Bankruptcy for TaxMasters, an IRS foe

Bankruptcy filing by TaxMasters puts focus on its aggressive ads. The Houston firm filed for bankruptcy after Texas' attorney general sued it for misleading advertising, .

|
Larry Downing/Reuters/File
Attorney General of Texas Greg Abbott, shown here in a 2005 file photo in Washington, has sued Houston firm TaxMasters for misleading ads. This week, TaxMasters filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

TaxMasters Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection following a legal challenge from Texas prosecutors who say the company's famed TV commercials mislead potential customers.

The Houston-based tax resolution company filed Chapter 11 reorganization documents in federal court on Sunday.

The filing says TaxMasters has assets of less than $50,000 and estimated liabilities of $1 million to $10 million.

Company founder and president Patrick Cox fronts the company's national advertising campaign.

KHOU-TV says Texas is suing TaxMasters for violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. It says TaxMaster commercials encourage people to call for a free consultation with a tax specialist but the calls are answered by salespeople unqualified to provide tax advice.

A TaxMasters spokesman and attorney did not immediately respond to calls for comment Monday.

RELATED: Do you need tax software? Five questions to ask.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Bankruptcy for TaxMasters, an IRS foe
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0319/Bankruptcy-for-TaxMasters-an-IRS-foe
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe