Accountant charges too much - what to do??

jumperabv3

Kazz81 wrote: »

But it may not be an outrageous price, depending on how your accountant bills their time. I suggest you forget about this until your accountant is able to answer your request for a breakdown, and maybe try to find your contract in the meantime.

Sir, I might not have lots of experience in the accounting field, but I am aware of what is normal and what is not.

I would say it again, what the contract is good for (and I will look for it regardless) if for an email with "Thanks" he charges me £100? Does that sound reasonable? I am honestly trying to find out where the £500 is coming from and I have no answers.

I agreed with him on £250 to prepare and submit my tax return with extra requests, we agreed all included in the £250 fee, if you take that £250 off you are left with a few emails saying "Thank you" etc, I am not willing nor wanting to pay £500 for that, end of discussion!

Judas

Well if you werent willing or wanting to pay you shouldnt have asked questions.

It works out at approximately £30 an e-mail. It could be his policy is that all correspondence are charged at a minimum of £30. This is very common. At the end of the day you cant not ask then expect not to pay.

Kazz81

jumperabv3 wrote: »

Sir, I might not have lots of experience in the accounting field, but I am aware of what is normal and what is not.

I would say it again, what the contract is good for (and I will look for it regardless) if for an email with "Thanks" he charges me £100? Does that sound reasonable? I am honestly trying to find out where the £500 is coming from and I have no answers.

I agreed with him on £250 to prepare and submit my tax return with extra requests, we agreed all included in the £250 fee, if you take that £250 off you are left with a few emails saying "Thank you" etc, I am not willing nor wanting to pay £500 for that, end of discussion!

But he has to read your email to know that all it says is thanks-and if you have signed a contract agreeing to pay for 30 mins minimum work per contact, then thats what you will pay for.

I agree it sounds a little steep but you need to be firm if any of the charges should not have been made-we were charged £65 by an agent for sending us a fax, which we disputed based on the fact that we never requested that particular item to be sent to us by fax (we paid for it by email!), thats just one example.

If your accountant manages to justify these charges to you and you choose to use someone else in future, you may find the same problem down the line if you dont read your contract carefully and ask the right questions.

It sucks and I would not be impressed recieving a bill similar to yours, but my first port of call would be consulting my contract to see what I had agreed to!

jumperabv3

Judas wrote: »

Well if you werent willing or wanting to pay you shouldnt have asked questions.

That is exactly what I did!
He asked me technical questions, for example for the return:

1) Mispell of name (he sent me an email)
2) I will post it to you today --> Me replying "Thanks" --> I didn't know it's "dangerous" to say thanks to someone because he would charge me for it!! In what ****** world are we living in? :mad:

There were no questions on my side, except for ONE, all questions were answered in the previous quarter and I have paid accordingly as I was happy with everything.

POPPYOSCAR

If I were you I would speak to them and discuss this with him.

Explain that you were not expecting this high bill and that you cannot afford it and cannot afford this every year.

Our accountant's fees started out very reasonable and then just got sky high so we sat down with them and said we could not afford the fees and despite all the years with them we would have to change accountants. They then reduced our bill We now ask for a quote every year so that we have no surprises when we get the invoice.

jumperabv3

Kazz81 wrote: »

I agree it sounds a little steep but you need to be firm

I have a screenshot of all emails between me and him for the period, if you would look at it you would say it yourself it's not more than £20 job. Unless if he changed the price for the return (£250) I cannot see how else he brought it up to £760 bill!

POPPYOSCAR

They probably think because you were prepared to pay a lot for the first year you would continue to do so.

You really need to discuss it with him. The only other thing you can do is dispute the invoice not pay and then he will have to go to court to get his payment. Or you could send him a cheque in full and final settlement for what you think is reasonable and if he cashes it I understand that then he cannot chase you for the rest(unless this has changed). If not then you would have to argue with the court that you did not agree this charge but as you paid a high amount for the first year i don't think the court would see it your way unfortunately.

jumperabv3

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

If I were you I would speak to them and discuss this with him.

Explain that you were not expecting this high bill and that you cannot afford it and cannot afford this every year.

Our accountant's fees started out very reasonable and then just got sky high so we sat down with them and said we could not afford the fees and despite all the years with them we would have to change accountants. They then reduced our bill We now ask for a quote every year so that we have no surprises when we get the invoice.

Hey Poppyoscar,

Your advice sounds like the best thing to do, I liked what you said in your story, it sounds very similar to me.
Unfortunately he will be back only in 2 weeks, so I have to wait until then to talk to him about the invoice, but indeed, I don't like any surprises neither, this was a huge one.

jumperabv3

POPPYOSCAR wrote: »

They probably think because you were prepared to pay a lot for the first year you would continue to do so.

Most likely the case.
:T

Can I do anything about it except for discussing it with him as you suggested to me? (can do only in 2 weeks though)

wallace53

As a retired accountant, I am well aware of the bad name that my profession has. However, if you initiate the contact, be prepared to pay for the services. It is always important to clarify whether the services are to "take instructions" or "give advice". Anything else, is just time wasting!