problem with an accountant

[jgoda]

What is the name of your state? florida
Hi, I have a small problem with an accountant during the last tax filing period. So my relative recommended this accountant and I asked him to look at my parents' income tax paper to see how much they can get back. We only talked over the phone and I scanned and emailed him all the paperwork. He told me he charged a fee and I verbally agreed to it. However, after he sent me his work (didn't submit to the IRS yet), I discovered that he made a mistake that would cost my parents more so I redid the whole thing and emailed him and asked him if he can reduce his fee since I am unhappy with how he rushed through the work, and that I would be better off just do it myself. He never answered my email and ignored my phone calls and messages. So I just redid the whole thing and submitted it myself to the IRS.

That was like March and today I got a bill from his tax company for the fee plus a late fee. I mean the amount is not terribly huge but I must admit i am very frustrated by the experience. But I am really trying to calm down and be objective here. I mean I knew I agreed to a verbal agreement but do I have any right at all if the service is not up to par? I don't expect him to waive the fee but i feel i can at least ask for a reduction. Because with him being unresponsive as he was, if that mistake slipped by, we probably can't even get him to correct it later on.

I hope for some guidance on how to best approach the matter. Maybe I am just so caught up in the matter and just being unreasonable. Many thanks for reading my post.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Verbal contracts for services are enforceable, but you also have the right to expect a good job on the work you contracted for, too. The one mistake, however, does not mean that he is not entitled to be paid for the rest of the work that was done properly. I suggest you respond to the bill in writing stating that based on the work that was actually done by him that was accurate you are willing to pay $X immediately upon written confirmation from him that he will accept that as full payment for the services rendered and that otherwise you'll be happy to contest the matter in court. He'll likely jump at the offer of getting the money now, especially if you offer most of the fee charged, rather than incurring the costs and time to litigate it with an uncertain outcome.

 

[ALawyer]

One thing to add to Taxing Matters' fine reply. I too would try to negotiate the amount down but recognize that if you can't work out an acceptable resolution, the accounting firm may just send the matter to a collection agency, and the result could be a very negative mark on your credit history that would lower your FICO and similar credit scores. In the end, if you plan on getting a loan or mortgage in the next few years, the negative impact the dispute could have on your credit score might impact your eligibility for credit or result in being charged higher rates of interest and thus cost you much more than the accountant is demanding.

 

[adjusterjack]

He never answered my email and ignored my phone calls and messages. So I just redid the whole thing and submitted it myself to the IRS.

You made the mistake of assuming nothing was going to come of it when you should have been pro-active back then. If somebody doesn't respond to your calls and emails you pay him a personal visit to discuss and resolve the matter.

How much of a difference would it have cost your parents if the mistake had not been noticed?

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? florida
Hi, I have a small problem with an accountant during the last tax filing period. So my relative recommended this accountant and I asked him to look at my parents' income tax paper to see how much they can get back. We only talked over the phone and I scanned and emailed him all the paperwork. He told me he charged a fee and I verbally agreed to it. However, after he sent me his work (didn't submit to the IRS yet), I discovered that he made a mistake that would cost my parents more so I redid the whole thing and emailed him and asked him if he can reduce his fee since I am unhappy with how he rushed through the work, and that I would be better off just do it myself. He never answered my email and ignored my phone calls and messages. So I just redid the whole thing and submitted it myself to the IRS.

That was like March and today I got a bill from his tax company for the fee plus a late fee. I mean the amount is not terribly huge but I must admit i am very frustrated by the experience. But I am really trying to calm down and be objective here. I mean I knew I agreed to a verbal agreement but do I have any right at all if the service is not up to par? I don't expect him to waive the fee but i feel i can at least ask for a reduction. Because with him being unresponsive as he was, if that mistake slipped by, we probably can't even get him to correct it later on.

I hope for some guidance on how to best approach the matter. Maybe I am just so caught up in the matter and just being unreasonable. Many thanks for reading my post.

I am a tax professional. Our firm does not charge a client unless we actually are submitting a tax return to the IRS or have done some other action to resolve a problem with the IRS or the state taxing authority. There could be exceptions to that but it would be based on odd situations.

If we frustrated a client to the point that they took their documents and went elsewhere we certainly would not attempt to charge them for the work that we had done.

However not all tax firms would follow our procedures and its not unreasonable, in some situations, that someone would be held accountable for some fees if a client walked away.

Based on what you have said here, my personal opinion is that the tax professional you went to should not be charging you anything. However, if there is any information you omitted my opinion could change.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Based on what you have said here, my personal opinion is that the tax professional you went to should not be charging you anything.

That is a belief on what you think the accountant should charge based on how your firm is set up to operate, the fee agreements it uses, and its policy on such things. You may well believe that your firm's approach is the best and thus ought to be the one that every firm should adopt. But I'm sure you know as well as I do that firms in fact differ rather significantly in how they operate and what they charge. Different firms will have different operations, different fee agreements, and policies.

For my own part, without seeing the work the accountant did and what this alleged error was, I certainly cannot say that the accountant should walk away with nothing. I don't have enough information here to make that judgment call.

With that mind, what I want to emphasize for jgoda is that, views of what the accountant should charge notwithstanding, what he/she is legally obligated to pay depends on the contract jgoda had with the accountant and what work the accountant actually did.

 

[LdiJ]

That is a belief on what you think the accountant should charge based on how your firm is set up to operate, the fee agreements it uses, and its policy on such things. You may well believe that your firm's approach is the best and thus ought to be the one that every firm should adopt. But I'm sure you know as well as I do that firms in fact differ rather significantly in how they operate and what they charge. Different firms will have different operations, different fee agreements, and policies.

For my own part, without seeing the work the accountant did and what this alleged error was, I certainly cannot say that the accountant should walk away with nothing. I don't have enough information here to make that judgment call.

With that mind, what I want to emphasize for jgoda is that, views of what the accountant should charge notwithstanding, what he/she is legally obligated to pay depends on the contract jgoda had with the accountant and what work the accountant actually did.

I did say that my opinion could change if there were any facts omitted. However, I don't think that any professional, in any field, should be paid for faulty work.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

I am a tax professional. Our firm does not charge a client unless we actually are submitting a tax return to the IRS or have done some other action to resolve a problem with the IRS or the state taxing authority. There could be exceptions to that but it would be based on odd situations.

If we frustrated a client to the point that they took their documents and went elsewhere we certainly would not attempt to charge them for the work that we had done.

However not all tax firms would follow our procedures and its not unreasonable, in some situations, that someone would be held accountable for some fees if a client walked away.

Based on what you have said here, my personal opinion is that the tax professional you went to should not be charging you anything. However, if there is any information you omitted my opinion could change.

I can come and have you complete my taxes, hand them all back, submit them myself and not pay you? PM me your firms contact info it will save me some math next spring.

 

[LdiJ]

I can come and have you complete my taxes, hand them all back, submit them myself and not pay you? PM me your firms contact info it will save me some math next spring.

We wouldn't give you the actual return to submit. We would give you back your documents (W2s, 1099s, 1098s etc.), but not the actual return. We are not unusual in that respect either.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

We wouldn't give you the actual return to submit. We would give you back your documents (W2s, 1099s, 1098s etc.), but not the actual return. We are not unusual in that respect either.

Then how am I going to know if your work is faulty and I don't need to pay you? Should I bring my other accountant to your office or sit and recalculate the whole thing myself?

 

[LdiJ]

Then how am I going to know if your work is faulty and I don't need to pay you? Should I bring my other accountant to your office or sit and recalculate the whole thing myself?

Because we would go over the return with you. There is also very little that is manually calculated these days. In addition, if we seriously botch a return that we have already been paid for, we refund the fees they paid us.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

Because we would go over the return with you. There is also very little that is manually calculated these days. In addition, if we seriously botch a return that we have already been paid for, we refund the fees they paid us.

Then your policy really may not be a lot different than the accountant the OP used. The only difference is the OP's may or may not have received an email.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I did say that my opinion could change if there were any facts omitted. However, I don't think that any professional, in any field, should be paid for faulty work.

The time spent doing the faulty work should not be paid for. But I think that all the competently done work is fair for the accountant to charge for. That's what I'd do, unless the error rendered everything else useless. Here, though, that would not have been the case. The return error was easily correctable. The problem though is that for some reason there became a communication issue between them, and not knowing the details of that I cannot say what the account ought to get paid for here. From the sound of it, though, the OP didn't give the accountant the opportunity to fix it. The OP responded to the mistake by immediately asking for a fee reduction and telling the accountant that the OP felt like he/she ought to just complete the work himself/herself, indicating that the OP didn't want the accountant to work on it further.

 

[jgoda]

oh i didn't ignore the accountant. he ignored me. Anyways I got it taken care of. Thank you so much everybody!