Bad Accountant- Penalties in excess of £2000 last 3 years

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diddyuk
diddyuk Posts: 7 Forumite
in Cutting tax
Hi,
Having a bad experience with my accountant.
I have been penalised over £2000 in last 2 years due to late filing of returns, accounts and paye by companies house and hmrc. Some returns and filings are still outstanding from last year and 2 years ago.
How do i claim these off him? He is very negligent and until he files all these and brings my accounts up to date i cant even leave him. Have paid him upto now aswell.
Got at least £900 in fines still waiting to be paid to hmrc which need to be paid but due to my financial situation i cant pay them and he hss blagged me off

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  • antrobus
    antrobus Posts: 17,386 Forumite
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    Is your accountant a qualified accountant, do they hold a practicing certificate from one of the recognised professional bodies?
  • chrismac1
    chrismac1 Posts: 2,585 Forumite
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    In my view, unless you have provided incomplete or late information, your best course of action is to find another accountant pronto. A decent one will not need a handover from this guy - for example a few years ago I got 20 or so new clients whose sole trader accountant had died suddenly. So no handover!

    How you deal with the past is a separate issue. If your accountant is a decent one - which on the face of your post may not be the case - he'll be so embarassed you'll be offered a refund of fees. If so job done.

    More likely you won't be offered a refund. Then you need to conisder how strong your case is. Ask yourself honestly if you supplied complete and accurate source data well before the deadlines. If you did not, you are wasting your time either complaining to the Institute or trying a civil court case.

    Because unless he is utterly hopeless, he will have kept notes on what you sent him and when. And you've going to find this quoted at you in the case for the defence. When new clients have come to me with your sort of story, in 50% of cases it turns out that they sent their previous accountant half a story, or the full story with just days to go before the deadline. The other 50% it was the accountant who was slow or just poor.
    Hideous Muddles from Right Charlies
  • diddyuk
    diddyuk Posts: 7 Forumite
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    have been giving him everything upto date. but does half the job like hmrc only and misses out companies house or other way around. For 2012-2013 he has done the hmrc bit but forgot the companies house part etc.

    HMRC have said the buck stops with me for the penalties and not my agent
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
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    What is your answer to antrobus' question?
  • Pennywise
    Pennywise Posts: 13,468 Forumite
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    diddyuk wrote: »
    HMRC have said the buck stops with me for the penalties and not my agent

    Yes, that's true, but if you have a strong case, you can take action (small claims court or whatever it's called today) against the accountant for his negligence to reclaim your costs from him. But, yes, you have to pay HMRC and Co House fines in the first instance. If the accountant is qualified and a member of an accountancy body/institute, then you can make a complaint to them about him. If he's not qualified/regulated, then you've no-one to complain to. Either way, it's court action to get him to pay your fines or refund your fees.
  • diddyuk
    diddyuk Posts: 7 Forumite
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    antrobus wrote: »
    Is your accountant a qualified accountant, do they hold a practicing certificate from one of the recognised professional bodies?
    yes hes fully qualified. not sure which body though but hes proper
  • Pennywise
    Pennywise Posts: 13,468 Forumite
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    diddyuk wrote: »
    yes hes fully qualified. not sure which body though but hes proper

    If he is fully qualified and regulated, he will almost certainly use his designatory letters (i.e. ACA or ACCA) after his name and/or show his body on his website or letterhead, i.e. "chartered accountant" or "certified accountant". If he's not showing either, then he probably isn't currently qualified/regulated and may not have professional indemnity insurance etc. All the details will also be on the letter of engagement that you will have signed when you first appointed him - again, if no lofe then probably not qualified/regulated as it's a condition of practice for most main regulatory bodies. So, you need to dig out the paperwork and check if you want to take things further with a professional body.
  • antrobus
    antrobus Posts: 17,386 Forumite
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    diddyuk wrote: »
    yes hes fully qualified. not sure which body though but hes proper

    Find out which body it is.

    You can usually check online to confirm, e.g.

    http://www.icaew.com/en/about-icaew/find-a-chartered-accountant
    https://www.acca-business.org/dom/
    http://icas.org.uk/CADirectory/CA_Search.aspx

    If they are "proper" and they have been "negligent" you can complain to the relevant body - they are usually quite serious about 'upholding standards' and that sort of thing.
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