Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  02/12/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I contracted this "accounting and bookkeeping service by tax experts and CPA's" in 2022 to hire a bookkeeper and accountant to handle my design business. As you can see from the ad attached they" will handle the numbers while I handle my business" Erik Olthoff was assigned by owner Sam White who was supposedly a CPA and tax expert to complete the book keeping and file tax returns with Sam. They are not registered as CPA's with the State of Colorado and Erik apparently has an expired license. They are however advertised and resumed as bookkeepers and tax experts which under audit they are suddenly not. They filed three sets of returns with errors and triggered three audits by the IRS. The last return was so negligently errored and their office suddenly made it my problem. Their book keeper was suddenly unavailable, they suddenly didn't do bookkeeping it was my problem. They wanted me to sign a contract not to attend nor speak with the IRS that has subsequently been made aware of this. They questioned the legality of that as well. Im a designer not a "tax expert or book keeper" as they professed to be. As it turns out on the last audit a week ago the elementary mistakes made in bookkeeping cost me not only allot of time but interest and the book keeping that was paid for a performed and signed off on as "tax experts" did not even balance. I had to pay another firm to come in and actually correct all the book keeping. They have done nothing but lie and deny any responsibility and seem to think contractually its not their problem however negligence and false advertising voids any kind of contract in Colorado. I am asking for a full refund of costs for their services and the fees to fix their services. I am also hoping they change their false advertising. 1742.50 was paid to their bookkeeper, 2115.00 was paid to their firm for book keeping and taxes and 800.00 was paid to fix all the filings

  Business response

  02/15/2024

  Individual who is filing this complaint engaged our firm to perform bookkeeping services solely to clean up her books for tax preparation services for the tax return covering the tax year 2021. She provided her 2020 return and we did not perform any work, bookkeeping or tax preparation services, for tax year 2020. Erik Olthof, an individual who did a large portion of our firm's work for the individual who is filing this complaint, has unexpired and current licenses for his CPA license with both MD and CO (see attached). His LinkedIn account was simply not up to date. We filed tax returns for tax years 2021 and 2022 for this individual, so we did not file 3 returns. This individual did not, to our knowledge, have 3 audits during her time working with us. This individual has had 2 audits during this time; the first audit covered tax returns for tax years 2020 (which we did not file) and 2021, and the second audit covered the tax return covering the tax year 2022. This individual was unwilling to follow our policy of requiring some sort of access to her financial records in order to facilitate providing bookkeeping services to her once we completed the clean up services for tax year 2021, so we referred a bookkeeper to her who she independently reviewed and started working with. This bookkeeper does not in any way work for our firm but is an individual we simply refer work to. We do not require any client of ours to work with this bookkeeper. During calendar year 2023, the individual filing this complaint ceased using this bookkeeper's services. The individual filing this complaint received notice of the 2nd audit in November/December of 2023 and was told late 2023, by the bookkeeper that was previously fired, that the bookkeeper could not reliably take on the work needed for this audit. The individual filing this complaint chose to continue pursuing this bookkeeper's services without any success in receiving those services, and eventually blamed our firm for not providing other referrals as alternatives to doing the work necessary for the audit. As an industry standard, when the individual who filed this complaint was requesting that we provide services to help with this 2nd audit, we requested that she sign an engagement letter detailing the rights and responsibilities of both our firm and herself in this activity. Part of that engagement letter details that any and all communication between the taxpayer and the auditor/the taxing authority is being down so at the taxpayer's own risk. We certainly do not bar the taxpayer from communicating with the auditor/tax authority. Also as part of industry standard, we have clients attest in writing (by signing/agreeing to an engagement letter), for each tax return we help prepare, that we are not auditing or validating the information placed on the return and the accuracy of the information is the responsibility of the taxpayer. Additionally, the individual filing this complaint attested and agreed to the information put onto each tax return prepared by our firm. As such, we strongly feel that there was no such negligence in our engagements with the individual filing this return. As with false advertising, please see the portion regarding Erik Olthof's CPA license credentials. Based on the facts and circumstances, we feel any refund is unwarranted to the individual filing this complaint. At this point, there is a level of harassment from the individual filing this complaint that is completely unprofessional and inappropriate. We have instructed all further communication from the individual filing this complaint to be directed to our attorney.

  Customer response

  02/16/2024

  Please find attached a YELP description of their company as well advertising as an accountant and book keeping services. I will be sending the IRS before and after audit results under separate file

  Thanks you for your assistance in this matter.

  Customer response

  02/16/2024

  Complaint: 21280717
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  It is false and filled with numerous flat out lies. I have book keepers that will attest to that. 

  Erik Olthoff was assigned as the bookkeeper by Sam  and they were always given full access to all accounting as their site states. He did the 2021 and 2022 returns and three years were audited based on their returns and bookkeeping. They have not nor will do the 2023 returns and those are not in question.

  I am requesting arbitration for their negligence and the fact that the 2021 and 2022 books that they were responsible for that triggered these audits did not even balance nor reconcile and had to be repeated. He failed to file properly in 2022 and had to amend the returns after numerous repeated phone calls and requests as they were filed incorrectly. They have done nothing but stonewall and not accept responsibility for their actions and scapegoat the reasons. 

  Not only did they have full access to all the books and cards and statements they charged for reviews of them. No one is harassing them as they removed all my books and invoices as if they did nt exist from their web portal prior to dates for us to retrieve them and failed to respond for requests of our contracts. 

  Again I am requesting arbitration for their gross incompetence and negligence. 

   

  
  
  Regards,
  
  Shannon Murphy

  Customer response

  02/18/2024

  I have added the original emails in regards to Eriks bookkeeping services. He was granted full access to all the books he just did not have the ability to move money or withdraw it. 

  Business response

  03/02/2024

  This is in response to the additional response from the person filing this complaint. 

  Erik Olthof, CPA was initially assigned to cleanup bookkeeping work in order to prepare the 2021 tax return. The hope was to move beyond that work after it was completed and become the full-time bookkeeper moving forward. Unfortunately, the person filing this complaint was unwilling to provide 3rd party access to her accounts to facilitate ongoing bookkeeping services. As this access is standard industry practice, we did not move forward with providing ongoing bookkeeping services to the person filing this complaint and explained all of this to the person at the time. When performing cleanup bookkeeping work in order to prepare the 2021 tax return, client initially relied upon Quickbooks software to provide year-end statements to satisfy our requirement for account information in order to do the cleanup work. However, Quickbooks did not initially provide all necessary year-end statements satisfactorily for us to perform the cleanup bookkeeping work.  The person filing this complaint is incorrect in stating that we were in any way responsible for the business books for the 2022 tax year, as I just explained how we did not take on the ongoing bookkeeping work beyond the 2021 cleanup bookkeeping work performed. As we have stated multiple times to the person filing this complaint, the figures (and the accuracy/completeness of those figures) reported on a tax return are her responsibility. The person filing this complaint was informed of this fact and signed off on the accuracy and completeness of her tax information each and every time a tax return was filed. In no way does our firm guarantee a lack of audits, reviews, inquiries or adjustments from any taxing authority for any given tax return. 

  I have provided pdfs showing email correspondence going over the following:

  - our firm did not initially have full access to the year-end account statements for the 2021 cleanup bookkeeping work

  - person filing this complaint misunderstood what account access we were requesting, and we declined taking on any further bookkeeping work after the 2021 cleanup work due to the access issue. the bookkeeper we had referred the person making this complaint to had also requested the same access and the person misunderstood then as well.

  Person filing this complaint is responsible for the information on every tax return we produced for her. As a result, any need to amend a tax return is her responsibility. We amended the 2022 return at no additional charge and resolved the matter quickly and sufficiently, to the taxpayer's satisfaction.

  Customer response

  03/04/2024

  Complaint: 21280717
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Again there are flat out lies in their responses. They were given full access to all the books with both bookkeepers they were not given permission to withdraw money or write checks which is what they wanted in addition to a standard book keeping contract. It was questioned and clarified and they had full access. They would be able to prove this had they not erased and removed the files from the portal as soon as I demanded a refund. 

  They are incredibly dishonest and in both responses they have failed to give the contract they wanted me to sign with the IRS as well as proof of their responsibilities. 

  According to Eric Oltoffs license in Colorado it was not effective till December of 2023 therefor yet another lie.

  I sat with Mr Oltoff for all filings of my return it was his responsibility as a supposed "tax expert" and CPA to recognize and and advise as to categories , benefits and deductions. He did not having mis filed these and then being audited for his misfilings. He had incorrectly filed the 2021 return and I had to wait months and numerous calls and emails to get my money back for him to correct the filings prior to. the audit notice. The 2022 filing was just negligent as an "accountant/ tax expert" as to the categories he chose or the review he gave.

   

  Again I am requesting all fees paid to that incompetent firm be returned , the cost of the audit and refiling. and should they not settle this than I am requesting arbitration or moving forward in filing in court. It would seem in their best interest to resolve this. 

  Thanks 
  
  Regards,
  
  Shannon Murphy

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