About

Taxmaster is the nickname given to Patrick Cox, the founder and spokesperson of now-defunct U.S. tax relief and consulting firm Tax Masters, Inc. Known for appearing in late-night commercials with taglines like “are you being audited?” or “we’ll solve your tax problems,” Cox has been featured in many photoshopped images posted by 4chan users in GET threads.

Origin

The Commercial

In early 2009, Tax Masters began running a series of 30-second spot commercials featuring Patrick Cox, the company's founder and spokesperson. In the commercials, Cox advertises his company as being openly willing to confront the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), claiming that his clients will get respect and fair treatment from the government. For the complete listings of his commercials, visit the company's website.^[1]

On 4chan

In early 2011, an image of Cox photoshopped in the style of the Shoop Da Whoop face began circulating on 4chan's /b/ (random) board, featuring GET instructions like "only quads can kill the tax master." In imageboard slang, a "quad" refers to an event in which the last four digits of a sequential post ID turn up identical (EX:80215555), a relatively rare phenomenon depending on the post cycle.

Spread

On February 11th, 2011, YouTuber J-L Cauvin uploaded a parody of the Tax Masters commercial in which Patrick Cox physically assaults accountants for mistreating his clients (shown below). Within the next three years, the video received over 23,000 views and 50 comments.

On April 1st, FunnyJunk user zeelegoboy submitted a photoshopped picture of the PTSD Clarinet Boy with Cox superimposed in the background (shown below), which garnered more than 15,300 views and 390 up votes in the following two years.

While GET threads (especially on doubles or triples) remain contentious on 4chan as many consider them spam posts, Taxmaster remains a recurring topic on the imageboard as the U.S. Tax Day approaches in mid-April.

Notable Examples

There are numerous versions of the GET image depending on which version of the TaxMaster is "reborn."

Image Macros

Image macros featuring a screen capture of Cox from the Tax Masters commercial have been created on MemeGenerator^[4] and Quickmeme.^[7]

Parodies

Several YouTubers have created remix and parody videos inspired by the Tax Master commercials.

On October 10th, 2010, Saturday Night Live^[6] parodied the Tax Masters commercial in which Cox has the face of his conjoined twin on the side of his head.

Lawsuit & Bankruptcy

On March 14th, 2011, Houston-based tax firm was sued by the Texas' Attorney General on accounts of scamming their customers for thousands of dollars. In March of 2012, ABC News^[5] reported that Tax Masters filed for bankruptcy presumably in an attempt to evade a class action lawsuit filed against the company, albeit unsuccessfully. On March 30th, A Texas jury found that TaxMasters and its founder Patrick Cox used deceptive practices to lure customers and ordered the company to pay $195 million in civil penalties.

Search Interest

External References