For married filing joint engagements, both spouses are required to esign my engagement letter(s) and annual understandings. I don't think an individual can be bound by a contract that names them as a party if they don't sign.
Most of my clients get the engagement letter signed very quickly. And, the client(s) get follow ups every 7 days until they're fully executed which seems to help.
ocdtax wrote:We have one of those clauses in our engagement letter that says something like "if you do not return this signed engagement letter but deliver your tax documents to us for tax preparation, you accept the terms of this engagement letter".
Interesting. But IMO that seems like it wouldn't hold up. What if the client says that they never saw the engagement letter?