Unpaid tax - Accountant gave wrong info!

Amme25

I guess this is as good a place to post as any.... your thoughts are welcome as I am really confused.

I am self employed and I know I could do it myself but just don't have time. I have been using an accountant recommended to me by a good friend.

There are a couple of things that have happened this year that make me question whether something dodgy is going on...

(1) Passed expenses to accountant and he calculated tax liability to be £x.
(2) He asked me to pay his book keeping fee
(3) He asked me to give him a cheque to cover the tax (The accountant was the owner of the business and recently sold on to a larger firm but still works as a semi-retired partner).
(4) He then reminded me that I need to make a 'payment' by the end of February as the "Tax office have changed their procedure and require additional payments through the year as so many companies have been going out of business".

In Feb/Mar I received a letter stating that the tax hadn't been paid. I phoned the accountant immediately as I know the cheque had been cashed (however I can't remember who I wrote the cheque out to). Anyway his response was "Don't worry loads of people have had these, I will contact the tax office and get it cancelled".

Now on Saturday I receive another letter stating that my tax has still not been paid and has been passed to the recovery and collections department.

I managed to phone the tax office and they have asked me if they can do an investigation as the accountant has been providing me with incorrect and possibly fradulant information. It now only in hind sight that I see their points about why would you pay your accountant your tax money, thats between you and the tax people. I know ignorance is no excuse but he was the professional who I thought I should trust.

Any advice?

whitewing

I have been asked to send cheques to my accountant for tax before, but the cheques weren't made payable to the accountant.

Can you ask the bank for a copy of your cheque (you may have to pay a fee for this)? Then you will at least know who it was payable to when it was cashed.

Amme25

Forgot to add, tax office have added fines/charges to original liability.

Plus other odd thing is that for the last 2 years all post from the accountant and tax office has been addressed to 'C/O I. Wink'. It seems funny but I have asked repeatedly for this to be checked/removed and its still happening. For quite a long time I was returning the letters to the tax office 'unknown addressee'. Inside the letters are addressed to me with my NI number>?

The plot thickens?

Amme25

I asked the bank about the cheque, their response was it would take a minimum of 6 weeks. The cheque stub is unclear.

Last year I definately addressed the tax liability cheque to the accountant.

whitewing

http://www.mybusiness.co.uk/YQTccbNoGhP-DA.html

Maybe see if you can get a free initial interview with a Chartered Accountant?

Or even possibly pop down to the police station and talk to someone there. If there is something dodgy going on then it presumably affects others too. I have absolutely no idea if it's dodgy or not but it is not sounding good at the moment.

Amme25

Thanks for your advice. I am also thinking that this is not going to have a good ending. I have a couple of routes to follow up tomorrow but its just been a weekend of worry!

Thanks again

olly300

1.Do as whitewing says and contact the police. I've met other people who have been screwed by their accountant.
2. If you have the money pay the tax office immediately getting the money back from the "accountant" is a different matter.
3. If the "accountant" has any letters after their name from a professional body then contact them.

Money_Grabber13579

What part of the UK are you in? If you are in England or Wales, you should report this accountant to ICAEW, assuming he is a member of this institute. It is the responsibility of the professional body to regulate accountants, and they will be struck off if anything untoward is happening.

First though, if you can find out what institute he is a member of, and then report him to that institute. It is possible that this is a phony accountant with no qualifications at all, and won't be a member of any institute. Now that would be dodgy!

Mikeyorks

Amme25 wrote: »

It now only in hind sight that I see their points about why would you pay your accountant your tax money, thats between you and the tax people.

In the final week before the 31st Jan deadline ..... HMRC receive several hundred thousand client cheques via accountants. So you clearly weren't talking to the Accounts Office, which is where they process them.

However it is usual that the cheques, collected via accountants from their clients, are made out to HMRC. The accountants - for some reason best known to them, but fees inevitably come into it - merely act as a post box.

The cleared cheque (audit trail on the reverse) is the only definitive as to how it was encashed. But if you made it out to the Accountant .... it doesn't really take you forward. As he would have had to bank it and make out a fresh one to HMRC .... as the days of signing it on the back - and sending it on - are long gone.

barriejohn69

First though, if you can find out what institute he is a member of, and then report him to that institute. It is possible that this is a phony accountant with no qualifications at all, and won't be a member of any institute. Now that would be dodgy

How on earth would that be dodgy? There are plenty of accountancy firms that do not have qualified partners. A piece of paper doesn't make yo "un-dodgy". I have my own accountancy firm and do not have any qualifications. I am however classed as qualified by experience.

I have got where I am because I can do the job, not because I have a piece of paper saying that I can quote various accounting standards Parrot fashion.

And no I'm not dodgy

Cook_County

There is no reason why a professional would hold (or need to hold) client money in the circumstances you describe.

It is quite possible that you did not have a UTR & HMRC have the money held in "suspense" pending allocating to the correct account. This is extremely common.

Call the Collector to trace the payment.

Also do tell this forum which professional bodies this chap belongs to. The police will have no interest as there is no evidence of any crime just that you haven't seen your payment, probably because HMRC have not allocated it correctly.