Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

[Zigus]

In February I took a job as an independent contractor for 6 months. I was quite reluctant to take a self-employed position due to the extra responsibilities, for example doing my own taxes. The CEO of the company told me this was not a problem as his friend would do my taxes as a favor (i.e. pro bono). Two to three months after I started working with the company (i.e. around the end of the tax year in April 2015) I email the guy and he asked me to meet him and bring my bank statements (for the 2 months in question). I met him and took the bank statements with the relevant information highlighted, he took some photocopies and proceeded to talk about holidays and the weather for 20 minutes. At no point did we ever discuss payment/price for the service and I never signed any contract with this guy's company, although I did register them as my tax agent. A month passed and I asked about the taxes and if everything was OK, he told me not to worry because the taxes were due in January 2016, however I insisted I wanted to pay them as soon as possible but never head back from him. Now my contract is over and much to my surprise on the same exact week my contract ended I got a letter telling me I have 1 month to pay 240£ for:

"Meeting with you to discuss your tax affairs. Preparation of your Tax Return for the year ended 5 April 2015 and submission of same to HM Revenue & Customs. Advising you of the tax due for the year ended 5 April 2015"
I can't even figure out what he means by advising me on my taxes maybe he means when he asked me if I was collecting child tax credits... I then confronted the CEO of the company and the first thing he told me was that it was a really good price and that I needed to understand the difference in doing my tax return and tax advice. This leads me to think he somehow was in contact with his friend since I never mentioned "Advising you of the tax due for the year ended 5 April 2015" was listed on the letter (and the timing of the letter coinciding exactly with the end of my contract). When I said I only went to his friend because he told me he was doing this as a favor (he literally used the words pro bono), he just deflected and eventually just said "we'll talk latter", which never came. Unfortunately I do not have proof that he told me that (I can to get him to admit it) but regardless I would like to know what can I do in this case. 240£ seems outrageous for what can only be described as taking a photocopy of 2 bank statements and copying the information (I myself highlighted) into some form and mailing it. Any help is appreciated.

[wales01man]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

Do you work for nothing. accountants do not normally as he was registered with taxman as your representative hard to see you can avoid paying.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

In February I took a job as an independent contractor for 6 months. I was quite reluctant to take a self-employed position due to the extra responsibilities, for example doing my own taxes.

It is perfectly possible to do your own tax returns unless your affairs are very complicated. The advantage of using a professional is that they may be able to help you pay less tax by using their specialist knowledge to maximise deductions.

The CEO of the company told me this was not a problem as his friend would do my taxes as a favor (i.e. pro bono). Two to three months after I started working with the company (i.e. around the end of the tax year in April 2015) I email the guy and he asked me to meet him and bring my bank statements (for the 2 months in question). I met him and took the bank statements with the relevant information highlighted, he took some photocopies and proceeded to talk about holidays and the weather for 20 minutes. At no point did we ever discuss payment/price for the service and I never signed any contract with this guy's company, although I did register them as my tax agent. A month passed and I asked about the taxes and if everything was OK, he told me not to worry because the taxes were due in January 2016, however I insisted I wanted to pay them as soon as possible but never head back from him. Now my contract is over and much to my surprise on the same exact week my contract ended I got a letter telling me I have 1 month to pay 240£ for:

"Meeting with you to discuss your tax affairs. Preparation of your Tax Return for the year ended 5 April 2015 and submission of same to HM Revenue & Customs. Advising you of the tax due for the year ended 5 April 2015"
I can't even figure out what he means by advising me on my taxes maybe he means when he asked me if I was collecting child tax credits...

Pro bono usually refers to legal work but I guess the meaning can be easily understood in other contexts. Advising you of the tax due would be your tax return, not your tax credits.

I then confronted the CEO of the company and the first thing he told me was that it was a really good price and that I needed to understand the difference in doing my tax return and tax advice.

If he told you he'd "do your taxes", that would mean preparing your tax return, not just telling you how to do them yourself!

Do you work for nothing. accountants do not normally as he was registered with taxman as your representative hard to see you can avoid paying.

People sometimes do things as a favour and the OP was [mis]lead to believe that would be the case here.

I could also send LB a letter asking them to pay me for my posting here even though initially I said I'd do it for free, do you think they'll just pay whatever I ask for? :confused2: Has he even produced an invoice or just a letter?

[wales01man]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

Still say that the Money is owed as the evidence would be the fact you registerd him as your tax agent

FP I did hours of work Pro bono when I was a Builder but only after I had been paid for other work feel free to invoice me if you reply ill pass it on to my accountant Mr wastebin

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

I have named a solicitor who is acting pro bono as my legal representative in a case, that doesn't mean I'm going to have to pay him.

It will be up to the accountant if he wants to issue a claim, to convince the court that the OP had agreed to pay £240 for his services. A valid contract requires an offer and acceptance of the offer. Having registered as a tax agent may indicate acceptance of the accountants offer to do the tax returns but where did the £240 come from? Even if the OP had agreed to pay, he could have agreed to pay £50 or £100 or to give him his old iPhone or to fix his shower in exchange for the accounts. How will he be able to establish the OP agreed to pay £240 for the service to have a valid contract for that amount? :confused2:

[wales01man]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

Providing proof as always can be a problem they could say it was a verbal agreement. May I suggest the OP makes an offer of say £50 to £100 or take a chance its not pursued

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

A contract doesn't have to be in writing but if there is nothing written, it can be difficult to prove anything one way or other, unless there were witnesses. In civil litigation the burden of proof is on the claimant though, so if the accountant wanted to issue proceedings he'd be the one who would have to show not only that the OP agreed to use his tax services but also that he agreed to pay him the sum of £240 and I just can't see how he could ever do that. :confused2: :noidea: The OP on the other hand, could put him and his client on the spot by saying he could get a WS from his client who offered his services for free.

Personally I wouldn't make any offers for the reasons above. A claim hasn't been issued and I can't see one going very far.

[Zigus]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

Thank you both for your replies, much appreciated!

To answer your question FlamingParrot, I just received a letter saying:
"
Request for Payment

To Professional Services:

Meeting with you to discuss your tax affairs.
Preparation of your Tax Return for the year ended 5 April 2015 and submission of same to HM Revenue & Customs.
Advising you of the tax due for the year ended 5 April 2015

Total £240
"

This is the first time payment was ever mentioned and I certainly never agreed to anything other them registering them as my tax agent. What do you recon I should do next? Also in your last reply you wrote: "The OP on the other hand, could put him and his client on the spot by saying he could get a WS from his client who offered his services for free." What does WS mean in this context?

Kind Regards

[Kati]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

WS = witness statement x

[Zigus]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

Was just about to edit my post after I realized what it meant Thanks!

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

Thank you both for your replies, much appreciated!

To answer your question FlamingParrot, I just received a letter saying:
"
Request for Payment

To Professional Services:

Meeting with you to discuss your tax affairs.
Preparation of your Tax Return for the year ended 5 April 2015 and submission of same to HM Revenue & Customs.
Advising you of the tax due for the year ended 5 April 2015

Total £240
"

This is the first time payment was ever mentioned and I certainly never agreed to anything other them registering them as my tax agent. What do you recon I should do next?

As I said earlier, I could also start firing letters to various people asking them to pay me for whatever reason. Surprisingly it is a technique that often works, which is why people do it, even when there is no legal basis. :ohwell:

I would just say you never agreed to those terms and that your understanding was that he would not be charging for his services as stated by Mr X in the course of your conversation with him in Xxx month. You probably don't remember the exact date (obviously if you do then put it on there) but that should be enough. One reply should set the record straight. :thumb:

As posted last night, a valid contract would require an offer and acceptance of the offer by the other party. In this case there was never acceptance of the £240 price because he never put it forward to you so you didn't have to option to accept or reject the offer. :argue:

A valid contract also requires there to be consideration. Consideration in this context means doing something you wouldn't normally do (such as your taxes, which wasn't part of his every day duties) or depriving yourself of something, which could be money (paying for goods or services) but also time (such as not going to the pub to babysit someone's kids). Without consideration, there is no enforceable agreement or contract. In this case, because you didn't offer any consideration (money, goods or a service in return) for him doing your taxes, if had failed to keep his promise and you had filed your return late for that reason, you wouldn't have been able to take action against him for not keeping his promise since there was no valid contract, it was just a matter of honour so to speak. He did keep his promise and that was as far as that agreement went. :closed_2:

Another point in contract law is that consideration must not be in the past. This means you can't offer to look after your neighbour's kids one evening so they can have a night out, or give them your old phone because you've got a new contract, then at the weekend, you go out and spend too much money drinking, so come Monday morning you find yourself short of cash and decide to ask them to pay you something for babysitting the other night or tell them to pay you £50 for the old phone. Providing goods (such as the phone) or services (babysitting) is consideration, just like doing your taxes, however, it cannot be in the the past, so you can't turn around and demand payment for something you've already done as a gesture of good will or given away as a gift. That's exactly what this "clever" dick is trying to do and has no basis in law, which is why any claim he may want to issue wouldn't succeed.:caked:

Also in your last reply you wrote: "The OP on the other hand, could put him and his client on the spot by saying he could get a WS from his client who offered his services for free." What does WS mean in this context?

As Kati explained above :yo:, it means Witness Statement. To clarify, I wouldn't be mentioning this to him at this point at all, just said that if he took things as far as court, then you could bring that up to embarrass him a little if nothing else.

[Zigus]

Re: Was told someone would do my taxes pro-bono turns out I'm being charged 240£...

Thank you so much, I will take your advice and will keep you updated on the developments