Tax preparer still hasn't filed my tax returns

[debodun]

What is the name of your state? New York

In mid-February, I brought my 1099s (pension, SSI, and several interest statements) to my usual tax preparer whom I've been going to for many years. He fills out the Federal and State tax forms, then mails me copies with a document to sign. I sign it and return it to him with a check for his fee, then he e-files.

When April 1st came and I had not received anything from him, which is very unusual, I sent an email to him. The reply was: "XXX is in process of completing the return. Please be patient and know that he is working hard to accommodate all of his clients. We appreciate your patience.”

After another week without hearing from him, I went to his home office on April 9th and indicated that I was becoming concerned about my taxes. His first comment was to the effect that he was concerned that I was concerned. He further added that since I was due to receive a refund (and he indicated the amount), there is virtually no deadline to file and that he had filed for an extension for all his clients on April 1st. Then I inquired why was it taking so long this year when last year he had completed my return by the end of February. His exact words were “Some years are like that.” He added that he would return my 1099s to me then, but, “they are in another room”, like this prevented him returning them to me. Then his phone rang, so I left his office.

I then sent two subsequent emails on April 13th and 23rd. The replies to these closely reiterated what the first one had. I have retained all email correspondence with his office.

It is now early May and still have not received my tax documents and I am now in the process of getting replacement 1099s.

My questions are:

1) If he knows I am due a refund and the amount, this means he has done the return, so why is he sitting on it? (Any theories on my part are conjecture – i.e. he misplaced my 1099s, he has more clients this year, he is having a problem with his computer software or hardware, or some personal reason I don't know).

2) What is my best course of action at this point? (i.e. What would happen if I had someone else e-file once I receive all my 1099s? Should I continue to wait on him?)

 

[Taxing Matters]

1) If he knows I am due a refund and the amount, this means he has done the return, so why is he sitting on it?

You will need to ask him. He's the only one who knows. My guess is that he was mostly done but hadn't yet finished it off and once he determined it was a refund return he turned his attention to the many other clients that he had to try to at least ensure they don’t get penalized for late filing. If that is what happened, that's a hallmark of a guy whose business mostly or entirely filing individual returns and thus he takes on many more clients than he can complete by 4/17 but that he can at least finish off by 10/15, giving him a lot more income at the cost of making clients wait for months to get their returns filed. In my view that is not acceptable practice but a number of return prep people operate that way.

2) What is my best course of action at this point?

You either wait for him to get yours done or you get it done some other way and file. If you do the latter you likely will not get back whatever you paid this guy to prepare the return, and if you have not paid him yet you may find he still wants to get paid for the work he already put into it. Next time you hire a return preparer, especially one whose only business is preparing returns and does not do any other part of tax practice, get a commitment in writing that the return will be done no later than April 15 (or whatever other date you agree upon) and make sure that is part of your contract with the preparer.

 

[LdiJ]

You will need to ask him. He's the only one who knows. My guess is that he was mostly done but hadn't yet finished it off and once he determined it was a refund return he turned his attention to the many other clients that he had to try to at least ensure they don’t get penalized for late filing. If that is what happened, that's a hallmark of a guy whose business mostly or entirely filing individual returns and thus he takes on many more clients than he can complete by 4/17 but that he can at least finish off by 10/15, giving him a lot more income at the cost of making clients wait for months to get their returns filed. In my view that is not acceptable practice but a number of return prep people operate that way.

I agree that it is not an acceptable practice. I do not even understand why it takes months to complete returns when preparers take on more business than they can handle in a timely manner. Its as if once April 15-17 has passed that they don't work more than 2 hours a day at best.

You either wait for him to get yours done or you get it done some other way and file. If you do the latter you likely will not get back whatever you paid this guy to prepare the return, and if you have not paid him yet you may find he still wants to get paid for the work he already put into it. Next time you hire a return preparer, especially one whose only business is preparing returns and does not do any other part of tax practice, get a commitment in writing that the return will be done no later than April 15 (or whatever other date you agree upon) and make sure that is part of your contract with the preparer.

Or, you could use a different style of tax professional. There are many out there who will prepare returns while you are present and available to answer questions. It generally does not take more than an hour of so of your time and you walk out with the guarantee that your return is done and filed.

 

[Dandy Don]

Do some research on the background of this individual by looking up his name and his business name online to see whether or not there are other complaints. Look up his name on county court civil cases to see if he has faced criminal charges in the present or in the past. Is there information on the Better Business Bureau about him?

Is he a self-employed accountant working for his own company or does he work for a tax preparation company that has a national brand name?
One red flag I noticed is that you mentioned he sent you "copies" (of your tax return)--in my experience, the individual for whom the taxes have been prepared should have signed an original form, with the copies being given to you to keep in your files. Another thing is that he should have been able to give you some type of confirmation number or receipt number to verify that he had submitted the return electronically. You can still ask him for this and if he blows you off or gives a vague, unbelievable excuse, I would doubt his veracity or I would wonder if he is hiding something.

The document you signed--was it a fee agreement for using his services? Is there any language in the document that discusses whether he would make himself available to personally accompany you or that he would visit with the IRS himself if your return was ever audited?

What you can do right now is to visit the www.irs.gov website and find out the telephone number for you to call where you can check on the status of your refund. I don't remember exactly how it works, but I think you can input your SSN and they can tell you an estimate of how long it may be before your refund will be issued. That way you will find out if the return has been submitted or not.

I saw a news story that mentioned that the IRS will take longer than normal to issue refunds this year because of identity theft and because their software is so antiquated that they can not meet the overwhelming workload demands of inputting so many returns.

Do NOT submit a second return until you have discussed the aspects of doing so with a different tax professional or by looking at the IRS website to see what their instructions/opinions/considerations are for a taxpayer to do that.

It may be time for you to consider using a different tax preparer next year.

 

[debodun]

Thank you for the replies. To answer Dandy Don - this preparer is self-employed and has an office in his home. He came highly recommended to me. I had made a mistake on my 2002 return that, once penalties and interest accrued, I ended up owing $40K. I mentioned it to someone at work and she said to go to this guy. He did get me off the hook, so I've been going to him since then. One thing I didn't like was that he made me give him a POA before he would work for me.

The believe the document I sign is permission for him to act in my behalf. I send it back to him and I do not have a copy in my possession, so I cannot say for any certainty what other terms it contains. This method has worked between us for the past 15 years.

I've been through the IRS and they weren't much help. They would only say that any issues are between me and my preparer. They can't force him to submit my return and I cannot check on my refund status until he submits it.

I looked on the BBB website. He is not listed under tax consultants or CPAs.

I did consult with another self-employed CPA, but his one works in a rented office in a small strip mall. However, she would not help me because I had already submitted my documents to the other one. There's an H & R Block office locally, but it's just a small satellite office and they close 10 business days after the tax deadline.

It's my feeling that rattling my original CPA's chain further will not be productive since the first one wasn't. And I do believe he has lost one client because of procrastination. Talk about withholding!

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Is this preparer a CPA. You call him both a CPA and a Preparer. They aren't the same thing.

 

[debodun]

He is a CPA and he does my taxes.

 

[LdiJ]

Do some research on the background of this individual by looking up his name and his business name online to see whether or not there are other complaints. Look up his name on county court civil cases to see if he has faced criminal charges in the present or in the past. Is there information on the Better Business Bureau about him?

Is he a self-employed accountant working for his own company or does he work for a tax preparation company that has a national brand name?
One red flag I noticed is that you mentioned he sent you "copies" (of your tax return)--in my experience, the individual for whom the taxes have been prepared should have signed an original form, with the copies being given to you to keep in your files. Another thing is that he should have been able to give you some type of confirmation number or receipt number to verify that he had submitted the return electronically. You can still ask him for this and if he blows you off or gives a vague, unbelievable excuse, I would doubt his veracity or I would wonder if he is hiding something.

The document you signed--was it a fee agreement for using his services? Is there any language in the document that discusses whether he would make himself available to personally accompany you or that he would visit with the IRS himself if your return was ever audited?

What you can do right now is to visit the www.irs.gov website and find out the telephone number for you to call where you can check on the status of your refund. I don't remember exactly how it works, but I think you can input your SSN and they can tell you an estimate of how long it may be before your refund will be issued. That way you will find out if the return has been submitted or not.

I saw a news story that mentioned that the IRS will take longer than normal to issue refunds this year because of identity theft and because their software is so antiquated that they can not meet the overwhelming workload demands of inputting so many returns.

Do NOT submit a second return until you have discussed the aspects of doing so with a different tax professional or by looking at the IRS website to see what their instructions/opinions/considerations are for a taxpayer to do that.

It may be time for you to consider using a different tax preparer next year.

Just as an FYI, the delay in releasing refunds only applied to the beginning of the tax season....after that the standard 10-14 days applied for returns electronically filed with a direct deposit of the refund was just the same as always.

 

[LdiJ]

Thank you for the replies. To answer Dandy Don - this preparer is self-employed and has an office in his home. He came highly recommended to me. I had made a mistake on my 2002 return that, once penalties and interest accrued, I ended up owing $40K. I mentioned it to someone at work and she said to go to this guy. He did get me off the hook, so I've been going to him since then. One thing I didn't like was that he made me give him a POA before he would work for me.

The believe the document I sign is permission for him to act in my behalf. I send it back to him and I do not have a copy in my possession, so I cannot say for any certainty what other terms it contains. This method has worked between us for the past 15 years.

I've been through the IRS and they weren't much help. They would only say that any issues are between me and my preparer. They can't force him to submit my return and I cannot check on my refund status until he submits it.

I looked on the BBB website. He is not listed under tax consultants or CPAs.

I did consult with another self-employed CPA, but his one works in a rented office in a small strip mall. However, she would not help me because I had already submitted my documents to the other one. There's an H & R Block office locally, but it's just a small satellite office and they close 10 business days after the tax deadline.

It's my feeling that rattling my original CPA's chain further will not be productive since the first one wasn't. And I do believe he has lost one client because of procrastination. Talk about withholding!

There is nothing stopping a tax professional from helping you just because you submitted your documents to another tax professional. Its too bad that the second CPA was unwilling to help you. Look for tax offices that are open year round. You will find someone willing to file your return despite the fact that you have worked with the non performing CPA.

 

[Taxing Matters]

He is a CPA and he does my taxes.

A CPA who takes on too much return prep work during filing season tells me he doesn't have much of a CPA practice, a potential red flag here. He shouldn't need individual return filing work to be the bulk of his practice if he has a good CPA business.

 

[Ohiogal]

I looked on the BBB website. He is not listed under tax consultants or CPAs.

The BBB does not mean anything for whether or not he is a tax consultant or CPA. All it means is he is not a member. No one has to be a member of the BBB.

 

[Dandy Don]

The fact that he has a POA from you is another red flag. He hasn't even explained to you why he needs a POA? And you should be sending him a letter signed by you that cancels the POA. I've never heard of anyone asking for payment upfront before you receive your refund--most places will defer a payment and then deduct their payment when your refund has been issued.

Stop being scared of offending him--you are the client and you are the one with the right to demand answers to any questions you have.

Ask him today to please send you an electronic confirmation that your return has been submitted. If he has not done so within a few days and still can not provide an adequate explanation of why the delay is occurring, that should be cause for concern for you.

 

[Zigner]

I've never heard of anyone asking for payment upfront before you receive your refund...

Actually, that's a very common practice. Heck, even H&R Block offers either way as an option.

What happens to the folks who don't get refunds...?

 

[LdiJ]

The fact that he has a POA from you is another red flag. He hasn't even explained to you why he needs a POA? And you should be sending him a letter signed by you that cancels the POA. I've never heard of anyone asking for payment upfront before you receive your refund--most places will defer a payment and then deduct their payment when your refund has been issued.

Stop being scared of offending him--you are the client and you are the one with the right to demand answers to any questions you have.

Ask him today to please send you an electronic confirmation that your return has been submitted. If he has not done so within a few days and still can not provide an adequate explanation of why the delay is occurring, that should be cause for concern for you.

Actually its standard practice to be paid after the return is prepared, but before it is transmitted to the IRS. Yes, there are options for the fees to come out of the refund, but there are extra costs associated with that for the taxpayer so most people will opt to pay up front if they have the money to do so.

I am quite disturbed about the POA also. Yes, if there is an issue then getting a POA can be necessary but its definitely not necessary to have one for every client.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I've never heard of anyone asking for payment upfront before you receive your refund--most places will defer a payment and then deduct their payment when your refund has been issued.

Expecting payment up front, or at least prior to providing the the return to the client or filing the return for the client, is quite common. After all, if the client doesn't get a refund for whatever reason and the return is already filed, the preparer has little leverage left to collect his/her fee. And suing in small claims court for the fee is not cost effective, even assuming that the fee will evetually be collected.