Optima Tax Relief vs Community Tax

Company Experience and Expertise (Winner: Tie) 

Community Tax and Optima Tax Relief have been in business about the same amount of time. CTAX was founded in 2010 and Optima was founded in 2011. Both of these companies have a decade of experience in the tax relief industry and employ hundreds of professionals to help clients across the country find relief from their tax debt.

When it comes to experience and expertise, we feel comfortable recommending either Community Tax or Optima Tax Relief as a reliable option for you.

User Experience (Winner: Community Tax)

User experience includes things such as website ease of use, quality of service, and likelihood of customers to recommend the company’s services. While we find Optima’s website to be more user-friendly overall, Community Tax wins this category due to its higher scores in both categories: quality of service and likelihood to recommend.

State Availability (Winner: Tie)

As two very established tax relief companies, both Optima and CTAX offer services in all 50 states and hold the necessary certifications to do so. This is always something we like to see in a company, because it shows that the company is aware of how laws and regulations differ by state, and still holds IRS power of attorney across the country.

Cost (Winner: Optima Tax Relief)

Cost is a difficult thing to compare in the tax relief industry because pricing is typically quote based and depends on how much debt you enroll in the company’s program. However, general estimates put Optima at a lower price point than Community Tax for comparable services.

We still recommend getting a quote from both companies, as your individual financial situation might lead to one company offering you a better deal than the other.

Minimum Debt Requirement (Winner: Community Tax)

Community Tax requires only $3,000 in tax debt for you to be eligible for its services. Optima Tax, on the other hand, requires at least $10,000 in tax debt to be eligible to work with the company.

Community Tax clearly wins this category. It has one of the lowest minimum debt requirements we’ve seen in the industry, thus making its services more widely available to those with even small amounts of tax debt.

Optima Tax Relief or Community Tax: Which Is Better?

Overall, we are slightly more impressed with Community Tax due to its positive user experience and low minimum debt requirement. However, both Optima Tax Relief and Community Tax offer quality tax relief services, tax preparation, and tax monitoring to prevent issues. 

Both companies also hire qualified tax experts, including enrolled agents and lawyers. The biggest difference between Optima Tax Relief and Community Tax are their preventive services and minimum debt requirements.

Optima Tax Relief only accepts clients with at least $10,000 of tax debt. Community Tax has a much lower threshold — $3,000. If you have less than $10,000 in tax debt, Optima Tax Relief is not an option for you.

Both Community Tax and Optima Tax Relief offer three plans for preventive tax monitoring. Community Tax’s base plan is free. It includes tax monitoring, quarterly reports, access to discount codes, and comes with the TaxPal mobile app. 

While it’s nice to have access to preventive monitoring for free, Optima Tax Relief’s base plan offers more services, like tax preparation software and identity theft monitoring. If you’re interested in those services, it may be worth it to choose Optima Tax Relief over Community Tax.

Optima Tax Relief also offers two additional protection plans. One is designed for self-employed people and the other for W-2 earners. Community Tax also has two additional plans: one is designed for business owners and the other is designed for individuals. The kind of protection plan you need will affect which company is best for you.