You see all these advertisements on television and on the radio for people who want to help you with your problem and you want to know whom you should trust. The short answer is you want to look for someone specific to your area that you can go and visit with preferably in their office, meet with them personally and let them answer your questions. If, for whatever reason, you can't do that at the very least make sure that you get to speak one on one with the individual who will personally be reviewing your tax problem and representing you because this is a very serious situation. You don't want to be dealing with a different person every time you make a phone call. You want to be dealing with your tax representative and the same person who's going to be representing you in front of the IRS. How can you check out someone before hiring them? If you're talking about an attorney, any attorney, must be licensed before at least one state bar. So you can contact the local bar in your area and find out if that attorney is licensed there and if there are any pending compliance and what that attorney's reputation is. Similarly any business can be checked out in a matter of minutes nowadays online, you can do a Google and you can check out the Better Business Bureau. Definitely take a few minutes to find out who you're hiring before you send them your money.