Complaint Review: Hawkins Cloward & Simister LC - Orem Utah

There were several huge mistakes made from the services provided by this company. First, lets address what I believe is company policy which forces the second mistake made. We hired this company to do our family business schedule k and our family taxes. After months and months and months, I am given personal tax returns that had not taken any itemized deductions, instead they just took the standard deduction. This was a difference for me of over $25,000 + in lost tax savings. I questioned why they did not do this and still to this day no response.

Jeff does call but he leaves messages at the end of the day so I cant call him back. He also never offered to help me itemize the deductions with his tools and since he only gave me a week to review the taxes and fix them. Instead he feels like I should just pay the taxes he has defined for me to pay instead of the refund I actually should get. I then spoke to my elderly parents and found out that they were told by this firm that they cant write off their cash church donations, so it is better to do just a standard deduction.

Well I reviewed their numbers today from taxes and found out my parents could of written off the cash donations up to 50% of the AGI. And there is no way they are donating more than 50% of the AGI. So, this was another large red flag. Since my elderly parents are on a fixed income it has become apparent that they could of greatly used these itemized deductions from the government each year. I am going to go through and audit all of the returns this company has performed for my family. My other concern is for the public in general. My assumption from what I have seen and the complete lack of ability to have a meeting of the minds, that this company is doing the exact same thing to all of its elderly customers.

For those of you that done enjoy doing taxes, it can ve very time consuming to do all the data entry for deductions. For an accountant tax service there is even more work and follow up. So by just telling a client you cant do that, then they save tremendously against the hourly overcharging they are doing for the client. Now they also completely remove the risk of any audit. This is very imprortant. Because they then add on another service called audit insurance. Their rate is actually very high. So, now by reducing or removing completely the risk of audits they are cheating the customers by charging a high audit protection fee. Seems like another red flag. Plus, the audit insurance should be there to protect them form itemizing their deductions if they consider that even at all a risk. But, hmmm.

This all started however as we were trying to geta schedule k done for my business. As the president I assumed I would get emails and calls during the process to address questions and to eventually sign off on the schedule k. However, this did not happen. Instead at the end, I get an email and a mail with the forms. I immediately realize that they went off script and because he never communicated with me HUGE mistakes were made. Including some elements of what could be fraud. They already sent the forms in electronically. Again, I never signed off on these forms. I am the President of my company and I did not approve them being electronically filed. No signature.

Today is 9/13/14. I have two days to fix this entire mess. I may have to create a new Schedule K 1 and re-send it because most if not all the data used on the one created by this firm only used one source and not all sources to verify. I am worried about the reality of the accuracy of the actual data. But they had to do it this way because they dont itemimze their deductions for their clients, then they had to try and wrap the data into a business expense area when in fact it may be more of a home interest item. I am so nervous. But again, they electronically filed this form to the irs without my permission. I have two days to fix all the business and personal tax returns. They never once offered to help me fix them. He just disagreed he made a mistake.  And he let time force me to the corner thinking I would just give up and take it as its. But remember, I did not sign off on this schedule k. I think it could actually be fraudulant. Much of the data is wrong. Wrong source. And then no validation.

So, i fired up TaxAct. Love it. It was actually better advice and help then I got from Hawkins firm. Even tax help and suggestions on how to save more. And at 1/20th the price, you cant go wrong.

If you have had your taxes done by this company in the past, I would immediately go and check and see if they itemized your deductions or just did what I believe is company policy and only gave you a standard deduction. If this is true then if you own your own home then you should immediately have your taxes audited by another tax firm. I think you can go back several years and redo your taxes. You may have a nice big check coming to you. And then go see another company or do it yourself. Really taxes are very easy if you have the right tools and time.

The customer service with this company is so horrible that I cant believe it. Probably the worst experience I have ever had with any company. The arogance and the just shear lack of responsibility from this guy Jeff was shocking. I went here because I had heard Ron Hawkins was the best. Great customer service. Great skills at addressing questions and concerns. Solid tax and finance knowledge. But with him gone, the company is completely lost its ability to satisfy. The back biting talk from the help about the partners scared my parents.

Oh Jeff also claims to not be getting my emails. However, I turned on return receipt and I know he was opening them. I think if you are going to fib, then you need to make sure that technology does not prove you wrong. I have the proof. Jeff you have lost at least three customers out of this poor behavior. I am going to tell everyone how you acted and how you behaved and that you would not back up your own work and immediately offer to help me fix this wasteful work that I now have to thow completely out and start over. Thanks for that. Its not like I have unlimited time and unlimited sleep. But I do this that you were caught in a company policy to only offer standard deductions. It makes a lot of sense as all my families returns you folks did not do any itemizations. But then knowing that this year alone you have lost them a minimum of $25,000 in additional tax credits I sure hope this was not due to shear lazincess. I am hoping you just had a company policy to blindly follow.

If these guys have their own ways of cutting corners, zero commication, total lack or ability to take responsiblity on a mistake, and just very passive agressive behavior, then have they done you real serice or should you question their ability to do the best they can offer.

At no point, with 3 days left to fix all of this did they step back in and say hey, lets fix your concerns. And that means what would happen to me if I got audited and I had to rely on them to be professional for me?

The irony, is I am a business man. I am not trained in taxes but over the years doing it myself I can spot patterns of concern and risk. I see much of that with this company. I hope my message today has helped many of you recover lost monies and helped protect yourselves from a company that just does not care about its customers.