How much of an impact do you think this will have? ***UPDATED***

***UPDATE*** - So check this out... after "Mr. Friend the Accountant" corrected his numbers after DH found his mistakes, it turns out that we owe NOTHING! Man, to go from thinking you owe $5500 to owing zero is an amazing feeling! Whew!... but I am still mad at DH's friend and he will apparently be discussing his "fee" with him tonight.



For the longest time, DH has had his friend, who is an accountant, do his taxes every year. He pays him to do them, not like he gets them done for free because he is a friend.

Once we got married, he was doing both of our taxes for us since we file jointly.

Last year when he did them, I had to constantly bug DH to find out what the deal was. I like to know what's going on and if I didn't ask him, he wasn't telling me. It got to the point where it was getting close to the filing date and they were finally done. I don't like cutting it close, but everything was OK.

Well, this year DH's friend royally screwed up. We sent all our info over to him and it got returned to us. We had to send it all back. By the time we heard back from him he told us... THE DAY BEFORE APRIL 15... that he was going to file an extention for us because it looked like we owed $5500. and he wanted to run the numbers again. So he did and found out yesterday (yes, April 21) that nothing changed... we still owe $5500. DH compared last year's taxes to this years and found that his friend didn't enter in correct numbers and there is a HUGE discrepancy in the figure he entered for the taxes and interest we paid last year. His response to DH was "Good catch... I guess I was missing some documents". And when DH asked him where he got the numbers he entered, he had no answer. So basically we are paying this guy to do our taxes late and wrong and we have to proof our own taxes to find his mistakes. PLUS, we now have to pay penalties because whatever it turns out we owe will be sent in late.

Needless to say I will be telling DH that his friend is no longer doing our taxes EVER. I was wondering how you think that would affect their friendship. Do you think he will be insulted that we don't go back to him for our taxes in the future? I am so royally pi$$ed off it's not even funny.

Message edited 4/27/2009 1:38:41 PM.

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Honestly, i wouldnt care if Dh friend is insulted or not, he royally screwed you guys. Hopefully you didnt pay him yet this year, bc i dont think i would give him that money either

Message edited 4/22/2009 4:36:45 PM.

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

yes, it's going to affect his friendship. at least in the beginning.

but your dh's friend HAS to know he screwed up....maybe he was super swamped.

my husband is an acct and he does do friends/families taxes and is paid by EVERYONE.

but he treats those he knows on a personal level the SAME way he treats his work clients. it's just the way he is.

it would be one thing if you were just pizzed that you had to pay this year (NO ONE likes to hear that ) but it's another if it was b/c of HIS screw up.

just be 100% sure he did in fact have EVERYTHING he needed before you "fire" him. other than that, the mistake and the onus is on him.

He should also PAY your penalties for you. but I wouldn't hold my breath for that.

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Posted by Ophelia

He should also PAY your penalties for you. but I wouldn't hold my breath for that.

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Why was all the stuff sent back to you?

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Unfortunately, there is probably some clause with tax preparers that if there is an error, they aren't responsible.

As far as the friendship goes, I think I would have a hard time contributing 100% to him again. That is really BS.

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Posted by jerseypanda

Yeah, I definitely understand that. But let's just say this was not a small error. The difference in the amount of taxes and interest we paid versus what he entered was probably in the ballpark of $20,000... that has GOT to have some impact on that $5500 figure he gave us that he said we owe. (he didn't even use the numbers from last year which I don't get) There is some totally random number that was apparently pulled from the air.

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Posted by Ophelia

I would really make him tell you what the eff happened.

it makes no sense too, that you would owe the same amount using two DIFFERENT sets of numbers.

business is business...and taxes are the LAST thing you want wrong. he needs to own up, and then perhaps take a break from personal clients until he can give everyone the attention they deserve.

I'm sorry. that's not a fun chunk of change to shell out so unexpectedly.

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Posted by jerseypanda

Posted by Ophelia

I would really make him tell you what the eff happened.

it makes no sense too, that you would owe the same amount using two DIFFERENT sets of numbers.

business is business...and taxes are the LAST thing you want wrong. he needs to own up, and then perhaps take a break from personal clients until he can give everyone the attention they deserve.

I'm sorry. that's not a fun chunk of change to shell out so unexpectedly.

Well that's the thing.. he isn't done yet. DH is the one who found his mistake last night and brought it to his attention today. Now he needs to run our taxes again with the corrected numbers to see how much we owe now. I am praying it is nothing close to the first number he gave us. Lesson learned!!!

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

So sorry this happened.

I would find another CPA pronto. Get that taken care of first.

Then address the friend issue.

I know quite a few accountants and tax preparers and none of them do my taxes.

I wouldn't want the personal fight.

Again, sorry that this happened. The friendship is toast. JMO.

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

nothing more to add because we've talked about this already --- just

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have?

Tell him to forget it and go to someone who won't screw you over!!! Why are you having him fix it if he's so incompetent and lying to you guys??? Tell him you're done and he has to pay you the late fees that he caused!!!

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have? ***UPDATED***

Updated in first post.

Re: How much of an impact do you think this will have? ***UPDATED***

Glad it worked out.

I would be leary of him making the numbers make sense though just to smooth things over.

I don't trust anyone these days.

Did you come out exactly even?