Accountant not leggit?

[Ethermumska]

My friend hired an accountant to deal with his self assessment, he paid her all upfront and for over 1 month she keeps giving excuses as to why she has not completed the assignment. The latest is she informed him that she completed the work and that she is now waiting for HMRC to approve the changes and that my friend will receive all in the post. He asked her to provide him with some evidence, like a reference number, of the work she has done but she has not responded since.
We are starting to think something is not right. Any advice on whether she should have provided him with a reference number or some other sort of evidence is welcome.

This doesn't sound right - he should receive the tax return back from the accountant to sign before it's submitted. Has he had a copy of the completed tax return from her? I'm guessing no.

Does she work for a company, can your friend escalate?

Can your friend not log into their own HMRC account online and see whether a submission has been made?

He did and there is nothing to see there... the accountant said that it takes a few weeks for the submission & changes to appear on his account, which sounds dodgy to me.

She was recomended by a friend and does not work for any company. Friend gave her his HMRC loggin. She issued invoices with her address etc for all she supposedly did. My friend logged into his hmrc account today and he cant see any submissions. She is claiming it takes a few weeks for this to show on the account..

When a tax return is filed it takes no more than two days to show as received.

As the name suggests I'm a chartered accountant. Submissions to HMRC do sometimes take 24-48 hours to show up online but not weeks. Also a proper accountant will have their own agent login and never use the client's login.

At this time of year it can take a few weeks to get a job done as lots of clients want it done around now, but I am always upfront with clients about that. But from submssion to appearing on HMRC is 72 hours absolute max.

Just so you are aware. Anyone can call themselves and accountant its not a protected term.

Is she a member of an accountancy body? ICAEW, ACCA etc? Any letters after her name?

Yes very much so. Hence my question about accountancy bodies.

Assuming the submission was filed online then the submission would be acknowledged against his account within an hour. A submission would immediately show a value for tax due. For 12-48hrs this value might not be the correct value, but within a week it would be updated to show the actual amount owed.

As you have already been advised. An accountant has their own agency services account and won't require your password. My self assessment is due Jan but we did it last week, accountant and I. I have ALREADY had the letter from HMRC telling me what my refund will be and expect the credit sometimes soon

If the accountant is not a member of a professional accountancy body they should be registered with HMRC for money laundering and you can check if they are registered at the link below

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/money-laundering-regulations-supervised-business-register

No. If she was legit, she would have her own HMRC Agent account and do the return through that, not by logging in to their own gateway. If she has used his gateway, then he would be able to see the progress made on the self assessment. It hasn't been done. She's ripped him off.

Do you not get a visible update on your account when an Agent submits on your behalf?

(I must admit that I've only used an agent once and that was quite a while ago, my own SA is quite straightforward)

Yes you do.

Definitely dodgy. Your friend should have been involved in the HMRC registration process, and be able to log onto their own self assessment account. Also, as already stated the accountant sends the tax return/accounts to the trader for approval prior to submission. Remember the trader is responsible for whatever is submitted, not the accountant - they are merely an agent and not responsible for accuracy of content - the trader carries the can. Your friend should contact HMRC to find out what, if anything has been done - they themselves are responsible for late filings etc so don't wait.

Thanks for the info. So the work she is doing is re-doing his tax returns for the previous 2 years incl this one as she claims he overpaid. Would this service also show up within max 72 on his account?

Thanks for the info. So the work she is doing is re-doing his tax returns for the previous 2 years incl this one as she claims he overpaid. Would this service also show up within max 72 h on his account?

Only the 2022/23 and 2023/34 returns can be amended by filing new tax returns. An overpayment relief claim would need to be made for earlier years.
Are the accountants fees in any way based on the refunds received ie they will charge a % of the refund?

She charged a flat fee for her services, £390, which friend paid already.

I agree with Spannasaurus re just 22/23 and 23/24 being able to be submitted online. The deadline for submitting 23/24 and amending 22/23 is 31st January 2025 so there is still time. Once submitted, they would both be available to view within 24-48 hours usually.

Depending on what content there is in them, £390 for two tax returns seems reasonable.

So what is she saying has been submitted online?

If she's needed to do an overpayment relief claim, this is done via paper (but I think needs to be signed by the client so the client should have seen it).

If she's submitted the 2023/24 or amended the 2022/23 return, she should have an electronic submission receipt.

If she's sent paper copies of the 2023/24 or 21/22 tax return then she's right, it will take a few weeks to go but it would be highly unusual for this to be the case and again would need to be signed by the client.

Get your friend to check the repayments section on their gateway account to see if any repayments have been made recently by HMRC

So she 'submitted' a claim for the 2 previous tax years online, as she found evidence that they were improperly done...but nothing is showing up on friends hmrc account (she is using his login as she clearly isnt registered)