More bad accountants 2025
As usual new clients came to us for various reasons, generally bad service and little care, or just plain super expensive fees. Here are the case studies.
Mr B.
Mr B had parted ways with his accountant and company. He had sold out to the other shareholder. Immediately, the charted accountants treated him like a lepper. He had no cooperation, little information was given, returns filed without his consent and was basically cast adrift. The Chartered accountant firm was very large. They offered to prepare his personal tax return for $1700.00 plus GST. All they had to do was fill in the return – 10 minutes tops.
There was not a lot of care for Mr B. The former accountants were in a tower in central Auckland. We were in the same locale as Mr B. Now Mr B has set up his own successful civil construction and engineering firm and receives ongoing friendly guidance monthly at affordable pricing. We put Mr B on an MYOB monthly pan …for $10.35 GST incl per month.
Mrs E.
Came to us via Bark after reading our website. Mrs E had terminated her former large Chartered Firm in Aukland as she was completely dissatisfied with the service and charges. Mrs E had in fact never spoken to her accountant at all…just fill in the form please and we will prepare your accounts and tax. The tax return was filed. However the accountants did not take reasonable care for the 2025 year and estimated provisional tax at $12500.00. The issue here is that if the accountants thought about things just a little more, they should have realized that for the 2025 year mortgage interest could now be introduced and there would not be any provisional tax to pay. We prepared the 2025 accounts and rental and tax, at a significantly less cost than that of the former accountants, perfect result achieved and we got the $12500.00 provisional tax reversed.
Mr F.
Mr F also came to us via Bark. He liked the sound of what we said. He was frustrated with his local chain accounting franchise firm, They charged fees for very little, signed him up for $40.00 plus a month Xero accounting subscription, which he did not know how to use and also got him on payroll software.
We put Mr F on a $10.35 MYOB subscription with up to 4 employees added in for only $23.00 a month incl GST, as opposed to $66.00 a month.
We have provided Mr B with ongoing support and advice, and our fees are less than he was paying previously.
Mr L.
Mr L came to us from a recommend. Mr L had been through the tax accountant grinder pretty much, sent down the river by his first accountant who ripped him off massively, (and did nothing except provide bad advice). Mr L then went to a local chain accounting franchise firm, and they charged an exploratory fee plus $8000.00 to bring Mr L up to date. Then he was left on his own with over $60000.00 in debt. The accounts were ok, but our review showed flaws and lack of care including keeping very very low cost assets going for depreciation. Mr L was also placed on an $80.00 a month XERO accounting subscription. We offered the same thing, but with MYOB at $10.35 a month. Mr L grabbed that deal.
The other disappointing aspect of care and guidance (or lack of it) is the Mr L was GST registered and was nowhere near the compulsory threshold and did not need to be GST registered. We took care of that for Mr L. The others didn’t.
Mr U
Mr U came to us via our site. Mr U had had a call from IRD stating make contact and pay by 3 p.m tomorrow or else. I asked what the problem was: “He was with a large Hamilton firm of chartered accountants before but he just gave up thinking that he could not fix everything as there was also a period where he went overseas and got stranded overseas during Covid log down. He tried again when he came back but he finally think he could not fix it and yes everything is in a mess I feel stressed thinking about his situation. He felt that the accountants were not helping him much too.”
We had to file the 2018 tax return and accounts all the way up to 31 March 2025 and multiple GST returns, then deregister for GST.
We did all of that in less than 3 months!
Here is what the client said:
We sincerely thank you and your team for an amazing job in sorting out our messy business account. At first, we felt hopeless thinking that no one could ever fix it but thanks to you for a wonderful job in mending it.
We thank you from the bottom of our hearts and we are looking forward to the next step.
Thank you again.
Kind regards,
D and U