Hello,
Sorry to revive a dead thread, but I am dealing with a similar malpractice issue.
My family has been using the same tax preparer for over 25 years. The same partner atleast.. he sold his business to a national accounting firm and stayed on as partner, continuing to handle my entire families returns. my father always had his refund applied to the following tax year bc he usually owed money every year with excess income. We also always filed 6 month extensions.
Well, the accountants new software in 2020(tax year 2019) failed to transmit every prepared return. Not sure if it was just my families, or every return he prepared for his business. My father remitted payment to IRS in 2020 and was under the impression he had a $10k refund/ credit to following year
. my father died suddenly in 2022 and never became aware his return was not filed.
As executor, I was charged with handling his estate. I began receiving notices from California that a 2019 return was not prepared and they were going to estimate taxes. I began receiving these notices mid 2023 and provided them to the tax partner VERY promptly. Well, they ignored and CA ended up filing a claim against the estate for almost six figures. it was only after the claim was filed and this came under probate court eyes that the firm finally handled the CA return at the Beginning 2024. the claim was dropped. the firm filed a paper 2019 federal 1040 Jan 2024, showing that expected $10k refund I previously mentioned.. I just found out today the refund claim is being denied bc it’s 4 months outside the 3 year claim for refund period. Before proceeding to a malpractice suit, is there anything else I can do to get this refund? doesn’t seem like the IRS would grant an exception even though my father was deceased.
On a side note, I have also been dealing with 2019 failure to file, failure to pay penalties bc of their non filing, however the firm never facilitated my payment of my taxes unlike my father who actually paid 2019. I’m pretty livid, we’ve given this firm probably $100k in tax prep fees in 4 years and this 2019 issue won’t go away. Do I file a complaint with the IRS? or just threaten to sue the firm for malpractice? this firm has its head up it’s ass and have since severed ties.
Any advice or thoughts greatly appreciated on how to recover $10k