Roni Lynn Deutch
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Roni Lynn Deutch (born October 21, 1963) is an American former tax attorney and the founder and president of the Roni Deutch professional tax corporation and tax centers.


Early life and education

Deutch was born in southern
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, on October 21, 1963. At the age of 11, she was the first girl in California to play in an all-boys Little League team. Deutch obtained a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Pre-Law and Ethnic Studies from the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from
Western State University College of Law Western State College of Law at Westcliff University is a private, for-profit law school in Irvine, California. Founded in 1966, it was acquired by Westcliff University in 2019. It offers full and part-time programs and is approved by the Amer ...
, and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of the Pacific,
McGeorge School of Law University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law is a private, American Bar Association (ABA)-approved law school in the Oak Park neighborhood of the city of Sacramento, California. It is part of the University of the Pacific and is located on ...
. She was a member of the
State Bar of California The State Bar of California is an administrative division of the Supreme Court of California which licenses attorneys and regulates the practice of law in California. It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law ...
and the Sacramento County Bar Association.


Career

In 1991, Deutch launched her law office in a one-bedroom condominium in
Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
, California and in 2004, the firm was incorporated. She then launched her own retail tax preparation company in 2006 and one year later, she created RDTC, Inc., her tax preparation franchise company, and began selling retail tax preparation franchises under the name "Roni Deutch Tax Center." In 2009, Entrepreneur.com listed Roni Deutch Tax Center as one of the fastest growing franchise companies in the country. There are currently around 80 Roni Deutch Tax Center locations in 23 U.S. states, with a concentration in California,
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
, and
Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
. The national headquarters are in Sacramento. The Professional Tax Corporation focuses on resolving U.S. federal tax issues for people who have problems with the
Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...
(IRS). The firm's specialty is facilitating settlements in the IRS programs
Offer in Compromise The Offer in Compromise (OIC) program, in the United States, is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program under , which allows qualified individuals with an unpaid tax debt to negotiate a settled amount that is less than the total owed to clear the ...
,
Installment Agreement An Instalment Agreement is a United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program that allows individuals to pay tax debt in monthly payments. There IRS has several different kinds of Instalment Agreements; ''Guaranteed'', ''Streamline'', ''Parti ...
, and Currently Not Collectible. Deutch is a frequent columnist and television show guest on matters of taxation and personal finance. She is also the author of ''The Tax Lady's Guide to Beating the IRS and Saving Big Bucks on Your Taxes''. Her second book, ''Surviving the Coming Tax Disaster'', was published in October 2010. Deutch also keeps a blog focusing on fiscal issues as well as her hobbies of baseball and surfing. In 2010, she worked with a SIMZ Productions, a Sacramento-based production company, to film a documentary, "Death or Taxes". The film focuses in on the American taxation system and several stories of individual taxpayers who when overwhelmed by the debt and IRS collection tactics, took drastic steps - including even
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
- in response. It was received by multiple film festivals and won awards at the Los Angeles Movie Awards and Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood in 2010 and 2011.


Law practice closed

On May 12, 2011, Deutch announced that she was closing her law practice and that she would be surrendering her license to practice law. The California State Bar announced that it was conducting an investigation of Deutch. She denied allegations made against her by the State of California. Deutch formally resigned from the California State Bar on May 20, 2011, after the State Bar Court recommended that she be disbarred. Deutch is no longer eligible to practice law.


Controversy

New York City Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) brought a lawsuit charging Deutch with misleading advertisements that allegedly fail to include key eligibility requirements in order to resolve back taxes with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under its
Offer in Compromise The Offer in Compromise (OIC) program, in the United States, is an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program under , which allows qualified individuals with an unpaid tax debt to negotiate a settled amount that is less than the total owed to clear the ...
program. The Offer in Compromise program enables taxpayers to resolve debts by entering into an agreement with the IRS for reduced payments, in which a majority of people do not qualify – a fact allegedly not evident in the Deutch advert. In 2006, she agreed to pay $300,000 to settle the lawsuit for deceptive advertising practices. A total of $200,000 was apportioned to affected victims of her deceptive practices, and $100,000 in fines. On August 23, 2010, the office of the
Attorney General of California The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the government of California. The officer must ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" ( Constitution of California, Article V, Section 13). ...
announced that it would be filing a $34 million lawsuit against Deutch for allegedly "orchestrating a 'heartless scheme' that swindled thousands of people facing serious and expensive tax collection problems with the IRS." Roni Deutch responded to the charges by stating
California Attorney General The attorney general of California is the state attorney general of the government of California. The officer must ensure that "the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced" (Constitution of California, Article V, Section 13). The ...
Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...
is "engaging in election year politics" (Brown was running for governor in the November 2010 election at the time of the lawsuit, an election he ended up winning) and that she intends to fight the lawsuit. A court in California has frozen all the assets of Roni Deutch. The "tax lady" as she was known and her company were sued for $34 million by several attorneys general. In April 2011, the California attorney general's office asked a court to hold Roni Deutch in contempt of court and to imprison her for shredding millions of documents and withdrawing money to pay other outstanding debts. In May 2011, her attorney asked to be removed from the case because of nonpayment. Prosecutors state that instead of repaying creditors and former clients, per a recent court order, Deutch withdrew $241,000 from bank accounts and used that money for personal expenses, meanwhile failing to make the $435,000 repayment to the victims of her alleged fraud. On August 7, 2015, the Office of Attorney General announced a settlement of the civil and criminal actions against Deutch. Per the terms of the settlement, the state of California withdrew its criminal contempt of court charges and dismissed its civil lawsuit. In exchange, Deutch agreed to pay a fine of $2.5 million and perform 350 hours of volunteer work.


Disbarment

On July 27, 2017 Deutsch was disbarred by the California State Bar in a default proceeding.


References


External links


About The Tax Lady - Roni Deutch

Roni Deutch: The Tax Lady Blog, personal blog of Roni Deutch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deutch, Roni Lynn Living people American lawyers Tax lawyers American women lawyers 1963 births University of California, Berkeley alumni 21st-century American women