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My accountant never filed my income taxes!

LankyseanLankysean Registered User regular
So I hired a CPA to file my income taxes this year, I generally do it myself online but this year I bought a house, got married and my wife works out of state. Anyway, we went to the accountant in early March and gave him all our paper work, he said we would call us back in a week or so to let us know what the outcome was. We never heard back, I've called him at least 15 times in the last month and his receptionist only ever says "he will call you back" which he never does. I've gone down to his office twice, once last week and once Monday but he's always at his other office or working for home. Anyway, to make a long story short, we owe money on your income tax and he's never filed an extension or the income taxes themselves so now I'm fairly sure I will face some sort of penalty. I would have just gone somewhere else but he has all my paper work. I tried to call the IRS to tell them the situation but getting a real person on the phone is impossible. Any advice as to what I should do now?

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  • The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    I Am Not A Lawyer, and you should talk to one for sure, but I think what happens between a hired professional (accountant, lawyer, etc) and their clients isn't really the government / IRS's concern. You're ultimately responsible for your own income tax return, whether you hire an accountant or not.

    As an anecdote - and this is in Canada, not the U.S., so you laws may be entirely different / more lenient - I went to H&R Block to have my income tax return filed and they filed it / calculated it improperly, and I got in some (very minor) trouble. When I told them that I had filed through H&R Block, they essentially said, "Tough luck. It's your tax return, and you're responsible for it. If you hire someone else to file it and they screw things up, that's on you,"

    I got off with a warning & a waived penalty, and a lesson learned.


    With Love and Courage
  • localh77localh77 Registered User regular
    Yeah, that kind of sucks. Ender's right, as far as the IRS/states are concerned, it's your ultimate responsibility. So outside of preparer fraud, you're probably out of luck.

    For future reference, though, the automatic extension request for is super easy, it's less than half a page; just print and mail form 4868. If you think you're going to owe and you want to make a payment with the extension, just include a check.

    I wouldn't be surprised if he did file an extension for you, though. I know that all of the returns I haven't gotten to yet have at least been extended.

    But anyway, what he's doing sounds pretty shady. If he doesn't think he'll get to it, he should tell you that. Good luck. For what it's worth, the penalty is based on a percentage of the amount that you end up owing. If the amount you owe is in the hundreds, any penalty will be minimal.

  • LankyseanLankysean Registered User regular
    localh77 wrote: »
    Yeah, that kind of sucks. Ender's right, as far as the IRS/states are concerned, it's your ultimate responsibility. So outside of preparer fraud, you're probably out of luck.

    For future reference, though, the automatic extension request for is super easy, it's less than half a page; just print and mail form 4868. If you think you're going to owe and you want to make a payment with the extension, just include a check.

    I wouldn't be surprised if he did file an extension for you, though. I know that all of the returns I haven't gotten to yet have at least been extended.

    But anyway, what he's doing sounds pretty shady. If he doesn't think he'll get to it, he should tell you that. Good luck. For what it's worth, the penalty is based on a percentage of the amount that you end up owing. If the amount you owe is in the hundreds, any penalty will be minimal.

    Yeah, that's pretty much what I was afraid of. Thing that sucks is he has ALL of me and my wives paperwork so I can't even go anywhere else at this point. The accountant said during our consultation that we'd owe about $1,400, could I just send in a check for $1,500 and call it a day or do I still need to get all my W2's and stuff back and actually file my taxes properly? When this is all done I do plan on filing a complaint with the CPA board in my state, I don't think anything will come of it but it's worth doing just to give this guy a little taste of the grief he's given me.

  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    edited April 2014
    edit: nm read it wrong

    Xaquin on
  • The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    I know you've said it's difficult to get in touch with an actual human being at the IRS, but you really ought to go through whatever trouble is necessary to do so. If you have to wait on hold for an hour, just set aside the hour and do it. They will (in theory) help you find whatever paperwork you need to put together so you can file the return yourself.

    Yeah, it's a pain in the ass, but it's almost certainly going to result in a better outcome than you just sending in a check (which will probably just be returned to you alongside an angry letter explaining why they need the paperwork as well as the money).


    Definitely talk to a lawyer about what your accountant did (or rather, didn't do), though. There might be some legalese that can help you out.

    With Love and Courage
  • LankyseanLankysean Registered User regular
    The Ender wrote: »
    I know you've said it's difficult to get in touch with an actual human being at the IRS, but you really ought to go through whatever trouble is necessary to do so. If you have to wait on hold for an hour, just set aside the hour and do it. They will (in theory) help you find whatever paperwork you need to put together so you can file the return yourself.

    It's literally impossible. I went through every option on the phone in an attempt to talk to anyone in any department but most simply say to check the website and the rest tell you something then hang up. I was on the phone for 3 hours running down every option. I'm going to go down to the local office Monday to talk to someone in person.

    As for the accountant, I had my companies in house accountant (who is also a CPA) call my accountants office and was able to find out that this guy will be in his office Monday morning at 10am sharp, I will be waiting for him (not in a threatening manner) but I will be there. Our in house accountant also said he will be filing a complaint against this guy and it could be enough for this guy to loose his license, which is pretty cool. He also mentioned that this is more than grounds for a lawsuit and he will talk to our in office lawyer tomorrow to see what if anything they can do to help.

  • localh77localh77 Registered User regular
    Lankysean wrote: »
    localh77 wrote: »
    Yeah, that kind of sucks. Ender's right, as far as the IRS/states are concerned, it's your ultimate responsibility. So outside of preparer fraud, you're probably out of luck.

    For future reference, though, the automatic extension request for is super easy, it's less than half a page; just print and mail form 4868. If you think you're going to owe and you want to make a payment with the extension, just include a check.

    I wouldn't be surprised if he did file an extension for you, though. I know that all of the returns I haven't gotten to yet have at least been extended.

    But anyway, what he's doing sounds pretty shady. If he doesn't think he'll get to it, he should tell you that. Good luck. For what it's worth, the penalty is based on a percentage of the amount that you end up owing. If the amount you owe is in the hundreds, any penalty will be minimal.

    Yeah, that's pretty much what I was afraid of. Thing that sucks is he has ALL of me and my wives paperwork so I can't even go anywhere else at this point. The accountant said during our consultation that we'd owe about $1,400, could I just send in a check for $1,500 and call it a day or do I still need to get all my W2's and stuff back and actually file my taxes properly? When this is all done I do plan on filing a complaint with the CPA board in my state, I don't think anything will come of it but it's worth doing just to give this guy a little taste of the grief he's given me.

    You can definitely just send in a check for $1,500, that's what the IRS would prefer. You can't just call it a day, becuase you'll have to file eventually. But like I said above, the penalties are all based on the amount you owe. If you end up not owing (because you've paid already), there won't be a penalty.

    Just mail in a check with Form 4868 or 1040-V (or pay online at eftps.gov).

    Sounds like you might be able to get it resolved next week though, so that's good.

  • BlarghyBlarghy Registered User regular
    Yeah, if you pay now, any ongoing interest/penalties will stop accruing, so get that done. It also shows you made a good-faith attempt to correct the situation, which could possibly help you if they decide to make trouble for you.

  • LankyseanLankysean Registered User regular
    So tomorrow I'll jump on the IRS website and pay them, at least I can get something squared away. If nothing else I'll get things finished Monday unless he ducks me again...

  • hsuhsu Registered User regular
    edited April 2014
    My suggestion, instead of writing a check for $1500, buy TurboTax today (online even), spend 2-3 hours to punch in all your info (W2s, 1099s, etc), and write the check for that amount.

    I agree with everyone else that you should file an extension, but that's because 2-3 hours isn't enough time to make sure you've got everything right. However, it's enough time to give you a good ballpark estimate on how much you owe the IRS, rather than depending upon a random number that your flake accountant gave you.

    Personally, I would give up on the flake accountant, and just use TurboTax. Your tax situation seems rather ordinary to me.

    hsu on
    iTNdmYl.png
  • bowenbowen How you doin'? Registered User regular
    Yeah turbotax can handle a wide range of shit even. Buying a house is pretty typical of things that most programs handle.

    You can call their bluff, you can tell the secretary that you expect all your paperwork to be ready for pickup today by the end of today or you'll be getting police and a lawyer involved.

    not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
  • LankyseanLankysean Registered User regular
    hsu wrote: »
    My suggestion, instead of writing a check for $1500, buy TurboTax today (online even), spend 2-3 hours to punch in all your info (W2s, 1099s, etc), and write the check for that amount.

    Personally, I would give up on the flake accountant, and just use TurboTax. Your tax situation seems rather ordinary to me.

    I would but the problem is I don't have any of my paperwork to sit and do my own return, that's my own fault because I didn't make copies like I should have. If I have to I will get the police and lawyers involved Monday if he doesn't show at his office.

  • ihmmyihmmy Registered User regular
    CPA is a professional designation in the states, correct? Try contacting the association office. I know for us in Canuckia, taxation rarely leads to disciplinary action, but a phone call from the association can help push the accountant to get their butt in gear

  • tarnoktarnok Registered User regular
    Definitely file some sort of complaint with whatever body in your state licenses CPAs. Make copies of any communication you've had with the CPA. Get in touch with a human being at the IRS asap or failing that with a competent tax professional who can advise you on what steps you need to take.

    Wii Code:
    0431-6094-6446-7088
  • lessthanpilessthanpi MNRegistered User regular
    I've had two occasions where I had to deal with the IRS and I found the trick is to figure out where the local IRS office is and show up in person. They tend to try to keep a low profile since they're not the most beloved of Government institutions, but decent sized (50,000+) cities have a local branch.

  • LankyseanLankysean Registered User regular
    We have a local branch a couple towns over that ill swing by if I can't get hold of the accountant Monday morning.

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