Old reviews were from when Cort was the owner. New owner / new CPA bought this firm in late 2019…read moreand I think Cort stayed on for a bit after to help transition and I think that transition is over now - sadly, the new person is tanking the firm due to incompetence. They offered me money given I sign a release to not say anything... I wonder how many times something like that has happened.
Here is what happened to me this year...
I brought what I thought was a mistake to Azada, and they assured me that no mistake had been made.
After having another firm correct the mistake, they told me "We didn't know the accounting law, so how can you hold us liable for ignorance?" - Well, Michael, that is exactly what I pay you for - for your knowledge, and to literally know the accounting rules...
They had me paying over $5,000 when I was due a refund.
This error has caused me a lot of time and money (however, had I not corrected the error Michael T would have had me pay a MUCH greater sum to the IRS - which is interesting, because this is the first CPA that I've met which prefers paying a higher amount to the IRS. Why? Probably because if they have you overpay it limits their liability (while if you underpay they may be liable for it. To me knowledge, if a CPA makes a mistake while being presented the correct information, they may be liable for the tax difference. However, this CPA goes the opposite direction and has you pay more which then eliminates much of their liability! - how ridiculous. This is a person who bought a CPA firm rather than building it up themselves - and I can see why.
Here is a part of an email which I sent Michael T.
"Here is how I see things...
1) I hired you to be my CPA.
2) I told you I thought it was incorrect. You assured me multiple times it was correct.
3) You showed I owed over $5,000.
4) I sought a second opinion. Second opinion said you did things wrong.
5) After I told you I had hired someone else because your way was incorrect, you stood by your original tax preparation stating that you were still correct.
6) After showing you the new preparers return, we had a phone call. On this phone call, you said you shouldn't be held responsible because you did not know the tax law. To me, ignorance is not an excuse, and you should say "I apologize, I was wrong, and due to my error and the fact that you've been a client for over 10 years, and now the knowledge I have gained which will help me in my practice, I will gladly send you a check for the amendment troubles". But instead, you insisted you shouldn't be held responsible due to ignorance. I just don't think that is right...
7) Then, after stating you would get back to me tomorrow (on the call), then early next week (in the email), I emailed you on that Friday to say 'hey, where are we at?', and that email went ignored. I then sent another email which became a bit more aggressive because your resolutions have been lackluster at best.
8) Now, you ask if $509 is acceptable. It is not. You filed a return on my behalf that would have had me pay 10x that amount, and then continued to state that that amount was correct."
I asked them to pay the amount I was charged to have the mistake corrected. Well, at first I asked them to split the amount but they hemmed and hawed for a long time and never even agreed to that. Due to it being a mistake and needing to file amendments which is not easy and requires more work than being filed correctly in the first place, it was not cheap! He refused to work with me on this amount and stood by his statement that being ignorant of tax law should excuse him from it.
This new guy is awful.
