Is Optima Tax Relief Legit? Trustpilot, BBB, & Glassdoor Reviews

We read hundreds of reviews from Yelp, BBB, and Glassdoor to answer one question: Is Optima Tax Relief legit? Find out now.

If you owe money to the IRS and have looked into the best tax debt relief companies, you’ve probably heard about Optima Tax Relief by now and are wondering if they’re really legit.

📘 Read our Optima Tax Relief review to get a full picture of their services and what they can do for you.

On the surface, they look good.

They seem to be one of the only tax relief companies getting consistently great reviews and good press.

For example, Optima boasts the following:

• 5-star average rating on Supermoney.com
• Ranked #1 in the financial services community by INC 500
• A+ rating in BBB

 So, here’s what we did for you:

We went out and searched for reviews of Optima Tax Relief to find out what the actual reviews are saying.  We searched for the good, bad, and ugly. We left no stone unturned – and even looked at reviews on Ripoff Report to get the full picture.

In summary, we found that Optima Tax Relief has (by far) the best reviews of any tax relief company we could find online.  Their employees also rave about working there. But we also found some critical reviews, especially on Ripoff Report.  There’s a story behind every good and bad review, but we’ve done our best to show you:

• What actual clients say about Optima (positive and negative)
• Optima’s ratings & reviews at BBB, Trustpilot, Glassdoor, and more
• How Optima stacks up against their competitors

Let’s dive in with employee reviews.

You always know what you’re going to get when you go to complaint sites… you’re gonna get complaints. But you can gain some great insight into a company by seeing what their employees say.

Glassdoor Reviews of Optima Tax Relief

Reading Glassdoor reviews can give you an inside look at the company. Current and former employees use the site to leave their anonymous opinion about what it’s like to work there.

After all, wouldn’t you want to hire a company that treats their employees with respect?

The company has 4.4 out of 5 stars on Glassdoor, based on 494 anonymous reviews. 88% would recommend Optima to a friend, and a whopping 93% of reviewers approve of the CEO.

Here’s what else employees say about working at Optima:

I have been working at Optima Tax Relief full-time (More than 3 years). Excellent Pay! Benefits and a Happy Healthy Atmosphere to be a part of.

A Senior Tax Associate

Optima has an amazing work culture; the company is always striving to boost office morale. Optima believes in keeping their employees happy so that they can keep the clients happy.

A Resolution Specialist

They really like to promote within, lots of company events, Great CEO, great atmosphere

A member of the Documents Associate Team in California

Let’s move on to BBB.

BBB Reviews of Optima Tax Relief

The Better Business Bureau has accredited Optima since 2012. The BBB has even given them an A+ rating, which is the highest rating a company can get.

Now to frame Optima’s success on BBB, we need to start by saying that BBB (like Yelp or Ripoff Report) is largely a place where people go to leave complaints rather than compliments.

It’s very common for a company to have MORE complaints than reviews.

For example, Anthem Tax Services, another popular tax relief provider, has 191 total reviews on BBB but has 97 complaints. In other words, they have about 1.9 complaints for every 1 review.… And Anthem is a solid company.

Comparatively, Optima blows Anthem away.

As for Optima’s customer reviews, they have 4.38 out of 5 stars based on over 2,110 reviews. They also receive almost 4x as many reviews as complaints.

Here’s a couple of great reviews Optima received on the BBB site:

Length of time from start to finish is quite long. Anxiety grows as agents work on the case. Agents are very responsive to calls, email & faxes. Outcome was very good.

Joyce

They are truly the best. I was one of those thinking ok, ok – I hear the radio commercials, but are they really going to help me? I will have to say after a few months, I can say they have, thanks to the entire team.

dah0301

Optima also has some critical reviews, but if you read them, you’ll see that many of the clients came to Optima with unrealistic expectations.

For example, one user complained that he hired Optima to reduce the amount he owed the IRS, but Optima was unsuccessful, and now he owed more to the IRS than before, since interest and penalties had been incurred.

This is the typical complaint against Optima.

But to be fair, Optima states on their website that they are not able to guarantee a reduction in what clients owe the IRS.  They can help you get your ducks in a row (such as getting current on unfiled taxes and filing the necessary forms to the IRS), but they can’t guarantee you’ll always end up getting a reduction.

Tax debt relief isn’t magic. No company can simply make debts to the IRS go away.

It’s very common for people to mess up the filing, and that’s why you go to a company like Optima.

☝️ So our recommendation is that if you do business with Optima, you understand what they’re good at doing as well as their limitations going in.

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Ripoff Report Reviews of Optima Tax Relief

Ripoff Report is a privately-owned website that’s been around since 1998. The reviews are uncensored and anonymous.

The site doesn’t ask for anything but an email address to leave your opinion, which can make the reviews a little controversial.

Plus, Ripoff Report doesn’t look into any of the claims – so there’s no telling if the reviews are real or not.

But, all that aside, here’s what people are saying about Optima on Ripoff Report:

Optima Tax Relief is a ripped off. I pay 500 dollars for the first step, and they do anything for me. I owe IRS 12000 dollars and they did not decrease my payment.

A review from 2019

Optima Tax Relief had me pay them 1000 dollars and did nothing for me.

A review from 2014

We’re not dismissing Optima in this review, but the only thing you’re going to find at Ripoff Report are negative comments.  I think it’s better to go to a company like BBB to get a better picture of what’s really going on. The vast majority of users are happy with Optima’s service.

Optima Complaints: Are They a Rip Off?

There are a lot of tax scams out there. That’s why it’s essential to read online reviews! But here’s the kicker: Make sure you’re getting reviews from a reputable site.

Some sites let anyone leave a review. That’s why the BBB is so powerful… They connect reviewers with the company to help them resolve any problems.

Here’s one example:

Aaron D gave Optima a one-star review on the BBB site:

Do not use this company! They are crooks. Soaked me for over 13k, over five years. I spent a week and got on a payment plan with the IRS myself! Optima was fired yesterday! They wanted another 5k out of me. No, I don’t think so. If you want me to remove this BBB review, then refund every dollar is spent, and I’ll consider it.

Aaron D

But Optima tried to help Aaron. Here’s their response:

Upon receiving your review, we’ve been diligently trying to locate you in our system, but your review didn’t provide enough identifiable information to locate you. We welcome you to call (800) 965-3192 to speak with one of our QA Specialists, whenever you are ready. We will be more than happy to speak with you directly about your concerns. We truly hope you provide us with an opportunity to turn your experience around, and we are looking forward to hearing from you.

Optima Tax Relief

Quick Tip: Once you start an installment plan, you will have a harder time qualifying for a debt reduction request later.  We recommend you speak to an expert to see if you qualify for tax relief first.

Trustpilot Reviews of Optima Tax Relief

Trustpilot is another online review site that you can count on. So, what do they say about Optima Tax Relief?

For starters, Optima has 4.6 out of 5 stars from 2,599 reviews on Trustpilot.

Optima Tax Relief did an amazing job making sure my tax issues were solved correctly.

Ashley

Even though Robert gave Optima just one star, here’s what he had to say:

I’m very pleased with the results of what they have done for me. I would recommend them to anyone that needs help with tax problems.

Robert

And Jamario was pleased, too. Here’s what he said:

It was a lot of steps, but overall they were consistent and helped me with everything I needed help with.  Thanks, Optima Tax.

Jamario

The Verdict: Is Optima Tax Relief Legit?

If you owe the IRS, you need a way out. Instead of letting the worry and anxiety ruin your life, try a free consultation with Optima Tax Relief. There’s no obligation, so there’s nothing to lose.

They won’t be able to fix your problem overnight. They can’t guarantee that your tax debt will be reduced (nobody can).

But they’ll give you peace of mind and work to get your tax issues resolved when you’re in over your head in debt to the IRS.

Get Tax Help Now

Learn what Optima Tax Relief can do for you