Was I scammed or was it incompetence?
If any one out there…read morehas had a negative experience with the Forest Hills CPA Mr. Torres, please give me your feedback, I'd love to know about your experience.
Update:
* On April 1, 2025 I entered into a verbal agreement with Edward Torres, CPA PC Tax & Accounting Services for the "xxxxxxxxxxxx" trust taxes to be prepared and filed to the IRS before the 2024 tax due date deadline.
* A tax extension was filed by this CPA to the IRS, but the CPA failed to file the taxes by the extension filing date deadline.
* At the initial meeting with him I left the previous year tax returns and any other data that I thought would be helpful in completing the preparation/filing of the trust taxes.
* At that meeting Mr. Torres requested two additional items/documents, which the trustee (me), later that day I complied and emailed the CPA the two (2) attached documents, that he had requested.
* I have the copies of emails that reflects the requested documents were sent to the CPA, and I also have an email acknowledgment/reply from Mr. Torres.
* What I believe happened is a matter of plain old incompetency.
* Mr. Torres for whatever the reason erred/failed to file taxes on behalf of the trust by the tax deadline.
* When I confronted him he chose to tell a bogus story that he needed more information about the beneficiaries of the trust in order to complete the tax filing task.
* He blamed me, saying that the taxes were not prepared and filed by him because I neglected to contact him and supply him the documentation that he requested/needed to complete the taxes.
* If that were true, why did he not contact me concerning his documentation needs before the tax filing deadline?
* Something I would expect any professional to do.
* There is no record of any communication between Mr. Torres and me until after the filing deadline had passed.
* You would expect that a professional CPA that was charging a total fee of $2500.00 to complete the taxes, would contact the client, reminding/requesting from the client any missing docs.
* That did not happen.
* As trustee I am also the sole beneficiary of the above trust and he had all my trustee, and beneficiary information including my tax ID number and the original trust documentation to work with/from.
* There are no other listed beneficiaries besides me that have any standing.
* He also had a copy of the managed fund yearly statements for the tax year of 2024 where every penny of the trust money is invested.
* I also provided him with a copy of the previous years tax return that he could use as a template and simply update the data for the 2024 tax year.
* All the necessary info was in the previous years tax filing document forms.
* Besides capital gains, no money was withdrawn from the trust fund during the year of 2024.
* Unfortunately, my dealings with Mr. Torres was like talking to a brick wall, and is one of the most exasperating, frustrating, people I have encountered.
* The question is, why did he not contact me to remedy his so called missing docs.
* The reason, he just screwed up, forgot about me, and failed to prepare the trust taxes!
* That's the reason he didn't contact me.
* Mr. Torres attempted to twist my account version, to justify and hide his failure.
* If we are to believe his version of this story to be true, (again) "why did he not contact me for the additional documents that he needed?"
* At this latest meeting he did offer to complete my taxes but I would still have to pay him $2000.00 for the task which I no longer felt was viable.
* Furthermore, I would still be responsible for any tax late fees incurred.
* You know the expression "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me".
* I asked for the $500.00 fee back but he refused to give it to me.
I'D LOVE TO HEAR YOUR OPINIONS, PLEASE TELL, ME WHAT YOU
THINK!