Adding some context:
I hired this EA on March 1st, after getting in contact with him in January. I didn't rush anything and actually contacted him earlier, he wasn't ready till March 1st.
This is my first year using an EA and it has been honestly, horrible. The guy just didn't communicate until last minute and then said the documents I provided put him under pressure. Last week I had to ping him on April 17th and he sent me the return he filed along with how much I owed the IRS (a lot) and how much I owe in pre-payments this year.
I'm left with a lot of questions and he isn't replying. I get it that things are busy for tax season but I expected more from a professional. From my research, he should have sent me a Form 8879 (he calls it the Docusign and said he sent it, but I definitely didn't sign anything).
What do I do now? I spent $900 on his services and I'm hesitant to hire yet another EA to fix this, but with no responses to my emails and messages, and since I'm already late for the 2026 pre-payment, I am feeling lost.
I have confirmed with the IRS that he did file the return, so it's not late, and I did send the payment for 2025 that I owed.
My EA filed my return, but I didn't sign it and have questions
byu/Fit-Physics7199 intax
Posted by Fit-Physics7199
8 Comments
[removed]
Make your estimated payment for 26 and then request an in-face meeting with him in the next month or so. You need to find out what you did to gum up the process and you also need to ask why he wasn’t as forthcoming as he should have been including what happened to the 8879. After that meeting you should be able to decide better whether he can help you in the future.
Classic case of I know more than the expert I hired.
There may not be anything to fix. So far you have no reason to think that the return the EA filed was inaccurate.
If you are due a refund for the 2025 return, you have 3 years to amend your return and claim it, so that’s plenty of time to meet with the EA and get an explanation of what’s on the return or have someone else look it over and give you a second opinion. If you end up owing more, then you would have to pay a penalty when you amend.
You should pay the Q1 estimate now for this year’s tax. There’s no reason to wait. Once you have another review of the return, if it turns out that the estimates are too high, you can just pay less for the other quarters. If you have a regular job, you can also increase your withholding on your W-2 instead of paying estimates.
For $900 I’d get rid of you.
So he did what you paid him for at the last minute and you’re mad he didn’t sit down with you to go over it for an hour going into April 15th?
Are you sure that the EA filed a return? Perhaps the EA filed an extension, and told you the amount to pay with the extension?
When did you provide the documents that “put him under pressure”?
What makes you think your are “already late for the 2026 pre-payment”?
I suspect that there is way more to the story here.
You didn’t mention when you provided your docs to the EA, especially the last ones he asked for which probably held up the whole process. So far, the only thing I can clearly fault the EA for is bowing under “pressure” from you. That’s why we have extensions. If he really did e-file without your signature, that’s a different issue.