The Tax Man Cometh!

[ab_grp]

We're waiting excitedly (/sarcasm) to see if our CPA filed an extension and intends to complete our taxes or if I'm going to have to do so.  They were a great little local business but got bought out last year by a national group, and we have had zero correspondence from them! For others who use a CPA (especially part of a firm), I would be interested to know if you get any kind of updates that they have received your files, they plan to prepare your tax returns, the returns are ready for review, or an extension is being filed, or...?

Same thing happened to me.  Every year, worse service at a higher cost.  Last year they put me so far down their priority list I needed an extension - that never happened with the mom & pop firm I used to use.  Now, they just mail me a large envelope with a checklist, tell me "put your crap in here" and I drop it off at their office and hope they do something with it.

I downloaded Turbo Tax this year, did it myself for 1/3 the cost and basically the same outcome as the CPA firm used to get me with respect to return being accepted and refund/tax owing calculated.

Ugh! I just deleted a whole long rant about how this whole process unfolded, but long story short she is filing an extension.  We are one of about 200 returns she still has to review.  I appreciate that she is being diligent! I do like her a lot! I wish she had not sold her practice to this group.  I guess there were some issues with how the new system imports info from the old system.  I am frustrated.  I usually do TurboTax myself in the background to check that things look reasonable and to give myself a heads up about what the outcome might be, so maybe I will just do that in the future now that our portfolio is a bit simpler.  I'm glad you were able to save money and annoyance!

ab_grp, does your CPA not inform you in a timely manner about their inability to meet the deadline? Do you then have to pay the late filing penalty? Sounds rather disorganized as it wouldn't be too difficult to hire additional help during tax season. Also sounds a bit fraudulent if the assumption is that the taxes are going to be filed on time.

Before last year, she communicated much better.  And she is always responsive if we reach out! Last year, we submitted our packet as usual (she used to send an engagement letter and organizational questionnaire to submit with our materials by mid-March; not submitting on time would remove her responsibility for getting the tax returns filed on time, which seems reasonable).  We didn't hear anything and started to get nervous, reached out, and found out that the practice had been sold to this national firm! We were supposed to have received a letter announcing the merger (sure thing), and a letter miraculously arrived a few days after we called.  I guess they had just filed extensions for everyone.  We did not incur any fees.  I think that you avoid fees as long as you file the extension and don't owe money.  That was my understanding, at least (someone here will hopefully correct me if I'm wrong!).  Luckily, we are in a position of not owing again, so I'm sure the government is fine holding onto our money for longer.  I am not sure if it helps that we also pay estimated taxes.  This year even less communication.  I feel bad for our CPA.  My husband thinks she is hoping to retire in a few years and sold her practice to facilitate the transition for her clients (her partner in the old practice may have retired and kind of helped bring this on). 

As for hiring, I know that she mentioned two years ago (?) that they had actually lost some staff right before tax season and couldn't find new folks to work there for whatever reason.  I thought about applying (well, I actually thought about volunteering!).  I don't mind doing the grunt work parts of it, entering and checking data and calculating stuff and looking up tax code, but I don't understand the tax code enough to be able to see if there are necessarily issues along more complicated lines. 

I know the IRS is also having trouble getting staff (and yet rejects plenty of applicants).  I'm not sure what the issue is, but it seems widespread enough from the responses on this thread.

[spork]

For the second year in a row, I filed electronically using FreeTaxUSA, which was originally recommended by someone on the fora (can't remember who). Federal return was free, state return was $14.99 plus sales tax. It's a web-based product, nothing to install, and very easy to use.

The CPA we used to use charged ~ $300.