- Original Poster
- #1
Hello, I hope everybody is having a good time in anticipation of Christmas. I'll try to be as brief and to the point about the problem as possible:
My accountant made quite a big error in my previous tax return (year ended 2018), to my unpleasant surprise, when I received it for approval from him 2 working days before the deadline of 31 Jan 2019. The profit calculation he had made was possibly up to 15K higher due to what looked like numerous mistakes in the expense categories he had done. He promised to correct this (there is a 12 month period for correcting a tax return) but after receiving his "will do ASAP" replies a few times during this year, there is already a pattern in his actions: he was promising to look into it "ASAP" but wasn't doing anything until I send him another email 1 or 2 months later.
During 2019 I migrated all my bookkeeping online to Xero and on 03 Nov 2019 (3 months before the deadline) I provided him access to my complete accounts for years ended 2018 and 2019 on the Xero platform which I believe should be a relief to an accountant, compared to working with a collection of files. Previously during February I had sent him a comprehensive set of questions about the tax return he had prepared. I made it clear when I thought there was an error in a specific calculation he had done. I also asked him in what categories he has included specific expenses, most importantly 3 big purchases of stock from China. Despite promising every time, he has't looked neither into these questions, nor into my Xero account now. At the time of writing this there are less than 6 weeks to go before the deadline. Our last email exchange was from a couple of weeks ago (redacted):
Customer: "Just writing to check how it's going with my accounts?"
Accountant: "No movement as yet but I will update you asap"
Customer: "I believe there is 12 months deadline for amendments to previous self assessment which means by end of January 2020. So I definitely want some clarity before the end of this year 2019."
Accountant: "I’ll do the best I can but I can’t guarantee anything before the end of 2019 I’m afraid."
Customer: "I appreciate that. Please note, I believe there is an error of possibly up to £15000 in the profit calculation you've done for my self assessment for the previous year ended April 2018. I received it from you two working days before the HMRC deadline so I decided it's best to be submitted with the error and to be corrected later, and you agreed to do that. The reason I migrated my bookkeeping to an online platform is to be much easier for both you and me from now on and to try to avoid big mistakes in the future. I made sure you can start working on it three months before the deadline with the hope that it will not be left until the last moment. I hope you will understand why I am not relaxed about submitting my tax return too close to the deadline in January and I believe you could give this task a priority."
I haven't heard back from him for more than a week already. I'm a self-employed maker and online seller of handmade goods. What would you do in this situation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
My accountant made quite a big error in my previous tax return (year ended 2018), to my unpleasant surprise, when I received it for approval from him 2 working days before the deadline of 31 Jan 2019. The profit calculation he had made was possibly up to 15K higher due to what looked like numerous mistakes in the expense categories he had done. He promised to correct this (there is a 12 month period for correcting a tax return) but after receiving his "will do ASAP" replies a few times during this year, there is already a pattern in his actions: he was promising to look into it "ASAP" but wasn't doing anything until I send him another email 1 or 2 months later.
During 2019 I migrated all my bookkeeping online to Xero and on 03 Nov 2019 (3 months before the deadline) I provided him access to my complete accounts for years ended 2018 and 2019 on the Xero platform which I believe should be a relief to an accountant, compared to working with a collection of files. Previously during February I had sent him a comprehensive set of questions about the tax return he had prepared. I made it clear when I thought there was an error in a specific calculation he had done. I also asked him in what categories he has included specific expenses, most importantly 3 big purchases of stock from China. Despite promising every time, he has't looked neither into these questions, nor into my Xero account now. At the time of writing this there are less than 6 weeks to go before the deadline. Our last email exchange was from a couple of weeks ago (redacted):
Customer: "Just writing to check how it's going with my accounts?"
Accountant: "No movement as yet but I will update you asap"
Customer: "I believe there is 12 months deadline for amendments to previous self assessment which means by end of January 2020. So I definitely want some clarity before the end of this year 2019."
Accountant: "I’ll do the best I can but I can’t guarantee anything before the end of 2019 I’m afraid."
Customer: "I appreciate that. Please note, I believe there is an error of possibly up to £15000 in the profit calculation you've done for my self assessment for the previous year ended April 2018. I received it from you two working days before the HMRC deadline so I decided it's best to be submitted with the error and to be corrected later, and you agreed to do that. The reason I migrated my bookkeeping to an online platform is to be much easier for both you and me from now on and to try to avoid big mistakes in the future. I made sure you can start working on it three months before the deadline with the hope that it will not be left until the last moment. I hope you will understand why I am not relaxed about submitting my tax return too close to the deadline in January and I believe you could give this task a priority."
I haven't heard back from him for more than a week already. I'm a self-employed maker and online seller of handmade goods. What would you do in this situation? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
