Advice on accountant error in Tax return

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Why not do your own tax returns from now on? It sounds to me as if you are eminently capable of doing them and saving yourself the professional fees.
 
Emeralds,

Your comment is a bit unfair.

What is unfair about that?

I would encourage people to do as much as possible themselves as they have a greater interest in the outcome.

The OP says that his affairs are simple. He understands the tax story. So he should take back control.

Brendan
 
What is unfair about that?

I would encourage people to do as much as possible themselves as they have a greater interest in the outcome.

The OP says that his affairs are simple. He understands the tax story. So he should take back control.

Brendan
...............................

It is also simple to put emulsion on a wall , yet we pay painters to do it.
So as with any service, you pay he paints it.
He did say he understands the Tax story, that is not the point, is it ?.
 
Hi Steiner,


Ordinary people such as myself use & pay professional fee's to qualified accountants to do a job on our behalf. And in the reasonable expectation that the Tax filing is done correctly with all relavent Tax free allowances are applied. basic book keeping stuff, no complex off shore scheme.

I hired him as I didn't trust myself to navigate the tax system as I'm not familiar with what I'm looking at. it's not my area. I hired a professional.

But maybe your right, I should have saved my money & hired someone out of the classified ad's seems the risk to me is the same eh?

When you engage an accountant, he will provide you with a letter of engagement, setting out exactly what services he will be providing for you. The purpose of this letter is to clarify the type of situation you are in: your expectation of the service to be provided as opposed to what the accountant actually provided.

Have you got this letter? Have you checked what it says in respect of the taxation services the accountant is expected to provide? This should be the starting point of any complaint, otherwise it is going to be very hard to get anywhere with this.
 
We appear to have a Plethora of regulations setting up sheltered professionals ,yet accountability ???
I ask why employ a sheltered professional when they remain lax and effectively unaccountable??


Gerry, please explain how exactly you consider accountants to be "sheltered"?
 
Hi Jim2007,

I've been with the company for over 10 years, I met with him & discussed my needs, but do not recall recieving such a letter. he was however employed to do my Tax return, Does that mean taking our Tax free allowance into account?

It is quite shocking to see the replies on here, suggesting it's my fault "I signed the return" So MY Accountant literally has no accountability for filing?

Or as it now appears to me, use with caution.

Either way, I have suffered thousands in loses as a result of his filing my return. & that is not professional to me.
 
Gerry, please explain how exactly you consider accountants to be "sheltered"?
.................

I did not say accountants are (sheltered). I said they appear like some other of our professional classes to be (sheltered).

By that I mean that whilst too many professionals have regulations etc etc , there seems to a lack of enforcement when they fail to properly give proper professional service.
Hence (sheltered) in laymans terms means they are not properly accountable.

And to be very clear ; I am not accountant bashing and can only view what I see on AAM. I would hate to tarnish any profession and I hope you accept my comments as just that, ie comments in an open forum such as AAM.
 
Emeralds,

Your comment is a bit unfair.

Sorry if I came across as being sarcastic. That was not my intention at all.
We had an accountant doing our tax returns for a couple of years. Then I sat down one time and went through everything, realised that it was not rocket science - especially using ROS - and since then we have done it ourselves.
 
Hi Gerry

I appreciate that. The reality is that accountancy firms are not sheltered in the slightest - unlike certain other professions, anyone (qualified or otherwise) can hold themselves out as an accountant and operate as such for financial gain regardless of how much or how little they know.

Members of the various accounting bodies on the other hand must continually comply with & satisfy rigorous (and costly!) regulatory requirements - and are subject to enforcement when they fail to measure up to standards. CARB [broken link removed] is the independent body that regulates Chartered Accountants. (All CARB regulatory & complaints handling committees comprise a majority of "lay people", ie non-members of Chartered Accountants Ireland).
 
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