Personalised tax service that just doesn’t add up
A.W. writes: We planned to emigrate to Australia, but because of problems selling our house we were unable to go. But we kept bank accounts there to use when visiting family. We asked Christina Pease, of TaxAssist in Maldon, Essex, to deal with our tax affairs. She told us she would charge £250 each and would deal with Revenue & Customs on our behalf. When she produced some accounts, she wanted £600 each, which we paid, but she did not respond to letters or calls. We wrote to TaxAssist head office and contacted the Financial and Legal Ombudsmen, Citizens Advice and Trading Standards, all to no avail. We had excellent help from the Revenue, whose staff visited us and sorted out our affairs, telling us Pease had not contacted them. We handed over £1,200 to Pease but then we ended up having to deal with Revenue & Customs ourselves.
TAXASSIST is a franchise organisation with its headquarters in Norwich, but its local offices are run by self-employed people like Chris- tina Pease responsible for their own businesses. In promotional material, she says she offers ‘a personalised service’. So, what went wrong? I invited comments from her and from TaxAssist.
Pease did not respond, but the head of TaxAssist, Karl Sandall, told me on her behalf that the price she charged for calculating the tax position on six years of interest on your Australian savings was reasonable. I do not disagree. He also gave me a copy of a letter he said had been sent to you by Pease on February 26. She said her work was complete when she sent figures to the tax office, without waiting for the Revenue to agree how much was due.
This was odd because you later told me the letter was actually delivered by hand more than a fortnight later – on March 15. Pease told TaxAssist she posted the letter in February but it must have gone astray. But how then would she know to deliver a copy by hand? This is not the only thing that does not add up.
If Pease believed she had completed her work when she sent off her calculations to the tax office, why then months later did she tell TaxAssist’s head office – in response to your complaint about her silence – that she was waiting for a response from Revenue & Customs and would write to you ‘very shortly’, which she did not.
The bottom line is that Sandall has been helpfully investigating and has also been in direct contact with you. He told me: ‘I have to assist Christina to ensure she is OK and her practice is efficient, and this is not a symptom of other issues.’ If this has not already happened, the Maldon branch will be getting a visit from head office. Urged by Sandall, Pease has now sent you a partial refund of £700, which I think is reasonable and you have accepted.
This is not quite the end of the story though. You complained to the Institute of Financial Accountants that Pease failed to reply when you asked what was happening about your tax affairs.
The Institute wrote to her but it says she failed to reply. Its own enquiries have since been bumped up a notch. Perhaps a hand-delivered response is on its way.