Hello all,
I'm a long time lurker but first time posting and seeking the collective wisdom of ozbargainers pleasee! Warning long post ahead.
My situation is that I've refused to pay an accounting fee of $295 this year with a company that I have been for the last 3 years. Essentially I was told that for the price of $295, included in that price would be completion of my tax return AND the provision of taxation advice for the year. I have this specifically stated in an email correspondence and so I replied by email for them to proceed.
I have asked a few questions about tax and found that their replies were either taking couple of days to a week to come through and were very simple/brief, things that I found by searching the internet myself. Hence I was not entirely satisfied by what I was led to believe.
I later received the invoice which states $295 and simply states:
"Our fee for professional services rendered for the period ended 4 October 2017 in connection with:
Preparation of an income tax return for XY for the year ended 30 June 2017."
There was no inclusion of the provision of taxation advice.
When I contacted the accountant who first wrote to me and asked for a statement of that effect to be included in the invoice, she replied saying that the provision of taxation advice was something that she does out of good will. I rebutted that by providing her original correspondence to me in which she ignored promptly and simply state that payment is due as it was what I agreed to in signing "the engagement letter". The engagement letter that she speaks of is the one that I signed back in 2015 and the cost of the service back then was $50. There were also many other things in the engagement letter which was not provided to me and when I told her of this she simply forwarded to the credit department of her company who has little interest to make any reasonable attempt for coming to a mutually beneficial agreement.
I have attempted to get a 3rd opinion on this matter via the various non-legal government avenues (eg ACCC, ACIS, Financial Ombudsman Service) who frankly have been not very useful and saying that its the other parties' responsibilities. Only the Office of Fair Trading have taken an interest in my case and when they liased with the accounting company, I was advised that a lodgement has already been made to QCAT in early December and they are now seeking $408 ( 295 for "professional service", 88 for "bailiff/sheriff/service fee", and $25.45 for "filling fee"). Office of fair trading had nothing more to add after that. I have yet to hear anything from QCAT.
So in summary, I guess my questions are:
1) I attempted to resign just to avoid the hassle and pay the initial fee but the accounting company now wants $408 in order to withdraw the QCAT application. Has anyone been in similar situation with QCAT and know actually what happens with the process and outcome? Can I be expected to pay a lot more if the court rules against me?
2) Since I haven't signed any engagement letter with them this year then would I still be accountable for "rendering their service" considering then the only thing in writing would be the email correspondence? Which to them seem to mean nothing if its working against them.
Thanks to those that read to the end :)
If your accountant is either a CPA or CA, both of these organisations have their own dispute/complaint mechanism which may resolve the issue more quickly than QCAT.