Accountant seems to have stolen £15k+ Don't know what to do

AngryandScared

He finally replied yesterday, saying he made the adjustments to save us £11k of tax and that he's now paid HMRC £6k and we are all square.

He says he's now settled the bill for us and he's been trying to get hold of us since March of this year to return the £11k (by my calculations it's actually 13.5). He says he's been sending correspondence to our old address but a) the new tenants have been giving us everything - they're actually only across the road b) we told him our new address in January and he sent us a letter to our new one in February and c) why didn't he just email/call if he had all this money to give us?

As far as we were concerned our bill was paid early in May last year!

From my calculations he owes us more than that but I'm waiting for a response and have given him our bank details. Feeling somewhat calmer about everything now. The plan is to get HMRC to send us everything then go and pay another accountant to look over things when we have the money back.

Thanks again.

ljonski

Frankly once the money owed is delivered,an official complaint to the Governing body is an absolute necessity at the very least. I smell a rat! So he has had your money in his account all this time? May have been just to get the interest off it but who knows?

Brighty

What 'adjustments' can be made on an income of £62k to save £11k in tax? That would be a serious lot of expenses receipts to magic up

Brighty

TBagpuss

Brighty wrote: »

What 'adjustments' can be made on an income of £62k to save £11k in tax? That would be a serious lot of expenses receipts to magic up

Brighty

As Cadon says, tax demands are based on your previous year's income, so if your income varies a lot from year to year it's perfectly possible. I'm about to pay by July tax bill which is going to be roughly £12,300 less than the original request from HMRC, because we had a bumper year in 2014-15 and a low-average one in 2015-16.

Bu it does sound as though at best, OPs accountant is very inefficnet and hasn't communicated well, so I would still be askeing for all of the paperwork and getting it checked by a new accoutnant, and then consider putting in a complaint either to their boss (if it is a large firm) or via their professional body (if they are a one-man band or are themselves the boss)

Sitting on £11k for so long, and not communicating are pretty poor.

It may be that he overlooked your file and has now panicked and sorted it, hence the delay over the last week or so. which is not very professional.

AngryandScared

Half owed funds hit our account about an hour ago, but still waiting on further clarification as to why our estimates of what is owed differs. If I hadn't have been contacted by HMRC regarding the £900 I probably would have never noticed anything amiss :eek:

Primrose

Definitely sounds as if you need to change your accountant !

carefullycautious

Maybe you also need this


https://www.frc.org.uk/Our-Work/Publications/AADB/Complaints-June-2012.pdf

cadon

A couple of points to take from this.

Whilst any decent accountant should do a bit of hand-holding where it's clear you need it, it's your responsibility as the taxpayer to make sure your return goes in and on time. Make a note of the deadlines that affect you and chase your accountant if you don't hear noises that those deadlines are being met. In this country, the buck stops with the taxpayer, not the accountant. If you don't understand your accountant, always ask for clarification. Don't just assume it's probably OK.

You haven't commented on whether the accountant who let you down is qualified. If he is, complain to his professional body. If he isn't, learn a lesson and use a qualified accountant next time! Based on your experience, I would be tempted to check with the new accountant's institute that they were actually a member, just for peace of mind. It's relatively easy to find a qualified local accountant by searching on a professional institute's website, but a word of mouth recommendation is always more powerful. Ask around.

It's strange to do everything by paper and stranger not to chase up radio silences, but when you change accountants, it's worth clarifying that you prefer correspondence to be dealt with via email. (Assuming of course you have an email account with a secure password that you regularly change, and it's not an email account you share with anyone else.)

When you change accountants, your new accountant will be able to see the history of what taxes you said you owed, together with what was paid and when. Also any interest charges. That should be quite helpful in unravelling matters.

I am glad you are feeling better about the whole situation and I hope it gets resolved to your satisfaction!

Kayalana99

Sounds like he has tried to pull the wool over your eyes, got caught and tried to play dumb and make excuses. Perhaps he doesn't have the full amount to pay you (which is why he has sent half to delay the issue again?)

At least you have something back so far, I wonder how many other customers he has done this to.

POPPYOSCAR

pelirocco wrote: »

But surely you would make the cheque out to HMRC?

Our accountant does our returns and tells us to pay HMRC

Yes the cheque is payable to HMRC and the accountant deals with it all.