Can they add costs without telling me?

[helpnotsurewhattodo]

I'm posting here for traffic and named changed because I know the accountant uses this site.

I am a sole trader for a very small side-line business. I went to a recommended place for a couple of years with no problems. This year just like the other years I sent an email asking what the price would be to do my taxes, they sent a one sentence email back saying the price this year is £X plus VAT. I said ok and sent them all my details like I have the previous years.

I chased them up after about 2-3 weeks to say 'just to confirm you got my information' they responded about a week later and said yes they got it and would be starting on it soon. I said ok.

Over the next few weeks I get a couple of emails asking me the same type of questions I was asked last year and I respond. Then I get an email saying how much tax I owe and I nearly hit the roof. It was outrageously high and I couldn't believe it was accurate. I questioned 'how can this be right?' I get no response. I follow it up a week later and I get a response 'you just need to pay it'. I can't afford it and again how can this even be right? I didn't know how they had reached that amount so I questioned it. I kept insisting this can't be right. They ignored my messages and I had to keep chasing. They eventually send me their spread sheet so I can see their figures and I can see that several hundred pounds of expenses were left off so I tell them that. These were expenses that I had sent in my original email. I also remembered that I had bought a laptop and something else on another card (because it had cash back) and I asked if I could claim those expenses as well. I was ignored and I had to chase several times. Finally I get another email that (didn't respond to my previous questions) but had a new tax figure that seemed more accurate so I signed off on the tax submission.
Then I get the accountant's invoice and instead of it being £X plus VAT that I was told it would be, instead I get £X plus £Y plus £Z plus VAT. I was told that I had 7 days to pay. The invoice was sent on Wednesday 2 Oct and it said payment must be made Monday 7 Oct, so their 7 days included the weekend. I saw the invoice on Friday and sent an email asking why I was being charged the two extra fees. No response. I messaged them again this afternoon and received a response that said the extra fees were because what I sent them was a mess and they also had to spend extra time because of my questions.

:O What I sent them is what I always send them. If it's a problem then why have they never said anything? Why was I not told at any point that asking questions incurs additional charges? I was only asking questions because I knew the original amount they sent me was incorrect, I had to keep chasing that because they were not responding to me over a period of weeks. It turns out their figures were wrong and I didn't owe as much as they said I had owed, I don't see that is my fault. If they had done the figures right to start with then I wouldn't have asked questions and they wouldn't have had to redo them.

My question is what do I do now?
Can they add charges without telling me? At no point have they said anything about adding fees. I was shocked to see it on the invoice.
I'm worried if I don't pay they will start adding charges or late fees? They seem to think they can do whatever they want so what will happen next?
Should I pay my quoted amount which is the £X plus VAT today (on time) and then continue to dispute the additional fees?

AIBU to think they should not charge extra fees without saying anything about it?

Thanks for reading a looooooooooooooooooooooong post!

I'd pay what I signed up for minus the extra fees, terminate your working relationship and go from there.

Do you have a contract or terms and conditions? Hard to see how they can challenge / chase you for it if not.

My accountant doesn't charge for questions/ calls.

You will need to check the terms and conditions, if any, that came with the original quote. It's fairly standard to have a clause in such terms stating that there are situations in which the charge will be higher than the quote.

I would ask for a breakdown of the additional fee, and dispute it.
I think paying the original quote is a good idea.
If they are not helpful, perhaps contact their governing body for help.

You need a local accountant you can drop into not this shit show.

Pay the fees, then get a new accountant

Thank you for your responses. I got home late from my full time job and was panicking about what to do because the accountant just seems to be making it up as they go along at this point and I'm worried how out of control this could become. 'shit show' YES!! That sums it up exactly!!!

Do you have a contract or terms and conditions?

No not that I'm aware of. I haven't received or signed anything and I looked all through their website last night and couldn't see anything. Each year I email 'How much will it cost to do my taxes this year?' and they respond with '£X plus VAT'. There were no clauses about possibly charging more or anything. To me it has always sounded like a fixed fee and up until this year I've always been charged what I was quoted. If they're no longer happy to work in that way then they should have said 'going forward we will charge by the hour' or whatever they want to do but I don't think it's fair to suddenly decide you're charging more and not communicate that until you send the invoice and then I'm left confused and querying the invoice and they're not responding so I'm having to chase them about their invoice.
The only thing I can see on their website is they're a member of 'aat' which doesn't look like a regulating body. I'll call them now and see if they can help.

AAT have professional standards that their members must meet:

https://www.aat.org.uk/membership/standards-requirements

To be frank, your accountant sounds rubbish. And actually, they sound like just a bookkeeper rather than an actual accountant if they're only AAT members. (AAT is accounting technicians rather than accountants).

Thanks @HundredMilesAnHour When I phoned the AAT were quite helpful and they've told me to file a complaint with them because the 'accountant' is not being clear on her billing process and not responding when I ask questions. I hate to go down the route of a complaint but I don't know what else to do because I've had no response at all from the accountant since my last message on Monday and I don't know if they've actually sent off my taxes yet or not? I'm very happy to pay the price I was originally quoted but I'm not paying the new amount she's just made up and especially if she's continuing to not respond.

Practising accountant here. As PP says, aat members have standards they must adhere too. It sounds like your accountant doesn’t have capacity to process your work efficiently. This itself is breach of standards as capacity is something that much be considered when acting because you have experienced, the outcome is errors and delays and clients potentially paying too much tax.

A lot of clients think their records are good and they are not, and making no judgment on your records (and that you had not changed your method), the way to deal with that is an extra work order. I.e., go back to the client,
explain the issues with the records and ask if they want to sort them and re submit or if the accountant should and bill for the extra work.

I’d recommend paying the quote and challenging the additional as these were not agreed upfront. Ask for a copy of your letter of engagement which you should have been given. Letters of engagement are best practice (to avoid these issues) though not mandatory so your accountant may not have issued one. This should be enough for them to withdraw the extra fees. And then the complaint route.

Accountant's charge their time in billable units. There are 10 units in an hour, so each unit is 6 minutes. Every time you contact them the time they spend talking to you, reading your email, investigating your query, goes against your job.

That said, unless something is majorly wrong, you don't bill over your quote. Here it looks like they messed up and had to rework. That's on them and if they are over the hours they budgeted for your job, then they should write the time off. You did send late info but unless the job was printed and marked up for signing, it would be 15 mins to add.

As said above, pay the quote. Ask for an itemised bill for the job, listing what was done, time taken and cost. This is tracked with their timesheet system.

If they haven't been tracking as above, then I would not pay the extra - how would they know the time things took to charge you for them. They gave you a quote and did not advise of the extra charges, so I'd be reluctant to pay regardless of what they send back.

You do say that you forgot to include some expenses initially and only made them aware of this after they had drawn up your figures, you disputed those initial accounts and the accountant agreed that they had missed some expenses. The accounts were altered to adjust for the accountants error AND to adjust for your error as well.
I would pay the initial quote , and an additional fee related to the time it took to correct your error.

My accountant died t bill me til after she's filed my return. And she always send it to me for approval - even if you pay for an accountant it is up to you to ensure the figures are correct. I'm amazed they billed you without giving you the tax return to approve.
As fur adding a couple of deductible expenses - that's a few minutes work surely.
I often have a couple questions from me and a couple questions from her, a bit of clarification etc. but the bill remains the same. It's a flat fee unless something extraordinary is required - a few missed deductibles is not 'extraordinary'! An inheritance requiring more paperwork, selling a piece of artwork and calculating capital gains - those might be considered extra.
I'd raise a complaint - also about the length of time they took and lax communication - and then find another accountant for next time. Losing your business will make your message clear.

No they were too about the expenses and missed them out, not the op. Plus they were asked a basic question and didn't respond. Hence it's there fault.
My accountant issued had dealt with all sorts of problems caused by the inland revenue...and hasn't changed anything extra

Thank you for the responses. Apologies I've been so busy with work I haven't had a chance to respond. I had sent the email to challenge the two extra charges, there was no reply so I followed that up with another email to say I haven't had a response, your bill is due and I'm not paying it until someone explains why I'm being charged extra. I got a very brief response to say they had done extra work, there was no explanation as to why I was being charged two extra fees. I quickly responded to challenge why I hadn't been told that I was going to be charged extra fees. I waited nearly a week and they did not respond so I sent another email saying I was going to complain to the AAT if I wasn't able to resolve the issue with them. I got a response within minutes saying they were taking away the two added fees and I needed to pay the original quote. I immediately paid the original quote but I received no response nor receipt. Days later I received a further invoice from them telling me to pay the original quoted amount. I emailed to say I had paid the quoted amount and that I would like a receipt. They responded with a receipt and a message that said I would need to find another accountant because they would not do my taxes next year. 😳 I haven't responded. I had planned to go to another accountant next year anyway after my extremely poor experience this year but I'm still stunned by this whole situation.

@allmycats You have that a bit backwards and twisted. And when I asked if additional expenses could be added, that was an opportunity for them to say 'there is an extra fee for that'. The accountant quoted me a flat fee rate as they always have. At no point has the accountant ever said 'I'm going to charge you extra' or 'I might charge you extra' or 'charging you extra fees is at my discretion'. I can't find anything on their website that says 'we might suddenly charge you fees that we won't tell you about or explain'. If they had added all the expenses correctly in the first place and updated my address in the first place (all their mistakes), I probably would have signed it all off as I normally do and that would have been that. Instead I knew their figures were wrong and because they were not responding to me I had to keep chasing and challenging them for months and in going over and over and over my accounts again and again trying to figure out where the problem was (the problem was that they did not add the expenses they were suppose to add, their mistake) there was an opportunity for me to find extra expenses I forgot to add. Instead of apologising for their mistakes and all the extra time, stress and work it's cost me and the sleepless nights it's cost me, the only response I got was a bill with extra fees on it that you're saying I should pay because I asked if I could add things I forgot?