He prepared my 2013 taxes. Recently I received a note from NJ Division Of Taxation stating that I owed taxes, penalty, and interest for not paying the NJ state taxes. As I went through my 2013 tax return I noticed a huge error - my income was double my regular income. When I tried to contact Alex and explain what has happened, he stated that there might be an issued with my W-2. I compared it to my W-2 from the year before (tax return for that year was also prepared by Alex) and everything was OK (the way W-2s were prepared matched and I never received any notices from the Tax Division). Additionally, I contacted my payroll department to verify that the form was prepared correctly, and it was. Upon that, I was convinced that it was an error on Alex's part. I contacted Alex again and I was told to come over to his office so that he can look over the return. In order to see him, I had to take a day off from work. When I arrived at the office, he was not there - I was only met by his assistant. So, I requested that he calls Alex and asks him when he's going to be at the office. On the phone, Alex (who did not even want to speak with me) told him he might at the office at around 2 PM, 3 PM, 4 PM (mind you, my appointment was at 12 noon), or that he may not even be there at all. Through his assistant, I told him that I cannot wait that long, or an entire day just to find out that did that for nothing. He then told me to leave my return, so that he can look over it, and that I could come back for it at another day once he's done with it. That really annoyed me since I cannot keep taking days off from work just to keep running back and forth to his office because he cannot keep his appointments. But what really angered me was that he said I should leave a deposit, which would be returned to me if indeed he made a mistake on the tax return.
That was just too much and I left the office. Later that week, I made an appointment with another tax professional who found out what the mistake was. In short, I am a resident of NJ but work in NY and received only one income from there. After going over Alex's work, he noticed that Alex made a mistake on my return which made it appear to IRS that I worked in both NJ and NY and received 2 equal incomes from each of these states (which is why my income was doubled). Need less to say, amended the NJ portion of my tax return which decreased the amount I need to pay SIGNIFICANTLY.
In conclusion, I will not be going back to Alex next year. I cannot deny that knows his work, but like all of us, he occasionally does make mistakes. That does not bother me in itself; what DOES bother me is the fact that not only does he not feel accountable for his errors, he also demands to be paid again for doing any additional work for fixing them. My advice to anyone who goes to him is as follows: when he does his job right, then everything is fine - but should the case be otherwise, good luck to you in trying to get a hold of him, not to even mention getting him to fix the mess. read more
