JS
Justin Sheldon (Justin S)
Mar 12, 2023
Caution: look elsewhere for accurate and attentive tax preparation services.
It's just my wife and I for our taxes and my single-member S corp (very small business here in Cincinnati). Everything was good in the beginning. David was nice and listened to our situation. I felt good after our first meeting. Almost a year and a total of three amendments later, our taxes are finally filed and correct (I hope).
David and his team left out important deductions and items off of our tax returns including nearly 12,000 in company mileage and $6000 in company equipment to name a few.
The first error was caught by David and amended immediately. I had lingering doubts, so I had another tax professional look over our return briefly and he quickly identified the mileage and expense omissions. I feel that we should not have to hire another tax professional to look over tax prep that I paid a premium for.
I asked for clarification on an invoice received from his office and was told that several different people work on the returns. David then said in an email response:
"I always want clients to pay what they think is reasonable, so if you believe a lesser amount should be paid, please let me know."
David also said: "You paid for it (high level work) and you did not get my best work, and for that I apologize."
David also said that a payment to the IRS would be coming out of our bank account by a certain date and he would reach out to let me know when and how much. That never happened either. The date came and went. I had to get in touch with them to find out what was going on.
David asked why I didn't bring these errors to their attention sooner.... well, it's because I'm not a tax professional and that's why I'm paying their office--to provide accurate and professional work. If I knew what I was looking for, I wouldn't have to hire a tax office, and certainly wouldn't hire a second CPA simply to look over the accuracy of the first. I run a VERY small business. I can only imagine how stressful it would be if I actually had employees and more moving parts and was worrying if they were doing things correctly.
David seemed to agree with almost all of my concerns in the end and admitted they didn't provide their best work. So much so that he offered to complete both our personal and business returns for FREE in 2022. I declined and simply requested "some sort of refund" for the work that took place over the last year that we'd already paid for.
However, the office refused to issue any sort of reimbursement, despite the multiple quotations above. Instead, David cited the "letter of engagement" that was signed in good faith when we met initially. This suggests that they stand behind this level of service and operation which is mind-boggling.
I would encourage you to consider our experience before deciding who to trust with your taxes.