Although taxes have existed since the beginning of human civilization more than six thousand years ago, their form has seen dramatic changes. Whereas the earliest tax collectors collected a portion of a farmer’s harvest and gave it to his lord, tax collectors in the United States today simply collect a portion of a citizen’s annual income. This practice started during the Civil War because Congress could not finance the war without charging income taxes. Although their decision engendered much protest, Congress continued to collect income taxes after the war ended in 1865, and in the early twentieth century, Congress ratified a Constitutional amendment legislating annual income taxes.

Politicians and lawyers have debated these income taxes ever since. Many liberals support these annual income taxes because they fund beloved government programs like Social Security, whereas many conservatives oppose these annual taxes because they infringe upon citizens’ freedom to spend their money as they see fit. (This ideology prompted President George W. Bush to sign a series of tax cuts into law, including the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.) But regardless of their political persuasion, many individuals agree that the tax codes are extremely, and perhaps needlessly, complex. For example, taxpayers who need tax debt relief, tax lien help, IRS debt relief, or back taxes help can ask the IRS to garnish their wages. (The individual can only compromise with the IRS if he or she is ineligible for a compromise based on either a theory of Doubt as to Liability or Doubt as to Collectability. Individuals can only file for these claims if they can demonstrate that they have not disputed other tax liabilities.) IRS garnishment means that the IRS will deduct back taxes from an individual’s wages. Because this practice puts a tax lien, or poor credit score, on an individual’s records, many individuals are looking for ways to remove tax lien from their records.

However, these individuals who want to remove tax lien face many challenges, including firms which only help them to remove tax lien in exchange for outrageous fees. Because many individuals cannot pay these fees to remove tax lien, other firms have stepped in, offering to remove tax lien in exchange for limited fees. Many taxpayers who need to remove tax lien prefer these firms.