Help me figure out what the best handling of this situation is.
So you’ve hired a (CPA) signed an engagement letter. Sent documents to your CPA for him to file your tax return. Then your CPA ghosts you. It’s a month before the due date, and you haven’t heard anything. So you start trying to find a new (CPA) but of course they’re all booked up and busy with filing for clients they already had planned.
So what now?
And what if you do hire another cpa, and then your old cpa finally reaches out a week before the deadline and has your return prepared? Do you still have to pay him?
What are the legal responsibilities of a CPA?
byu/picontesauce intax
Posted by picontesauce
2 Comments
What does the engagement letter say?
For any reasonably busy accountant unfortunately that’s not that uncommon or unreasonable for it to be done a week before the deadline. On top of that, they got it done before the deadline so you didn’t have to go on extension so that’s a bonus.
Did you disengage with the old accountant before hiring a new one? It sounds like you need to pay both accountants if you had two signed engagement letters and had them do work for you.
Edit to add: I don’t think anyone should downvote you for asking. For most services I do agree I would be agitated with having to wait for months to get the service done. And I think it’s important for new potential clients to see these posts and adjust their expectations based on the realities of the profession since our service is based around one giant bottleneck.
Unfortunately normal. But also understand the situation. Not defending the accountant, but they have literally a year’s worth of work to triage in a few weeks. Here’s what YOUR responsibilities are regardless of who you hire: figure out if you paid enough tax already and take action before the season… so that you’re not competing with the crowd. If anything changes drastically from the previous year, talk to the accountant BEFORE the season starts so you can be paid up quarterly (when you’re SUPPOSED to pay). Waiting until tax season is too late. At the end of the day, the only important thing before the ‘deadline’ is being full paid. As long as you’re paid up, it doesn’t even matter if you have an extension or not.