Tax agents, anyone use them?

[gav]

You know the ones, they get your tax refund for you and take a fee for doing so.
Anyone had instances where it has all turned to custard?
They advertise that they will organise it so the will have you delinked from your previous agent and will take over as your agent. Also if you read the fine print they claim they can charge you if you are entitled to a refund and they don't receive it.
Which is what happened to me, as apparently my previous agent saw they had changed it so he just changed it back!!
When I got my refund came from the previous agent and didnt think too much of it. Now the new agent has sent me a bill for their fee as they didnt get to deduct it from my refund! And have also threatened me with collection costs if I dont pay it!!
Have pointed out that there own terms and conditions states If I already have a tax agent, the process of linking with XXXXX Ltd will result in me being delinked from my previous tax agent and suggested they didnt do their job properly. Now they claim that it was up to me to cancel the previous agent! errr WTF no where dio they mention that !!
So what to do now ... :(

[Coldrider]

So when you hire a plumber to unblock your drains, and a year later you hire another plumber to unblock your drains, does the first plumber you hired want payment for the job the second plumber did as well?

Well actually the first tax agent acted on your behalf in the second year as he understood he was your tax agent until notified otherwise.
What's the point is why the hell are people sucked into their advertising, they are only your tax agent if things are as simple as looking up your summary of earnings. Anything else and they are not capable of being your tax agent at the cost of their fee.

[Gremlin]

The ones that advertise to get your tax refund via their website are real nasty. First, you can do it yourself via the IRD website, second, yes, they take over as your tax agent. Third I've also heard they're shocking after that first one for actually passing on your refunds/amounts owing after that first year. Basically, they don't do the full job a tax agent should do, they're simply after a cut of your refund.

As to your pickle, you need to read their terms and conditions you would have agreed to (but probably not read). I could almost guarantee they are heavily loaded in their favour.

[Hopeful Bastard]

No idea who you used/using...

But i have used Mytax.co.nz and have found them to be very very helpful. Not only do they have the lowest fees but they have no hidden costs and explain everything on their site.

I have not had one problem with these guys at all. Used them twice now.


Anyway, To your case - Your previous Tax agent can not do that as you have not given him permission to do so. You changed who you were with and that should of been the end of that. But with him changing your case, He has technically broken your rights as a consumer. To get more detailed and better clarification i suggest heading to your local CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau - http://www.cab.org.nz/acabnearyou/Pages/home.aspx)

http://www.cab.org.nz/vat/consumer/services/Pages/ButIdidn%27tagreetothat!.aspx#1

[gav]

Ok, so what happened was the guy I had used previously emailed me early on and said did he want me to act as his agent, I said ok to this. Then later on saw another company advertising with only a flat $34 collection fee, so approached them. They advertise that using them sees them become your new agent and delinking from previous agent. So thought thats ok, etc. But it appears the first agent must get a list or something? and so he just linked back over the top of the second agent unbeknown to me. Maybe I needed to cancel the first guy but that certainly isnt what it indicated when you switch to a new agent. I feel that the second agent didnt do their job good enough to protect a new customer? How come they were unable to identify that they had lost a customer, and why didnt they do more to keep me? I suggested they failed in their contract to delink me from previous agent.
And yes I know its probably just as easy to do it myself ...

[Maha]

I use Tax Refunds and have had no problem at all. I get notified when there is money to collect (which is every year)
Fill out the online form and click send.....then wait for the money to appear in my account.
Which it does, sometimes within days and sometimes within a few weeks.

Don't have a problem with them taking a fee..they are doing a job that I dont have to do.

[eliot-ness]

I use Tax Refunds and have had no problem at all. I get notified when there is money to collect (which is every year)
Fill out the online form and click send.....then wait for the money to appear in my account.
Which it does, sometimes within days and sometimes within a few weeks.

Don't have a problem with them taking a fee..they are doing a job that I dont have to do.

Only one problem with the system. They do all the hard work, and quite rightly, take their cut from any refund. But, they only do half the job. My wife just got three bills from IRD.for taxes owing, no explanation as to why. It took a few days of phone calling and two trips to the local IRD office to sort it. The unpaid bills were for several years ago, the earliest 2004. We had no notification from the agent that tax was owing, but luckily the amount only added up to a few hundred dollars. As IRD have a policy of claiming penalty tax for late payments it could have been very expensive. Better to check all facts before signing up for anything, we're back to doing the work ourselves, it ain't that difficult.

[gav]

Company I'm having grief with at the moment is www.mytaxrefund.co.nz.
Certainly wouldnt recommend them to anyone!

[Usarka]

Fuck tax refund companies up the arse.

It's piss easy to do it yourself through IRD as long as you don't have to phone them up. I swear I'm going to flush their IVR twat's face down the smelliest shitter i can find. Anyway here's a stuff article that tells you how. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/6947397/Tax-refund-windfalls-easily-eroded

Watch out for the tax refund companies, i've heard of them not advising forwarding notices about tax owing, nek minnit reminder from IRD to pay $2k tax within 7 days.

[MarkW]

I am a Tax Agent and an Accountant.

When you decide to use a tax agent IRD rules specify that the client must, in writing, give the tax agent permission to link the client's IRD number to the Tax Agents Agency IRD number. This enables the Tax Agent to access the clients IRD records. No written permission - technically no legal right to link the client. The IRD have NEVER asked to see any of my client's "permission" letters and I have been a tax agent for more than 15 years. So the linking in the IRD computer relies on the integrity of the tax agent.

It is courtesy for a client to tell their old tax agent that they are going somewhere else. That way the tax agent can de-link the client and access to the files and the responsibility to complete the tax returns ceases. In reality - courtesy frequently doesn't exist any more and the first that a tax agent knows that a client has gone elsewhere is when the tax agent gets a notification that the client is no longer linked from the IRD. The IRD issue a report covering this sort of information every week.

If the client goes straight to a new tax agent and the new tax agent links the client the old tax agent is automatically delinked by the IRD. And the old tax agent gets a notification from the IRD.

This (a client going to one of these online places) happens to me from time to time. When I get the "delinked" notice from the IRD I shrug my shoulders and don't do any further work. If there is money owing by the client I send them a letter and a final bill. If the bill is paid I send the client back all of his files. If the bill isn't paid then I keep the files and the new accountant gets no information from me at all.

In 50% of the cases my client has gone to one of these online places, they link first, and then the client finds that the on line place can't actually do the tax return because the client is self employed, has a rental property, overseas investments etc etc. So at that point I'm not the client's tax agent any more. I can guess what's happened and then contact the client about a month later to see if I am still supposed to be doing the work. If yes, they get to fill out a new permission form and the process starts again.

In the case started here there has been considerable confusion generated because the client hasn't actually communicated properly with the original tax agent to confirm that he has a new tax agent.
The old tax agent has taken the e-mail response as permission to continue with the client, done the re-link and the work and now expects to be paid for the work done.

The "new" tax agent hasn't done much but the client has probably signed an authority to be charged whether the work is done or not.

If you have a tax agent you have an on-going relationship - tax happens every year. And if you are going to cease the relationship then you need to do so in a positive manner - an e-mail, a letter or at least a telephone conversation.

So the original poster is probably up for two years accounting fees this year.

Decide who the tax agent is going to be - and then terminate properly the one that is no longer the agent.

Mark W

[Bald Eagle]

Company I'm having grief with at the moment is www.mytaxrefund.co.nz.
Certainly wouldnt recommend them to anyone!

yep. used them last year, got a small refund this year got a bill cos apparently refund was applied to tax owed by ird, but no explanation what that was for, gunna pay them and de-link them pdq

Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2

[Bikemad]

if ya just a lowly wage earner like myself and not running a business i don't understand why anyone would use an agent...........if ya got time to fuck around on here ya got time to go to the IRD website and request a personel tax summary...........hell theres even a page there where you can do the calcs yourself to ensure you are on the right side of the equation before committing.........

[BigAl]

Yep I use nztaxrefunds.co.nz and never had a problem.

They have credited me back money that I'd never have bothered to check and automatically do it every year, no refund no fee.

In fact my wife received back over 700 hundy last year and they took a very small fee so can't recommend them enough.

[Gremlin]

Granted, my tax is almost as simple as it gets (one income, one student loan), but IRD sends me a PTS each year (just did it recently actually), got about $670 back, told them to transfer it to the loan. Never saw a cent, never paid a cent to anyone to do it. Do it every year.

[gav]

Thanks for all the advice.
I'm just pretty pissed off that they can just ignore their own T&C ..
1. Authority to Obtain Information from the IRD

I give authority to Mytaxrefund.co.nz (My Tax Ltd) to link my IRD number to their Agency. I give authority for My Tax Ltd to act as my tax agent for the purpose of preparation of my tax returns or PTS until I notify them otherwise.

I understand that this gives My Tax Ltd the following authorities:

To obtain information from the IRD in regards to my tax types and returns by the following methods - telephone, info express, internet and E Services

If I already have a tax agent, the process of linking with My Tax Ltd will result in me being delinked from my previous tax agent

Reading that, you would expect that they would continue to be your tax agent and maybe try a little harder to keep a customer from being delinked again? I certainly wasnt aware the previous agent had done that until the return came back from them rather than the lastest agent I had appointed. Seems crazy to me that they can be changed back again like that.
Surely Mytaxrefund have failed in the terms of the contract by not acting as my agent when I had given them authority??

[Winston001]

Gav, I'm sorry but you've been a goose. We all do it, nobody's perfect. :D

You confirmed and instructed your original accountant/agent to file your tax return.

Then - without telling that person anything (despite them already working for you) you contract with a second agent. You ask them to file your tax return. You now have two separate people working for you on the same job.

You are the client. So far as IRD are concerned, you are the only person they are interested in. Use as many tax agents as you want, there can only be one taxpayer. It is your responsibility to tell your original agent to stop. Not someone else's - although they in fact did do that so you cannot complain.

IMHO you have two contracts and are bound to pay both parties. Not a happy lesson but we all live and learn. :Punk:

[gav]

OK, fair enough I guess. Would be nice if it was made clearer with these guys that it was up to me to cancel I guess. Thanks for all the advice, cheers!