Optima Tax Relief vs Origin Tax
Optima Tax Relief and Origin Tax are both top-ranked tax relief companies on BestCompany.com. Both have a minimum debt requirement of $10,000 and offer a variety of tax relief services to clients.
Read on for a more detailed comparison of these two companies, and ultimately learn why we recommend Origin Tax as a top option for customers.
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Overview
Optima Tax Relief
Undisclosed
Undisclosed
Free Consultation, IRS Tax Relief, State Tax Relief, Tax Settlement Negotiation, Individual Tax Preparation
IRS CE Provider, NAEA
12 Years
Origin Tax
$10,000
N/A
Free Consultation, IRS Tax Relief, State Tax Relief, Tax Settlement Negotiation, Individual Tax Preparation, Small Business Tax Preparation, Account Monitoring
AICPA
15 Years
Ratings
Optima Tax Relief
Origin Tax
Reviews
Optima Tax Relief
Reviews
Origin Tax
Reviews for Optima Tax Relief
Helpful Favorable Review
Review Source
Mary Kate F Simpsonville, SC
Optima Tax Relief delivered on everything I expected out of a tax relief company. While Optima is a big name and industry, they value each and every one of their customers, taking the time to work on your case. They also offer competitive prices, with an initial consultation at $295. Finally, they have a variety of resources to help you navigate through tax relief, including an easy to access online portal. Overall impressed with Optima!
6 days ago
Helpful Critical Review
Torrie Warren Norman, OK
So far I am not seeing the light at the end. They effectively put us on an IRS payment plan, which we could have done. That payment plan is taking a lot of money out of our account. We have been doing this for almost 2 years and honestly we could have taken the fee and applied it to the actual IRS balance and knocked it down. I feel like we will end of just paying it off in time since it is literally taking forever.
5 days ago
Reviews for Origin Tax
Helpful Favorable Review
Review Source
Christina Sutu-Wallar Pittsburg, CA
I initially went with origin tax when I had some IRS debt a few years ago. I found them to be very helpful, and insightful on a topic I have and had no idea about. Going through IRS debt can be terrifying, so it’s important you have a company that knows what they are doing!
2 weeks ago
Helpful Critical Review
Katherine Fan Oakland, CA
Unintuitive site, and the worst customer service. I've had nearly 4 incidents with the customer service team that is at best apathetic towards your struggles in filing taxes or helping you understand the process. I'm a customer because my company offered this service for us, but now I realize I'd rather pay to file my tax with another company than subject myself to this service again. I've filed with them two years in a row.
3 weeks ago
The Final Word
Company Experience and Expertise (Winner: Origin Tax)
Origin Tax has been in business for over 15 years, while Optima Tax Relief as a company is about three years younger. We should also note that customers rank Origin Tax near perfect (4.9 out of 5 stars) when it comes to company trustworthiness. This trustworthiness ties to expertise and a company’s ability to successfully help you navigate the world of tax relief.
Optima Tax Relief, by comparison, is ranked 4.3 out of 5 stars for trustworthiness. This is still an impressive feat, especially considering that Optima has over 1,000 more reviews than Origin Tax, so its average star rating is less subject to change.
That being said, because Origin Tax has been in business longer and has the higher trustworthiness score, it wins the company experience and expertise category.
User Experience (Winner: Origin Tax)
User experience with a company is based on a few different factors, including the quality of service provided, the customer support experience, and the overall likelihood of a customer to recommend a company. We’ll break down each of these factors for Origin Tax and Optima Tax Relief.
For quality of service provided, customers give Origin Tax a 4.7 out of 5 star average for quality of service, while Optima customers give the company a 4.3 out of 5. It seems that Origin Tax customers tend to rate the quality of service a bit higher than Optima customers do.
For customer support, the overall sentiment among Origin customers is that the company has extraordinary communication and gives constant updates about the state of each client’s case. Reviewers call the company “life changing” and one reviewer said Origin is “always taking care of [its] clients.” Clearly, the customer experience at Origin Tax is a good one.
Optima Tax reviewers also have positive things to say about the company’s “personable” staff and how the staff stays in good touch with clients. Some customer service complaints mention things like how the company never updated the client’s account and how no one from the company has reached out with any updates. These are frustrating experiences that we see more of with Optima than we do with Origin.
Likelihood to recommend a company is especially important. When clients have positive experiences and want to recommend a company, it means the company really left a good impression and has a stamp of approval from someone who has been through its entire process.
With Origin Tax, the company averages 9.9 out of 10 in terms of likelihood to recommend. Optima Tax is lower, with an average of 8.4 out of 10 when it comes to recommending the company to others.
Origin Tax customers hardly have anything bad to say about the company at all. Its user experience is excellent which is why it wins this category.
Cost (Winner: Hard to Say)
Cost of tax relief services is tricky to compare. Many companies don’t make their pricing structures public, meaning potential clients will need to schedule a consultation with each company they are considering to know how and what they will be charged for services.
We simply don’t have enough information about Origin Tax’s or Optima Tax’s pricing to know which company would win the cost category.
Minimum Debt Requirement (Winner: Tie)
Based on what we know from company representatives, both Origin Tax and Optima Tax Relief have minimum tax debt requirements of $10,000.
Optima Tax Relief or Origin Tax: Which Is Better?
Origin Tax either tied or won each of the categories we compared above. It is an established company with a great reputation, and we feel confident recommending its services.
One note, however, is that while Optima Tax Relief does have more complaints than Origin Tax, Optima also has over 1,500 total reviews and still maintains a 4.4-star average. This is quite the feat. Origin Tax may have a 5-star rating, but this rating is based on fewer than 100 total reviews on our site.
Thus, Origin Tax is the winner of this comparison, but this should be taken with a grain of salt. Both Origin Tax and Optima Tax Relief are reputable tax relief companies, and customers would do well to schedule a consultation with both before making their final decision.
