As I noted in a 2015 post, I started using an accountant to prepare our tax returns for the 2014 tax year. But my dealings with the accounting firm have not gone well, as I noted in a 2019 post. Nevertheless, inertia is a powerful force, and I am still using the same firm. Even though I swear every year it will be the last year.
This CPA firm has merged and grown over the years, and only one of the mergers has done me any good. That merger resulted in our CPA firm acquiring the firm that handled my husband’s family farm tax returns, which made life a little easier. But for the most part, each merger resulted in a different and less user-friendly process for submitting our tax information. And in more distance between me and the person(s) actually preparing our returns.
Last year, the CPA firm messed up our billing—I paid the bill for a business return, but my payment was allocated to our personal return. So the next bill for the personal return was for the wrong amount, and although I paid what that bill said I owed, both bills were deemed unpaid, and the firm didn’t file any of our returns. They did file extensions, but I was still livid when I discovered their error.
If all that sounds convoluted, it was. And it was purely due to their internal blunder.
Plus, each year’s change to the firm’s portal for uploading tax documents has resulted in less human contact and therefore less opportunity for me to explain the quirks in our financial affairs. Because they want everything submitted online and make it difficult to talk to anyone, the CPAs make errors. As one example, for the past two years (at least) they listed the 1099s for my writing royalties on our 1040 instead of on the Schedule C for my writing business. That leads to errors in calculating the Kansas City, Missouri, earnings tax I’ve had to pay. And for the past few years, their system has not recognized that the decedent Roth IRA I inherited from my father is nontaxable.
So every year, I end up having to check the accountants and correct their errors. One year, the lead CPA on our account told me, “I didn’t even bother to review your draft return before sending it to you. I knew you’d find any mistakes.” What was I paying him for? I was so angry I was speechless.
This year, the accounting firm adopted yet another new portal for uploading our documents. I was assured that this system was wonderful, so user friendly, and it would make my life easy.
Not.
The first thing we had to do was to register our email addresses, sign the engagement letter for each account, and pay each bill in advance. Because, of course, they shouldn’t have to do any work until after they were paid.
The system kept sending my husband emails, even after I told them that only my email should be included in our account because I handle all the tax work. Plus, they confused our accounts and my mother-in-law’s accounts, even after I told them my sister-in-law was handling her mother’s finances and gave them my sister-in-law’s email.
Just getting the accounts set up properly required numerous emails and several phone conversations with the “Client Engagement Team.” After I thought we finally had the accounts fixed, I tried to upload the tax documents for a family farm LLC, only to find there was no place to upload my information. So then I had to have another conversation.
All told, I’ve spent several hours already this year just trying to get their system to work for me. Now I have to launch into the actual organizing and uploading of information so they can prepare the return. Meanwhile, every couple of days, I get an email notification telling me my information is due by March 13. These notifications started even before 1099s and K-1s and the like are due from payors.
Every year I swear this will be the last year I use this CPA firm. In 2024, we moved to a new state, a state in which this firm does not have a local office where I can yell at someone in person. So I think this year really will be the last time I use them.
But that means I need to find another CPA firm. All I want is a firm with
- the tax knowledge to prepare my returns properly,
- a user-friendly client portal,
- an ability to manage their own billing accurately, and
- a customer-service attitude in every client contact.
Is that too much to ask?
I like handing off a pile of paperwork to my accountant in person. I can’t imagine any other way.
I don’t mind uploading documents, though scanning multi-page documents on our temperamental printers can be an issue. But I do want someone I can talk to. And complain to when they make a mistake.
“Is that too much to ask?” No