact them. The First person I spoke with assured me I definitely qualified to submit an offer in compromise which they would prepare & submit for me for a fee which at the moment I do not remember (I seem to be having this problem so I write everything down) They took $500.00 upfront which was the amount I paid to the IRS each month and the balance was taken in payments out of my checking account by a billing service. I gathered all the information they required of me to prepare this offer & after several months of mailin & faxing the same documents over & over I finally received the offer which was $1501 on a bill of over $18,000.

I called & was assured this was within the realm of acceptance for the IRS. The phone calls I made were seldom returned without me calling several times with the samr question. Very frustrating for me as I was already frustrated with my predicament. ms P called me to say They had received a counter offer from the IRS which they never would provide a copy for my file. Never did know what that counter was as the representative was changed at that very time. this new one has spoken with me to tell me that they were preparing a new offer to present my new info which they kept saying they hadn’t recived from me but they finally found ( letter from the dr stating that I had been diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease). since I am employed full time as a caregiver I indicated that I don’t know how much longer I can work & will then have only my Social Security ($973.00)At the time she called I asked her to come up with a more reasonable offer maybe 7 or 8,000 & she agreed they would. I have never received a call or a document regarding this new offer. i think this back in June 2008.

Now I have received a notice from the IRS that they have placed a lein so it shows on my credit reports- that interest & penalties will continue. I own in joint tenancy which we had intended to sell & can’t now so the IRS will not be able to take the proceeds. The IRS has determined that I am in a non collectible status. I do have copies of all my paperwork.I understand there is a class action suit I might be able to join.?4995
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John of Milton FL (09/29/08)ON 11/10/2006 I contacted J. K. Harris in reguards to my back taxes. They were going to help me by deleating a lot of what I owed in back taxes, so they said and for 5000 dollars they could handle it. The amount was quite a lot and I believed what they told me so I jumped for it. I paid J. K. Harris 1000 dollars down and borrowed the rest which totaled another 5100 dollars and I paid it off in five months.

Here it is 09/29/2008 and still nothing has been taken care of. It seems as tho I have done all the work by getting information together and sending it in and calling two and three sometimes four time a week to see what is going on. The IRS levied my Soc. Sec. once and now they are about to do it again as things are not being taken care of as I was told it would be. Meanwhile my tax amount keeps increasing.

So far nothing has been completed and J. K. Harris say they are working on things. What the out come will be I do not know but there is something wrong with this picture. Thank goodness I own nothing but I still have to live and it is on my retirement and Soc. Sec. as I am 65 years old. If I hear nothing soon I may have to go to the IRS my self and see if I can get help from on of their advocates which I shoukld have done at the first place.
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Connie of Knoxville TN (09/25/08)I met with the rep from JK Harris in a pretend office, i.e. a room that use in an office in whatever town they are in at the time. He sat there and told me for $2,500 they would make all my back taxes go away. I was leary of his pitch, but was desperate and he was a smooth talker. I did some research and found out that you can get a Tax Advocate from the IRS to help you FOR FREE, so I went that route.

JK Harris keeps calling and bothering me. I am going to turn them into the BBB, as well as other consumer agencies. Their service is nothing but a rip off. SO BEWARE of their smooth advertisements. They do NOTHING but make themselves richer.

I suffer from emotional stress and they keep calling and bothering me. I want to find out where to turn them in so they will stop harrassing me on a daily basis.
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Carl of Camp Hill PA (09/19/08)I came to JK harris for help and the way it was explained to me, sounded so good that I could not refuse here to find out that the gentelman that I delt with, it was all a lie and I told a lot of friends good things about JK Harris, now I requested a refund and [they] told me could not refund me all of my money but sent me a letter to sign an said would return half, I still think that is still unfair then the bad part is that I called and they said that we donot know when we will cut you a check that is not a good way of doing buniess. I was never late on a pament and I kept my word and mayed all of my pament on time and with all respect I think that [they] should do the same. Thank you

Nora of Munith MI (09/16/08)On their promise they could indeed help us and after they received their payment in full, they did absolutely nothing.I would have to call for 3 or 4 days just to talk to someone and then the IRS agent told us they were not doing anything to help us but it was almost too late.

We were told we were going to lose everything we had.We have to sell our things just to get by. My husband medical problems have also escalated.He is diabetic and because of the stress can’t control his blood sugar.

Richard of Mead CO (09/16/08)Called JKH to help with taxes. Met at office in Boulder,Co. Started paying 100.00 a month back in April 7th, 2007 with a $500.00 down payment. Balance of $1500.00 total. In December 2007 I needed to pay the IRS so that I can close on my new house. I called JKH and told them what I had to do. They said they would send me a refund minus administrative costs.

March 2008 I recieved this letter from JKH stating my refund. That they will be sending it in 90 to 120 days just sign this letter and send it back. Here it is Sept. 16th, 2008 and everytime I call they give me this number that goes directly to an answering machine. Help!
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Wendy of Monrovia CA (09/12/08)I originally signed up with JK Harris by meeting with a representative at a local office. He went over all my information and told me that he could get my IRS and FTB debts down to about $7500 each, which as considerably lower than what I owed. I was eager to get this resolved so I signed up with JK Harris. The fee was about $4800 to resolve the tax liability. I had some cash problems, but in July 2007 I paid JK Harris in full.

On July 13, 2007 I received an e-mail from Melissa stating that they had received all my paperwork and a case specialist would be getting in touch with me. Upon speaking to the case specialist a week or so later, he told me he had all the information he needed and he was preparing my offer in compromise. At this time I owed approximately $120,000 to the IRS and approximately $19,000 to the FTB. (Taxes for 2002 thru 2004 had already been paid to the FTB by liens on my home and my bank accounts. JK Harris did nothing to stop the liens!)
I did not receive the offer in compromise from the case specialist and when I called to follow up I was told that he was no longer in the department and the information he gave me was incorrect and I would be assigned a new case specialist. In September 2007 I received a new packet from JK Harris to provide all the information all over again because now the information was outdated. Latasha was assigned as my case specialist.

After months of arguing with this person because she was treating me as though I was the enemy instead of treating me like she was there to help, I have been assigned another case specialist. Now its September 2008 and I finally received my offer of compromise. The offer is to pay the FTB $27,000 lump sum (on a $19,000 debt) and the IRS $21,000 lump sum or $48,000 in payments. My debt to the IRS with interest and penalties has grown to $213,000 because of JK Harris not taking care of this in a timely manner!

In the last year I have lost my home, my job and am deep in debt. I have nothing left. Every time I see a JK Harris commercial, I want to throw up! This company should be put out of business for false advertising! I wish I would have read consumer complaints before I wasted my money!

IRS debt has grown from approximately $120,000 to $213,000 with interest and penalties.

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