Tax Advisor's wrong advice - how to complain

georgia7007

To keep a long story relatively short, my Tax Advisor told me no Capital Gains Tax was due following the winding up of my Mum's Estate. She gave me the wrong advice and I have just paid HMRC £29k for CGT. Because the payment of CGT was late HMRC have just charged me £3k for late payment. I appealed against this citing the incorrect advice I was given but my appeal was unsuccessful. I now want to make a complaint to my Tax Advisor's "governing body"/ ombudsman but all I know is that she signs her letters "FFA". I have been on the Companies House website but have not got very far.

I admit that I was not very proactive in chasing my Advisor but she did have all the relevant info. in plenty of time to submit the tax return to HMRC by the due date - I think she just lost sight of my case and I fell into a big hole. Any advice / thoughts on where I go with this?Ultimately I want to be able to reclaim from her the penalty fees HMRC have levied.I think I may have to go to the Small Claims Court but am a bit reluctnt to do this.

missile

I have no advice to offer, but I would like to wish you better luck than I had. When my accountant submitted my end of year returns late, I sacked him and went elsewhere.

maninthestreet

You have a tax advisor, but only know this person by the letters (initials?) FFA ?? Have you ever met or spoken to this person?

liam8282

An Incorporated Financial Accountant must be a member of the Institute of Financial Accountants (designatory letters AFA or FFA).

Seems to be a very basic level of accounting qualification. I am studying the ACCA and have to say I have never heard of FFA.

Some quick research suggests that FFA is a lower qualification than AAT, which most trainee accountants that do not go the university route have to pass before they can start the ACCA.

The governing body for FFA website is

http://www.ifa.org.uk/

I don't know where you have found this tax advisor, but the qualifications they have are very basic and I would expect them to have only the basic knowledge of accounts or tax. It may have been an idea to go to a reputable firm of accountants or tax advisers, especially considering the amounts you have mentioned.

Firefox1975

You got a cheap accountant and they made an error.

pay peanuts = get monkeys.

vyle

I know this isn't directly related, but is kinda relevant.

During my days working for HMRC (former inland revenue) I cam across many, many crooked accountants, even really qualified ones.

Quite often, they'd realise that their customer's tax return didn't owe any tax, so they would intentionally submit it late.

Why?

Because late tax returns generate a penalty, so the customer would get a letter saying they were going to be fined £100 when they "knew" their accountant had submitted it on time.

The accountant charged £20 or £30 to "fight" this fine, which they knew they would win, because if the tax return doesn't owe any tax, the fine gets revoked.

It was infuriating, but there was nothing we could do about it. From what I've seen, I wouldn't trust anybody else to do my tax for me. If i needed help, I'd just book an appointment at an HMRC office well in time before I was due to submit. Or, indeed, if I had any tax queries, I'd do that. HMRC doesn't charge for the service.

PlutoinCapricorn

Companies and people who give financial advice usually take out Professional Indemnity Insurance for cases such as this. So you might be able to take them to court and the insurance would cover the costs.

Perhaps you should take this further. I am sure that you can get free advice, perhaps from Citizens Advice, and from more people on MSE.

The amounts of money involved are large, so don't just let it go without doing all that you can.

myrnahaz

If you've paid someone to do a job that they fail to complete, then they're liable. When my accountant inadvertantly filed my accounts late, she insisted on paying the fine as it was her mistake.

georgia7007

Firefox1975 wrote: »

You got a cheap accountant and they made an error.

pay peanuts = get monkeys.

I wish she had been cheap.Incompetent, but not cheap.Hey ho.