Prior CPA Ghosting

I have a new client that's prior CPA in his words "has had a mental breakdown". They have not returned any of his calls or inquiries and so far none of mine. They failed to prepare his 2021 S Corp, 2021 Rental Partnership, and 2021 personal return without notifying him that he was being let go as a client.

There are some follow up items, namely basis schedule, depreciation schedule, and why the return is marked cash basis but they have AP and AR on the schedule L.

I had another client come to me from this office much earlier in the year and I can't remember if they were retiring or not. Anyways, the husband is a CPA and if they don't respond we thought about putting in a complaint to the Ohio board. Any other "nice" way of dealing with this situation before escalating it to that level? A nasty gram from a lawyer?

Thanks!

Can you clarify what "the husband is a CPA" means?

Not saying this is the case at all, but please remember there are two sides to every story.
I've been around in my area long enough, and it's a small enough pond, that I know the accountants that I will never hear back from and they have that reputation. Some really hate conflict and as soon as they get a feeling that you are questioning their work and will ask questions they won't or can't answer, you will never hear from them again.
(Are you sure this person is not institutionalized and they are actually checking emails?)

How does this play out if you do lodge a complaint with the CPA board?

Any idea if your client owes them money?
Any idea if your client is the kind of person that would read what they received (perhaps they were notified)?

Just playing devil's advocate.
If someone is down and out, I'd be hard pressed to lodge a complaint with the CPA board.
If you take away the only thing they have left, there is no telling what they might do.
(Don't corner a rat theory.) Bad things happen to good people everyday. You should always be wary of the mentally unstable.

Take a drive by their office and see if you see lights on, or cars in the parking lot etc.
Anyone answer the phone when you call?

see last response below

Take a drive by their office and see if you see lights on, or cars in the parking lot etc.
Anyone answer the phone when you call?

Agree with this. You just never know what state the previous CPA is in. Heck, you might even be doing him a favor. Maybe he is simply overwhelmed.

Has the client gone to the CPA's office to see what is going on?

They have a sign on the door that says "we are no longer doing tax prep" and did notify the client by mail.

They won't return any phone calls to the client since the spring and haven't returned any of mine.

The client knows that the husband works for another company now as a controller. Filing a professional compliant against his license could at a bare minimum have him send us the files and provide us the information we need.

I need depreciation schedules and to figure out the true basis of accounting that they are reporting on, and if they have it basis schedules. I understand that people have mental issues. I had a manager at one firm drink himself literally to death. The problem goes is how do we prepare the returns without missing data that we need? I would think at bare minimum if you're not providing the services anymore that you would provide necessary information to the successors.

I'd tell the clients that if they can't get the info we need from the prior CPA, I can attempt to go back to the most recent tax return that has that data, and make a best effort to recreate with the data we need through the present. That time would be billable and most likely wouldn't be cheap. For the cash basis returns with A/R and A/P on the Sch L, you should check the M-1s to determine how exactly that was handled. Amended returns may or may not be advisable. Regardless, the returns should be prepared correctly moving forward.

If the other CPA has had a mental breakdown, fired all tax clients and gone off-grid, I don't think sending complaints to the state board or having an attorney send a nastygram is going to have much effect, if any. Yeah, those are options, but are they going to get you what you need on a timely basis if the prior CPA just does not care at all? Likely not IMO. Every option has a cost-benefit, and you're working with time constraints.

Very tough spot to be in. Hard to say if anything you do receive would actually be "good enough" to rely on - as far as basis schedules go. Depreciation schedules.... hard to mess those up.
If the depr expense/assets is relatively low you could try and get prior year returns for 4562s to rebuild, but as we both know, this is more labor intensive and not cost effective for your client.

Please be sure to come back and update. I am curious to see where this goes as it plays out.

We're going to give the prior accountant a little bit more time to respond before deciding which way to move forward.

There is a special place in Hell for preparers who do not include depreciation schedules or basis worksheets.

There is a special place in Hell for preparers who do not include depreciation schedules or basis worksheets.

I know, right? It's such bad karma, and it makes more work for themselves.



Is it possible that this CPA already delivered the documents but the client failed to save them?

We run into this a lot, even though with every download we send, we warn clients that we will not guarantee copies for them, and that they should be very sure to maintain the files safely.

Also, upon disengagement, we usually send everything one more time with the same warning.

It's also in the engagement agreement, of course.

9 times out of 10 they come back to us years later asking for the documents again anyway. I feel like "if I shut down, retire, or do something else" that I don't owe them anything at that point, given all of the times I already sent it to them and warned them.

It would be very wrong, in my opinion, for someone to file a complaint against me for that.

Well, it's a Christmas Miracle. The prior CPA actually got back with me somehow is supposedly sending me them shortly...

Well, it's a Christmas Miracle. The prior CPA actually got back with me somehow is supposedly sending me them shortly...

Maybe he is a member of this forum and read the posts