Dodgy Accountant and corporation Tax

[psychocandy]

Dying to see what happens here....

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

.. snip..

3. Get a full audit done by the new accountant. Tell them you want a review of the past 5 years of a company's accounts and ask that they give you a quote to do this. If you can't get a fixed price then agree an hourly rate and an estimate of how long it would take. If your books are straight forward then this should be fairly easy, if they are in a mess then you are going to pay the price. Either way, your company must be audited to get to the bottom of what's happened.

.. snip..

6. Take careful note of what Clare@InTouch says. Don't let your company be struck while there is still money in the bank or you will lose the money!!!

Good advice from both Clare and Wanderer. However re Wanders point 3 - careful with the word audit - it has a specific meaning and risk profile in accountants eyes, tied in with the Companies Act. This is not what OP needs - what they need is someone competent, professional and, dare I say it regulated, to look over things and advise, possibly re work accounts if necessary. I think "review" would be a better instruction than "audit".

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

Google "Darren Upton" to see why.

Or "Howard Derham" - I understand he can't control his PR from behind a prison wall

Construction tax advisor jailed for fraud Ι Construction Enquirer
Construction Enquirer › News
Nov 8, 2012 – Howard Marcus Derham worked as a tax advisor and agent for twenty years claiming tax repayments on behalf of Self Assessment customers.

[trailanderror]

Thank you for all your replies, and suggestions everyone. I will look into all what that has been mentioned on here, and get back in touch soon

Trailanderror

[jmo21]

Thank you for all your replies, and suggestions everyone. I will look into all what that has been mentioned on here, and get back in touch soon

Trailanderror

you owe him money then eh?

[Alan @ BroomeAffinity]

you owe him money then eh?

That would be my first thought too, tbh.

[TestMangler]

A word of caution though.

A colleague of mine ran into issues with a bent accountant who went bust a few years ago.

His new accountant went to HMRC (not sure this was a sensible move) to get assistance clearing up some of the mess. This ended up as a full blown IR35 case which lasted 2.5 years !!

He was eventually cleared (he was on the point of retirement when this all happened) and ended up sending a **** You letter to HMRC and moving to Spain.

[trailanderror]

you owe him money then eh?

No, we do not owe our accountant any money at all. We pay him his man hours dealing with our yearly accounts. That is one thing we have always done.

My partner has a well paid job, so has no need to avoid any payments to our accountant that are deemed necessary as a company goes.

Trailanderror

[Bagpuss]

There's more to this than meets the eye, I reckon. On the surface it seems extremely dodgy but if he was operating an Upton-style scam, then I don't think he'd have send the cheque out in error. And would he be sending emails asking for it back? Thus creating a trail of evidence all over the place?

But I can't figure out a reason why an HMRC cheque paid to the OP could possibly be due to the accountant. Unless the OP owes him fees and the repayment was mandated to the accountant and the admin error is with HMRC and the cheque has been issued to the OP in error (and not in accordance with a mandate?) The plan being that the accountant is going to return the cheque to HMRC and ask them to re-issue to the accountant.

That doesn't quite fit with the 'phone call from the accountant saying he was sending it. Ah sod it, I dunno. It's too late on a friday to play Columbo.

Upton conned me in a very similar fashion to this. He filled a null return to HMRC and told me I owed the £s that my accounts indicated. I paid HMRC, and of course there was no debt on the account, and I put the account into credit so they issued a refund to me, via a cheque in the post. Obviously I wasn't expecting a refund and he said was a mistake. He got it cancelled but then instructed them to pay him (pretending to be myco but with his account details) by BACS. HMRC do not check to see if the company name matches the bank details. Nor do they take responsiblity for paying your money to somebody else.

PM me the accountant name, they could be an associate of said accountant.

[SueEllen]

No, we do not owe our accountant any money at all. We pay him his man hours dealing with our yearly accounts. That is one thing we have always done.

Even if you did owe the accountant money they should ask for it politely and not scream abuse at you down the phone. (BTW if the accountant has done this more than once and does it again just tell him you are going down to the local station to report him to the plod - nothing will happen but if they are crooked every bit of evidence helps.)

Also an accountant shouldn't be keeping clients' money if they don't have a client account.

Any professional - accountant, solicitor, whatever with a client account will tell you in writing that they have one when you sign up with them.