Complaint Review: BARBARA A SERRIDGE CPA - Washington New Jersey

we are dissatisfied with her performance as a CPA for our small business where she did not take enough of our business expenses out; only $10K which is ridiculous since everything we do and every expense we have is a business expense. She charged us $260 dollars which we paid in order to receive her work both on the flash drive I had given her and the file which she prepared HOWEVER we did not file and INSTEAD we filed an extension for 2014 taxes because her file is competely and absolutely wrong. We also reported her for her non work to the Better Business Bureau for the express purpose of getting her terrible performance on record since no one else has reported her for being incompetent.

Her office is unprofessional and resides in the unfinished part of her basement with water heaters and other things in the way and the smell of cat litter and p*** is very intense especially on her disgusting sofa in her make shift waiting room.  She did not perform taxes for a small business but when we first met in the summer of 2014 this is what she told me she did.

With regards to our taxes, she did not take all my expenses into consideration because all of my expenses are from business as I have my own business (LLC) and take taxes out myself at the end of the year. She is so incompetent that she told me I owed the Affordable Care Act (medical) a reimbursement since I underestimated my adjusted net income for the year? I know this is categorically wrong because I am a bookkeeper and know exactly what I needed taken out but I refuse to do my own taxes - and that is what CPAs are for anyway. Then she told me that my Federal effective tax rate is 44.89% which is ridiculous as the tax rate is supposed to be 33% or lower and that I needed to pay the Federal Government $8K on my total income of $48K. Seriously she did not fill out any of my schedules correctly and now I am on extension until October 2014 with the hopes of locating another accountant or CPA who knows what the heck he's doing when it comes to small business and get the right amount of expenses into my tax record to pay the proper taxes for both State & Federal.

This woman even suggested I take a full time job and do my frelance work on the side so I could pay my taxes correctly? She's daft! I could have done a better job using turbo tax than she did. I am writing this report because I know she ripped me off and she is now badmouthing me to people because I filed with the BBB. This is what she is saying, which, if she persists or if I ever see it again, I will sue her for libel as I have my extension papers and never said the things she is porporting I said as follows:

This is her response: PLEASE NOTE MY BUSINESS STARTED OFFICIALLY IN NJ IN FEB 2008. I was also not UNAWARE I know I did not owe that much on my taxes which proves to me that this woman is not whom she says she is and is not aware how to do Small Business Taxes. This is an attempt to get the record straight so others are not duped as I was for the price of $260. I do not expect anything more to happen and Serridge will be able to keep her $260 dollars even if she did not properly earn it. 

Response:

All of the accusations that the client is saying are untrue. I first met the client last summer when she was in the market in finding a new accountant. We discussed her needs and I did not hear from her again until the beginning of March 2015. This complaint is the first time I have heard of any problems with my service. Client claims that she was dissatisfied with the preparation of her tax return. Client attempted to have me take expenses which were not related to her business. All allowable expenses were deducted. IRS guidelines say that only expenses directly related to a business and that are ordinary and necessary can be deducted on a return. Even though the taxpayer is ultimately responsible for the information on the return, the preparer can be subject to a preparer penalty if they knowingly put erroneous information on a tax return. She also wanted me to deduct property taxes which were billed to her but she told me that she did not pay. Client called me and told me that she wanted to pick up a copy of the return and her updated Quickbooks file. Said that she wanted to pay me for my services, but would either file the return herself or go to another accountant who wasn’t so honest. My office is in basement of home, but office is finished and looks and feels professional. I have the office in my home so as to keep my rates reasonable. The condition of my office also has nothing to do with the quality of services rendered. I am registered with the State of NJ. I hold a valid license both as an individual and as a firm. I am listed with the NJ Department of Community Affairs. CPA license 20CC02185900 and Firm License 20CB00426700. I am also registered with the IRS and have PTIN P00174477. Client was unaware that she would owe so much on her taxes since 2013 was her initial year of business. Her previous accountant did not inform her of the 15.3% of Social Security taxes that would be due on top of the Federal incomes taxes. She also owes a penalty for underreporting her income to the Health Insurance Marketplace and having to repay the health care credit. She was filing as Married Filing Separately – the highest tax rate filing status. The fee of $260 charged is more than a fair price. She paid her last accountant $350. Part of the engagement was to update her Quickbooks chart of accounts, of which I spent around 2 hours, but only charged $50 for that service. I believe that she is pulling a scam for free services since she had me give her a copy of the un-filed prepared return. Client recently lost her job so I am thinking this is her way of getting out of paying for services performed. The client signed a paper that stated that she wanted to pick up the return without my filing it. Upon her request she was given an updated Quickbooks file and a copy of the return. She never signed my rep letter which would have spelled out the scope of the engagement. I pride myself in giving quality & professional service. I have never had a complaint against me before. I prepare around 400 individual and business returns a year. Client is requesting that I refund her $260 paid to me for the services that I performed. I would have been happy to refund the fee to her had she not asked for a copy of the finished return. There is no proof that she did not take the information that I gave her and prepared her own return with it. If you find in her favor only then will I issue the refund.

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I certainly do have the proof that I did not file - I have copies of the 2014 tax extension I filed instead of filing her erronious figures.