"My prior preparer has had my documents for 9 months"

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#1
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How often do you hear this from new clients complaining about their prior preparer.

I get this a lot in November and December.

"I gave my CPA my stuff last March, it's now November and its not done. When he does respond to my inquiries, which is rare, he tells me he'll have it soon. His voicemail is full. It's getting worse and worse every year and this year it's not done".

What's with these preparers?

I understand that some of them become ill and of course I don't wish that on anyone. Obviously.

But what's with the others?

How hard is it to devote 1 hour each day in the off season responding to email?

How hard is it to put a queue of work to do on a list and work from the top of it?

I can bang out 2 to 8 tax returns per day, depending on complexity - chopping at the list.

Is it because I'm so brilliant that I do 700 returns each year and no one has to wait more than 3-4 weeks when I'm at my absolute most saturated?

Are you one of these unresponsive preparers? How brilliant are you?
Last edited by ItDepends on 15-Dec-2019 2:49am, edited 1 time in total.
 

#2
ATSMAN  
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"I gave my CPA my stuff last March, it's now November and its not done.


Ok. so if you are a business person what do you do about it if a contractual obligation is breached? The return is late!
If I was the taxpayer a lawsuit for breach of contract and all the consequences resulting from the breach will be litigated. You know the E&O carrier will more than likely settle the claim pronto.

What I hear most is not that it is not done, BUT that the CPA put it on extension. When I review their engagement letter it clearly says that an automatic extension will be filed unless all the requirements are met by a date certain. When I inquire did you confirm with the CPA that all requirements have been made, the answer 99% of the time is NO!

I also hear that I gave my original documents to an accounting firm and now I can't get it back because I am getting the run around.

We have just as many bad apples in our industry as any other profession so if you are unlucky to get tangled with one of them, you have to assert your legal rights.
 

#3
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We have bad apples in this industry, for sure, but I'd be interested in the accountant's side of the story.

"Yes, I received the client's W-2s in March and the return is not done. However, the client has ignored my constant requests for the information on his business and he took a five week vacation starting on October 10th."
 

#4
ATSMAN  
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"Yes, I received the client's W-2s in March and the return is not done. However, the client has ignored my constant requests for the information on his business and he took a five week vacation starting on October 10th."


IMHO any engagement letter worth the paper it is printed on should have language to deal with this situation. Mine is clear. I have a date certain to get all the requirements to file by deadline otherwise it goes on extension. During the extension period there is another deadline and if there are further issues causing a delay it is disengagement. I am putting them on notice that any consequences of a delayed filing is on them not on me.

I was trying to think off the top of my head how many clients I disengaged during the extension period and I can only remember two. One was few years back and the issue had to do with charges for the extra work. The other just disappeared from the face of earth only to pop up close to Christmas in Montana! Supposedly he abandoned his family and took off.
 

#5
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It doesn't matter how good the writing in your engagement letter is, because it's not going to change what this ex-client says about you.
 

#6
ATSMAN  
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missingdonut wrote:It doesn't matter how good the writing in your engagement letter is, because it's not going to change what this ex-client says about you.


If we are talking about unreasonable people NOTHING will stop them from bad mouthing you for the most mundane reason BUT we have to CYA :(
 

#7
Frankly  
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If only the writing in the engagement letter would actually result in the client providing his paperwork sooner, they might have a more tangible use.
 

#8
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Only time a client ever has to wait more than a month is if I do not have all information I need, or they have an accounting disaster that I first need to address. Otherwise, while I typically say turnaround time is a month, it is realistically 1-2 weeks if I have everything I need.

I do hear what was described in post 1, quite frequently, particularly with three particular firms in my area.
 

#9
novacpa  
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"I gave my CPA my stuff last March, it's now November and its not done. When he does respond to my inquiries, which is rare, he tells me he'll have it soon. His voicemail is full. It's getting worse and worse every year and this year it's not done"

I never heard that in my Practice Area (Washington, DC, Northern Virginia & Maryland).
Us CPAs are very responsible.
 

#10
ATSMAN  
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Frankly wrote:If only the writing in the engagement letter would actually result in the client providing his paperwork sooner, they might have a more tangible use.


A properly drafted engagement letter may not result in the client providing paperwork on time BUT it will go a long way to protect the preparer if the consequences of the lateness is detrimental to the client. Does it stop a lawsuit? NO, but without that you would be in real trouble as per most legal experts.

So there are good reasons to use it 8-)
 

#11
Frankly  
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I gave my CPA my stuff last March, it's now November and its not done. When he does respond to my inquiries, which is rare, he tells me he'll have it soon. His voicemail is full. It's getting worse and worse every year and this year it's not done

An engagement letter will do nothing to protect a practitioner from liability for this kind of behavior.

On the other hand if the client has failed to provide the documents required to prepare a tax return, it would be hard to find that the practitioner has a liability for failure to produce.
 

#12
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A properly drafted engagement letter may not result in the client providing paperwork on time BUT it will go a long way to protect the preparer if the consequences of the lateness is detrimental to the client. Does it stop a lawsuit? NO, but without that you would be in real trouble as per most legal experts.


Are you saying that if you asked a client for relevant and essential tax data and made a reasonable amount of attempts to get it form the client but were ignored, and you were sued, that you would be in "real trouble" without an engagement letter?

I agree with the importance of an engagement letter - but is it THAT important?

As an example, a client does not provide banking information for FBARs, thought he was asked several times including offers for him to reach out to us for help (all documented), and he presents them finally in December (or not at all).

Down the line he faces a $10,000 penalty for the late filing of that FBAR. Of course he wants to blame someone.

So the practitioner is in trouble or responsible just because there was no engagement letter?
 

#13
ATSMAN  
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I am NOT saying that having an engagement letter is an absolute "lawsuit shield". But as I learned at a industry meeting many years back, putting the roles and responsibilities with time frames before the job starts goes a long way to protect both parties from each other legally. In your example without an engagement letter if you can document a series of communications from you to your client requesting the information that was provided late may help your case, BUT if you had an engagement letter that requirement would have been spelled out before the job began. You have put your client on notice :twisted:
 

#14
makbo  
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Frankly wrote:
I gave my CPA my stuff last March, it's now November and its not done. When he does respond to my inquiries, which is rare, he tells me he'll have it soon. His voicemail is full. It's getting worse and worse every year and this year it's not done

An engagement letter will do nothing to protect a practitioner from liability for this kind of behavior.

It's not intended to. The engagement letter is to help protect the practitioner from bad faith and failure to perform on the part of the client, not to cover up for the practitioner.

ATSMAN wrote, "IMHO any engagement letter worth the paper it is printed on should have language to deal with this situation. " and now you are talking about a completely different situation from the one he was applying the engagement letter to.
 

#15
Preppie  
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I wonder what the people who sent me the documents (I requested in July) on October 15, who still have not signed their tax return despite numerous reminders, are going to tell their next tax preparer about me.
 


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