- Original Poster
- #1
Hi
I am sure most of you will be shocked to hear the catalogue of errors my accountant (or whatever I should now be calling him as he is certainly not “an accountant”) has made and will find it unbelievable the extreme nature of my issues. the police do not wish to take action and I am desperate to find a way to make my accountant pay! The police are allowing my accountant to get away with this whilst I - the little man - ends up paying. If I take it to court that same corrupt system will take his side and I’ll be stuck with the bill.
Background
I started with my current accountant (having run into difficulties with my last one) just over a year ago. Since then, nothing but problems and now, he is breaking the law!!! I am at my wits end.
I have a small courier business employing 15 staff working from my home. I’m not a millionaire and do not have money to waste on things my business doesn’t need. I therefore need an accountant who, for a small fee, will keep my business legal.
The issues I have encountered are as follows:
Payroll
I didn’t have a payroll scheme when I set on my accountant and we agreed, what I assumed was a one-off fee, of £5 to set up and run the payroll – which I paid (more fool me)! The only person I put on payroll was me as a director. My staff were subcontracted and I have now taken them on as employees. It turns out the £5 was monthly (!) and my accountant now expects more (more employees and because they are weekly paid). He says he has software costs and it takes more time. I’m not stupid! Most payroll software is free (he wouldn't need it if was bright enough to do it on paper - properly). As for time, if he knew what he was doing it should take him seconds.
Worse, he has to be reminded to do contracts, hasn’t done anything for health and safety and won't hire & fire staff - all standard payroll stuff. To save cost he doesn’t even send payslips by post to each employee. They receive an email attachment - unacceptable to them, me, and the law. This penny-pinching over postage will leave me facing legal action and tribunals.
He conned me into signing up for a pension scheme. I don’t need one - I don’t have 50 staff! I now find the DD he signed me up for is nothing to do with pensions. It’s an (I assume - his) energy provider! This is fraudulent!
If that was not bad enough I am not getting the service. He does not pay my employees or the taxman which leaves me out of pocket. Most payroll companies pay and then invoice the employer - e.g. 90 day terms.
In all honesty, if I need someone to do my payroll, I expect to pay a one-off fee to cover everything indefinitely, I want them to pay the staff and the tax office and I will then pay them what I think is right – and on reasonable terms. If I do have to pay monthly, I will agree to pay a fixed fee of £1.25 per month (regardless of how many or how regularly I pay employees) – which seems to be the going rate on the web.
Tax Return
My tax return was filed late and I was fined. I did text him the day before it was due to say everything would be ready and for him to collect from my office the following lunchtime (which would have given ample time for him to file it). However, he replied saying he couldn’t collect it as he was busy and that I should take it to him or that it would not be filed on time. I didn’t take it, the return was late and now he owes me the fine and a suitable amount of compensation (to compensate for my black mark with HMRC). This is completely unacceptable and shows just how little understanding he has of the law. It is, after all his responsibility to ensure my return is filed on time but his failure to do so means I am in breach of the law.
Worse still is that he has invoiced me a ridiculous amount! A tax return takes a few minutes to send and having looked at it, even 5 minutes would give about 10 seconds to enter each number into the boxes. So how can I receive a bill for £100? That is £1,200 per hour! Even worse, its about £5 per piece of paper!
Accounts and Tax
My accounts were due at the end of March. I provided all information at the end of March and he filed them the day before the deadline (almost a week after I gave him the information – which is unacceptable). He has billed me £160 for the privilege (£18 per piece of paper). He then billed me for the corporation tax (£60 or £6 per piece of paper) and reckons I owe tax. He is completely wrong because I never had to pay tax before. There was no money left in the bank at the end of the year so there was no profit.
Coronavirus
Despite all of the above there are more issues at stake and I have lost a lot of money due to my accountant. These include
Rates grant - I didn’t get the rates grant because my business trades from home. Had my accountant advised me to register part of my home as a business I would have received £10000
Self Employment Grant - I didn’t get this because my accountant messed up my tax return. He put my drawings from the company through as employment not self employment – god knows why. My drawings from the company are around £48000 per year so I’ve lost £20000
Furlough scheme - I had 5 staff start their week in hand on 16 March. I sent their details to my accountant on 24 March. Their first pay date was 27 March. Because of his abject failure to tell HMRC that they were working for me before the 19 March they did not qualify for furlough. I had to make them work through the pandemic when other staff were off which was unfair and made me look like a bad boss. Also my accountant only claimed 80% of the wages but most people seem to have received 100%. I assume he has claimed the full 100% but syphoned it off to his own account (more fraud). This has cost me over £100000
Vat – we all know this doesn’t need to be paid during lockdown but he has messed up the returns. Instead of me having the return written off he has managed to make it so that I owe the VAT next March – everyone else I know has got a clean break. He also reckons I need to pay the VAT on the May return even though it should also have been written off. This has cost me about £40000
Unfair and Illegal Charges
There is even more! My accountant has raised charges that are unfair or illegal and some of these are as follows:
Companies House – he charges me ridiculous amounts for one minute tasks such as £10 to change the company name, £13 to updated them about my company (which in all honesty shouldn’t need doing if he did his job right and didn’t make mistakes). It is his responsibility to ensure my company is up to date on filing and I refuse to pay extra for short tasks – and I will certainly not pay fees for him to correct his mistake!
Vat Return – he charges £10 every time he sends a return to the tax man even though he also charges me an astronomical amount for the annual accounts. This is doubling up and I will not stand for it
Charges during lockdown – It is illegal for an accountant to charge for anything done during lockdown and nobody else does it. My accounts were completed in lockdown. My VAT returns were completed in lockdown. I want my 2020 accounts competing now and as the virus is still around. I also want my tax return doing now. I am struggling, I am in an industry which has been hit hard, my turnover has reduced by 20%, I haven’t made any money profit out of furlough and I haven’t received any grants. However, to rub salt into the wounds, my accountant is breaking the law in giving me invoices and insisting I pay an illegal invoice for my 2019 accounts before he does my 2020 accounts (which he will then charge for – illegally). This is not only illegal it is also blackmail.
The worst is yet to come! My accountant is not even an accountant! I knew he was not a chartered accountant but I have now done some digging. I now know that an accountant must be registered with ICEAW and if they are not they are trading illegally. I spoke with them this week and they have never even heard of him! Whilst I did tell the police they didn’t care at all. But this is VERY SERIOUS FRAUD as he is passing himself off as an accountant ILLEGALLY! I have read that I can report this to NCA but haven’t yet done this.
To summarise, I am looking for:
Advice on how and where I can turn to get this matter sorted and bring this person to book and hopefully claim £500000 in losses and compensation.
Advice on where I can get a legitimate accountant who will not charge me the earth. A one off fee, covering everything, to do my accounts, payroll, tax returns etc. and no petty charges for “payroll”, “companies house filings” or illegal charges at a time when I have been hit by the Coronavirus crisis.
Lastly, I am not an unreasonable person. I am happy to pay what I believe something is worth. If I buy and car, I haggle and get the best deal, knowing I could sell it again for something near to what I have paid for it. Same with works to a house, if I pay for a new extension, I haggle and know it will add value to the house. However, I do not agree with paying astronomical amounts for pieces of paper (accounts, payroll, tax returns) – for which little or no time has been spent on producing them – only for them to lose 100% of their value as soon as I get them.
I dearly hope nobody else encounters the issues I have and, whilst I have not named my accountant as I don’t want to ruin my chances in court, rest assured – win or lose – he WILL be named in every place I can find, once this is all over.
I am sure most of you will be shocked to hear the catalogue of errors my accountant (or whatever I should now be calling him as he is certainly not “an accountant”) has made and will find it unbelievable the extreme nature of my issues. the police do not wish to take action and I am desperate to find a way to make my accountant pay! The police are allowing my accountant to get away with this whilst I - the little man - ends up paying. If I take it to court that same corrupt system will take his side and I’ll be stuck with the bill.
Background
I started with my current accountant (having run into difficulties with my last one) just over a year ago. Since then, nothing but problems and now, he is breaking the law!!! I am at my wits end.
I have a small courier business employing 15 staff working from my home. I’m not a millionaire and do not have money to waste on things my business doesn’t need. I therefore need an accountant who, for a small fee, will keep my business legal.
The issues I have encountered are as follows:
Payroll
I didn’t have a payroll scheme when I set on my accountant and we agreed, what I assumed was a one-off fee, of £5 to set up and run the payroll – which I paid (more fool me)! The only person I put on payroll was me as a director. My staff were subcontracted and I have now taken them on as employees. It turns out the £5 was monthly (!) and my accountant now expects more (more employees and because they are weekly paid). He says he has software costs and it takes more time. I’m not stupid! Most payroll software is free (he wouldn't need it if was bright enough to do it on paper - properly). As for time, if he knew what he was doing it should take him seconds.
Worse, he has to be reminded to do contracts, hasn’t done anything for health and safety and won't hire & fire staff - all standard payroll stuff. To save cost he doesn’t even send payslips by post to each employee. They receive an email attachment - unacceptable to them, me, and the law. This penny-pinching over postage will leave me facing legal action and tribunals.
He conned me into signing up for a pension scheme. I don’t need one - I don’t have 50 staff! I now find the DD he signed me up for is nothing to do with pensions. It’s an (I assume - his) energy provider! This is fraudulent!
If that was not bad enough I am not getting the service. He does not pay my employees or the taxman which leaves me out of pocket. Most payroll companies pay and then invoice the employer - e.g. 90 day terms.
In all honesty, if I need someone to do my payroll, I expect to pay a one-off fee to cover everything indefinitely, I want them to pay the staff and the tax office and I will then pay them what I think is right – and on reasonable terms. If I do have to pay monthly, I will agree to pay a fixed fee of £1.25 per month (regardless of how many or how regularly I pay employees) – which seems to be the going rate on the web.
Tax Return
My tax return was filed late and I was fined. I did text him the day before it was due to say everything would be ready and for him to collect from my office the following lunchtime (which would have given ample time for him to file it). However, he replied saying he couldn’t collect it as he was busy and that I should take it to him or that it would not be filed on time. I didn’t take it, the return was late and now he owes me the fine and a suitable amount of compensation (to compensate for my black mark with HMRC). This is completely unacceptable and shows just how little understanding he has of the law. It is, after all his responsibility to ensure my return is filed on time but his failure to do so means I am in breach of the law.
Worse still is that he has invoiced me a ridiculous amount! A tax return takes a few minutes to send and having looked at it, even 5 minutes would give about 10 seconds to enter each number into the boxes. So how can I receive a bill for £100? That is £1,200 per hour! Even worse, its about £5 per piece of paper!
Accounts and Tax
My accounts were due at the end of March. I provided all information at the end of March and he filed them the day before the deadline (almost a week after I gave him the information – which is unacceptable). He has billed me £160 for the privilege (£18 per piece of paper). He then billed me for the corporation tax (£60 or £6 per piece of paper) and reckons I owe tax. He is completely wrong because I never had to pay tax before. There was no money left in the bank at the end of the year so there was no profit.
Coronavirus
Despite all of the above there are more issues at stake and I have lost a lot of money due to my accountant. These include
Rates grant - I didn’t get the rates grant because my business trades from home. Had my accountant advised me to register part of my home as a business I would have received £10000
Self Employment Grant - I didn’t get this because my accountant messed up my tax return. He put my drawings from the company through as employment not self employment – god knows why. My drawings from the company are around £48000 per year so I’ve lost £20000
Furlough scheme - I had 5 staff start their week in hand on 16 March. I sent their details to my accountant on 24 March. Their first pay date was 27 March. Because of his abject failure to tell HMRC that they were working for me before the 19 March they did not qualify for furlough. I had to make them work through the pandemic when other staff were off which was unfair and made me look like a bad boss. Also my accountant only claimed 80% of the wages but most people seem to have received 100%. I assume he has claimed the full 100% but syphoned it off to his own account (more fraud). This has cost me over £100000
Vat – we all know this doesn’t need to be paid during lockdown but he has messed up the returns. Instead of me having the return written off he has managed to make it so that I owe the VAT next March – everyone else I know has got a clean break. He also reckons I need to pay the VAT on the May return even though it should also have been written off. This has cost me about £40000
Unfair and Illegal Charges
There is even more! My accountant has raised charges that are unfair or illegal and some of these are as follows:
Companies House – he charges me ridiculous amounts for one minute tasks such as £10 to change the company name, £13 to updated them about my company (which in all honesty shouldn’t need doing if he did his job right and didn’t make mistakes). It is his responsibility to ensure my company is up to date on filing and I refuse to pay extra for short tasks – and I will certainly not pay fees for him to correct his mistake!
Vat Return – he charges £10 every time he sends a return to the tax man even though he also charges me an astronomical amount for the annual accounts. This is doubling up and I will not stand for it
Charges during lockdown – It is illegal for an accountant to charge for anything done during lockdown and nobody else does it. My accounts were completed in lockdown. My VAT returns were completed in lockdown. I want my 2020 accounts competing now and as the virus is still around. I also want my tax return doing now. I am struggling, I am in an industry which has been hit hard, my turnover has reduced by 20%, I haven’t made any money profit out of furlough and I haven’t received any grants. However, to rub salt into the wounds, my accountant is breaking the law in giving me invoices and insisting I pay an illegal invoice for my 2019 accounts before he does my 2020 accounts (which he will then charge for – illegally). This is not only illegal it is also blackmail.
The worst is yet to come! My accountant is not even an accountant! I knew he was not a chartered accountant but I have now done some digging. I now know that an accountant must be registered with ICEAW and if they are not they are trading illegally. I spoke with them this week and they have never even heard of him! Whilst I did tell the police they didn’t care at all. But this is VERY SERIOUS FRAUD as he is passing himself off as an accountant ILLEGALLY! I have read that I can report this to NCA but haven’t yet done this.
To summarise, I am looking for:
Advice on how and where I can turn to get this matter sorted and bring this person to book and hopefully claim £500000 in losses and compensation.
Advice on where I can get a legitimate accountant who will not charge me the earth. A one off fee, covering everything, to do my accounts, payroll, tax returns etc. and no petty charges for “payroll”, “companies house filings” or illegal charges at a time when I have been hit by the Coronavirus crisis.
Lastly, I am not an unreasonable person. I am happy to pay what I believe something is worth. If I buy and car, I haggle and get the best deal, knowing I could sell it again for something near to what I have paid for it. Same with works to a house, if I pay for a new extension, I haggle and know it will add value to the house. However, I do not agree with paying astronomical amounts for pieces of paper (accounts, payroll, tax returns) – for which little or no time has been spent on producing them – only for them to lose 100% of their value as soon as I get them.
I dearly hope nobody else encounters the issues I have and, whilst I have not named my accountant as I don’t want to ruin my chances in court, rest assured – win or lose – he WILL be named in every place I can find, once this is all over.
